Students have the right to make mistakes. It is a crucial step in their learning. The error allows the learner to discover and experiment. However, there is a difference between the perception of errors made by students and those made by teachers. In other words, teachers have no room for error.
In the classroom, teachers make pedagogical and relational mistakes that can be detrimental to student learning. Here is a list of 10 mistakes teachers should avoid:
1. Being FRIEND with your students
Being friends with your students is the door open to slippage. Teachers need to distance themselves from their students. Quite simply, because the difference in age, knowledge and experience makes this friendship almost impossible. We can express great sympathy for our students, but everything must remain within the strict framework of a professional teacher-student relationship. Even teacher should also guide an art student that where he can find the quality art products like paint brushes. However, nothing prevents us from receiving emails from our students or from chatting with them. Everyone respects their limits.
If you accept the friendship of one of your students, you will be obliged to accept the friendship of your whole class. How then to say yes to one and no to the other? The same problem also arises at the level of social networks. Being friends with your students on Facebook, for example, can compromise or break the educational connection between the teacher and his students. In addition, this situation gives students the illusion that they can obtain privileges and interfere in the teacher's personal life. The recommended solution is to create a professional profile alongside the personal profile.
The teacher should focus on building respect in the classroom.
2. Indiscipline in the classroom
The bad behavior of students in class is a real source of disruption of lessons. A survey by the OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) on a sample of 260,000 teachers and school leaders from 48 countries states that teachers spend more than 14% of their time establishing discipline in the classroom or to maintain calm instead of giving lessons. In other words, lack of discipline impairs learning and disrupts teaching. In addition, students learn less well and they feel very unhappy, and as a result this can have a real impact on their performance.
Teachers want to impose their demands, but they don't always succeed. They are powerless because they feel that their authority is constantly questioned and challenged. This causes the teachers both physical and psychological suffering. Here are some art solutions that could help you (re) establish discipline:
Write a clear and legible class code of good conduct.
Isolate the difficult student by asking for a writing.
Encourage good student behavior.
Establish a reward system.
3. Lack of respect for students
Every student has the right to respect. It is very clear that physical violence as a deterrent and coercive means to establish the authority of teachers towards pupils is more and more unusual or even in the process of disappearing. But, it gives way to another form of violence: moral violence. In other words, certain words are interpreted by the student as verbal aggressions which can affect the student's participation, performance and confidence. For example, some teachers arrive late after recess because they prolong the discussion in the teachers' room without apologizing to their students. However, if a student arrives late, he must provide an entry ticket.
The same rules must apply to everyone. There is no room for double standards, two measures. Another example of this lack of respect: personal comments or remarks, sometimes disparaging, on the school marks and which can be badly received by the pupils. The latter experience a kind of frustration in expressing their opinions. This is why the teacher is called upon to discuss with his pupils regarding their school reports.
4. Too many exams
The evaluations have been diverted from their original purpose. They are used as comparative statistics instead of being a tool to help the child on his journey and the parents to follow the development of his learning. Numbers have become more important than learning itself. In fact, 6th grade students take exams for a month and a half. As an illustration, they take exams from the Ministry, the school board and the school.
The questions that teachers should ask are:
Are we adequately evaluating?
Why are we evaluating?
Is there too much time spent preparing assessments than learning?
