Jj is for Jottings 35. Comments Made By Experienced Teachers.

Following are some observations I have made and some comments made by experienced teachers in the last couple of years. I find that experienced teachers have an excellent understanding of what enhances learning and what undermines learning, partly because of their long experience (and, I would venture to suggest, their training may have been superior to what is sometimes on offer today. [Them’s fighting words!]) and also because they have a basis of comparison between “the old days” when the only screen children had access to was a television screen, and their parents weren’t distracted by their own screens and were therefore more likely to read to and converse with their children. The younger teachers have grown up with the notion that a mobile phone on hand is an essential of life, they spend much more time on screens of various types, and they have neither the experience nor the point of comparison with relatively screenless days. Therefore they are not able to be aware of the changes and dangers to learning that are lurking out there. It is not their fault, of course, it is just a fact of life.
Some comments made to me by some excellent, experienced teachers (paraphrased, not direct quotes): A Foundation (first year at school) teacher was visiting her neighbour. The two year old child held up two fingers as he told her that he was two. She reflected that quite a few children in her class (between and 5 and 6 years of age) are not able to do that.
I note that Foundation students these days tend to be more needy and seek help frequently whereas in earlier years the same level children would have more initiative and work things out for themselves. Help is sought even when the task has just been clearly explained – did they not listen in the first place, did they not remember, or did they not understand? Of course, many students do function well, but there is a definite trend.
In Jottings 7 I mentioned the comments made by a very experienced Year 5/6 teacher, who said that she has had to dumb down her teaching over the years, and that she used to have stimulating conversations with some of her Year 6 students, but that has become a rarity these days.
To be continued next time….