What difficulties are they experiencing in teaching
Answers
1. They still don’t get it. Persistent learning blocks
It’s a tough situation. Despite your best efforts, students continue to struggle to understand what you’re trying to explain or can’t apply basic knowledge to more complex situations. It’s worth trying to diagnose more precisely where the problem arises and then focusing on bridging the gap – recognising the challenge where this is different for different students. It might be some of the following:
They don’t have the prior knowledge required – so your explanation isn’t locking onto something they already understand: You need to go back a few more steps to connect to what they do know. This can be painful but it might just be necessary – they are where they are and that’s their reality.
They don’t have the fluency in recall needed – details are vague; writing skills are weak. They might need more intense practice, over-learning the basics before they’re ready for more; practising smaller steps one by one – with more repetitions, making more elements of writing and recall automatic.
Another explanatory approach might be needed – a different model; more worked examples; more discussion around exemplars, breaking something down into much smaller steps and stages.
2. Some get it; some don’t. Diverging attainment.
This isn’t easy – I hear this from teachers all the time. If you teach to the top, it’s hard to focus on strugglers. If you focus on strugglers, there’s a risk that higher attainers tread water, coasting without being challenged. Every class is a ‘mixed ability’ class and there will be a range of learning needs including identified SEND students and those with sky high prior attainment. We need to anticipate this in our planning with questions, tasks and problem-sets that allow different stages and levels of practice, albeit with common high expectations and long-term learning goals. Constructing good practice tasks that support this scenario is a key element of curriculum design. (Skateboarding analogy: We’re all off to the skate park to push ourselves to excel but what we all do when we get there will vary significantly depending on where we’ve reached so far.)
3. No time for practice. Engineering enough fine-grained practice before moving on.
Even if we know that practice is key – where does the time come from? I see students move from one barely grasped idea to another without having the time to practise in between. Writing tasks can feel like practising 20 things, not two or three – very often where students struggle it’s because they’re not confident or fluent with any one bit of the process. Solutions to this might be to avoid rushing to use integrated forms of practice – such as extended writing – before students have practised each part. Perhaps homework needs to be harnessed mainly as time for practice and practice tasks need to have higher levels of repetition with a lot more questions of the same type. Fundamentally, if students need more practice, then they need to be given it. You can’t rush on beyond that point if they’re not ready. But, of course, not all the practice needs to happen during lesson time. Ask a piano teacher.
4. I can’t get around to everyone. Real-time checking for gaps in understanding.
It’s so easy to sit in a lesson and see students that are masking their learning gaps where a teacher hasn’t noticed. I describe this in detail here: The #1 problem/weakness in teaching and how to address it. Amongst all the issues, I think the mindset shift is an especially important area to explore – to continually ask and explore the question: Who out there in the room still isn’t sure? Have I explained it well enough? Does any one still not know and understand the answer? It’s not about checking in with everyone individually so much as creating processes and a culture where you flush out error and uncertainty as a matter of routine. Formative assessment methods and checking for understanding techniques are vital here. Hard – but fixable.
From “I’ve done it” to “I’ve learned it”. Terminate the tyranny of the task.
Revisiting Dylan Wiliam’s Five Brilliant Formative Assessment Strategies.
5. If we keep going back we’ll never finish: Curriculum coverage vs securing mastery
6. If I let them talk, they don’t all do it properly. Managing productive talk.
7. They just don’t do the work. Infusing peer cultures with a work ethic.
Teaching is an outstanding career and it is pleasing to make a difference in the youth. Yet, it is also a profession that comes with its challenges that many are not familiar with.
The Difficulties Experienced In Teaching Are:-
- Understanding The Different Learning Challenges Amongst Students because regardless of the class or students one is teaching, there will always be a diverse batch of learning proficiency that demand their attention.
- Lack Of Funding:- One of the recent educational problems faced by today's teachers is the lack of funding.
- Lack Of Effective Communication:- Each year, students are faced with the daunting chore of communicating their necessities to teachers.
- Disciplining Students:- Disciplining students is a challenge in the classroom and can be a precise, emotionally tolling system.
- Vast Paperwork & Extended Working Hours:- The fact that teachers are constantly up to their necks in marking and grading papers.
- Time Management Issue:- Teaching is a job that needs one to be on their feet all day, and there is often very little time for rest.
- Pressure From School Administrators:- Teaching has become a tremendous opponent industry which compels teachers to be thinking outside of the box always.
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