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Originally Posted by Jim Bon Jovi
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Originally Posted by RS8MB0R8
(particularly in the schools that I went to) where the teaching staff focus primarily on those of higher academic ability in order to fulfil these students' potential whilst almost ignoring the fact that half of the class are not given the attention and guidance they need to excel themselves. It creates a massive gulf between those of differing abilities and may also be a cause for the increased levels of truency and delinquency amongst teenagers if their needs were not met satisfactorily in their younger years (that's my theory btw, and not scientific fact!  ) |
that's incredibly true. i wonder if it's a phenomena only experienced in the UK. I was a amsart arse in school so i'm not complaining but looking back it was definetely a case of: k this mob could make it to uni with some help lets do all we can (turns round to "idiots") have they not dropped out and started signing on yet? |
It may be true in your experience, but it's not always true. I work with middle school teachers now and their focus is always the lower-average students. There are students who are still in the dark on everything, obviously, but the higher level kids don't seem to get enough challenges. Middle school isn't rocket science, of course, but it seems to me that if several students are having 98-100% averages in their classes then the teachers aren't focusing on only the upper tier of students. I'm not saying it's a bad thing to teach to the middle students, but I can't help but notice the brighter kids could use a little more challenge...and, as you all pointed out, the lower-than-average students could use more help too.
And Javier, if you still need some ideas I've found that if you can make discussions interactive that it keeps the students engaged. Asking questions, and answering their questions with questions gets them interested and helps to keep them interested. Also, I think a teacher should know his or her audience, keep up with what's going on with the kids and what's popular. Relating topics to real life and particularly the local community helps when the students have a hard time grasping why what they are learning is important (I work in a math class...this comes up ALL the time). Another thing is that all lessons need a focus and some closure to them. I've worked with teachers before who'll do a lesson or a lab and when it's over, it's over...there needs to be a re-cap of what should have been learned that day.