Joe’s Jotter: How Competent is Your Child's Maths Teacher?
We have all come across Maths Teachers who unfortunately aren’t blessed with the skills required to impart knowledge. For all those budding teachers out there and for parents who may want to reflect on what kind of a Maths educator their child has, have a read of the following list.
I have complied this list so that we can all reflect and try and do better by our students. This includes my own self-reflection, as I try to improve day by day.
Teaching Maths isn’t easy, and no Maths teacher is perfect. In my opinion, the best Maths teachers have the ability to impart knowledge so that as many students in the class understand a topic as is possible.
What makes Maths teaching challenging (compared to other subjects) is that the teacher is learning daily about the needs of each student and the best ways to tap into their existing knowledge. Here are some of the habits of Maths Teachers who struggle to meet the needs of the students they teach:
- Playing “Khan academy” videos for every lesson.
- Writing everything down for students when helping them solve a problem.
- Saying “now this next topic is very difficult” as its introduction!
- Saying "this is super easy; anyone can understand this!"
- Showing them the numbers without explaining a bit of background to a topic.
- Too much “Rote learning” vs “Authentic knowledge”.
- Never giving any feedback – ever.
- Not testing material covered on the past exam papers.
- Allowing them to use the calculator for everything.
- Assuming that all students learn the same way.
- Not encouraging questions and curiosity daily.
- Assuming they learn Maths like themselves.
- Giving homework but never explaining it properly the next day.
- Not allowing students to make mistakes.
- Cutting corners by leaving out some of the steps in a detailed solution.
- Calling out class test results publicly to the class.
- Marking a test right or wrong without feedback or attempt marks.
- Racing through the material on the course.
- Trying to make all topics ‘fun’.
- Giving questions from their textbook only. No variety in assessments.
- Allowing them ‘snap’ the solution from the board with their phone.
- Insisting they do everything ‘their’ way.
- Not teaching them how to present their Maths work neatly.
- Not giving out class averages post exams to give better progress insights.
- Constantly talking about how hard this Maths course is.
- Too much lecturing style at the board.
- Ignoring weaker students as they ‘won’t understand anyway’.
- Not emphasising enough the importance of ‘showing their work’.
- Not letting them try a problem fresh for themselves.
- Not having enough empathy for those who struggling to understand.
- Not varying their Teaching methods as much as is possible.
- Beginning topics with “You will never need this as an adult…”
- Not bringing in ‘Past exam questions’ into topics regularly.
- Not encouraging positivity and calmness around the subject.
- Talking too much. Not allowing ‘thinking’ and ‘quiet’ time during the class.
- Not attempting to show practical applications of topics.
- Not bringing a topic to life in some way.
- Not attempting to inject some passion for the subject into their students.
- Not showing the linkages between topics and everyday life problems.
- Not checking in with students on the speed of teaching.
Every day is a school day both for us as teachers and our students. We owe it to our students to improve our methods each year, continually making improvements bit by bit. The struggle at higher Maths is real and it will go on.
The results in Maths may be improved over the last 20 years, with more students taking the higher level. However, in my experience, they actually know less Maths and are less confident and competent in applying it. Thanks for reading. Joe.
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