Standards in teaching!

Its not that I am presently being considered for a University(will not name) lectureship, but I do find that the standards of teaching in South Africa to be extremely varied. Forget the UK dictatorship that is OFSTED, at times they can be useful-at times; the best and most pleasing, to real teachers; responses to your own teaching prowess is undoubtedly your own students views.

I hear too often from students 'we don't do experiments' 'no Miss left that module out' or from my own youngest 'we are not taught maths that way'. All these comments in themselves are a frightening review of how teachers actually teach in my adopted country.

This does not mean in any way that I would evoke a set method of teaching or intense scrutiny of our teachers. That is far from my thoughts! But, we must remember two basic rules of engaging your leaners-differentiation and enjoyment of the subject. If the teacher has neither they should not be working in a classroom.

In my own subject, Science; there can be several ways of approaching answers or ideas. For example kinetic equations in physics, why would you teach this without use of demo or experimentation? Would you only teach one of the six equations? Would you not let students enlighten themselves with laws of physics with a teacher giving a guiding hand?

Not every child learns the same way, not every child learns by practical means. So we must as teachers consider the various methods of approaching that amazing point when we see that look of understanding click on in a students mind. If you have never seen this happen-maybe you shouldn't be in a classroom!

Any thoughts please contact me- [email protected] - by the way my punctuation isn't great! I KNOW I AM A SCIENCE TEACHER.