25 Biggest Mistakes Teachers Make and How to Avoid Them (40 page)

Mistake

19

Teacher Reputation

SCENARIO 19.1
Fearsome Reputations Often Precede People

The worst experience with a teacher that I can remember was in sixth grade. This was the first year that I had more than two teachers so I was already intimidated. She was my math teacher. She was known to be very mean. I never even spoke to her one-on-one, but just her looks and reputation made me tremble. Being in her class was so hard because I was afraid to even move. I felt if I moved she would see me and give me a bad look. Some kids in the class loved to make her scream and turn all red. I wanted to have nothing to do with her. The simple fear of being in her class made it so stressful that this was my worst experience.

Teachers’ reputations are developed by the characteristics or traits ascribed to them by their students and peers. Their reputation is based on how they teach, how they grade, and how they interact with their students and peers. Most teachers behave in consistent ways with each class. Eventually a pattern of behaviors, expectations, and reactions becomes evident and becomes a general estimation of the teacher. Reputations can be good or bad. Teachers’ reputations usually precede them, especially if the reputation is bad. The academic grapevine is a fact of student life. Students warn each other about teachers and offer recommendations of who to take and who to avoid if they have a choice.

The teacher in this scenario had developed the reputation that she was intimidating or someone to be feared because she was very mean. The teacher’s reputation and looks filled the student with fear and debilitating stress. The teacher’s screaming and raging behavior compounded the
student’s fear. It is very difficult for a student to learn under these conditions.

A variety of factors may be responsible for the teacher behaviors that precipitate a bad reputation. In classroom management courses, preservice teachers are taught not to smile before Christmas.

Teachers who follow this advice may be perceived as mean. Preservice teachers are encouraged to use voice and demeanor to prevent discipline problems. They run the risk of intimidating some of their students. When teachers have low expectations of students, they may treat these students poorly and gain a bad reputation from their actions. Teacher burnout is another factor. Unfortunately, some teachers who have a reputation for being bad teachers may, in fact, be bad teachers.

Effective teachers usually develop a reputation for being approachable, fair, consistent, good teachers, and good coworkers. They usually have high standards and expectations for their students.

Good teachers who discover they have a bad reputation can work to develop a warm, supportive environment that fosters mutual trust and respect. These efforts should dispel students’ fears. Ormrod (1998) suggests creating an environment where students feel free to take academic risks. Stress management courses would be very useful for teachers who feel they are suffering from teacher burnout.

Mistake

20

Teacher Misjudgment

SCENARIO 20.1
Shrinking Violet or Conceited Prima Donna?

When I was in sixth grade we were to do some sort of assignment that required us to stand in front of the class and speak. I was a very shy person at that point in my life and when I jokingly told my teacher I was scared of doing the assignment because I was scared, she told me that it wasn’t fear, it was conceit. I felt so dumb and hurt that she thought I was conceited. I was in student council and sometimes did have to speak in front of the school, and I was in choir, so I suppose audiences shouldn’t have intimidated me. However, in speaking to them I had a written dialogue that was not my own creation and I never stood alone, but technically I was still scared, not CONCEITED!

The teacher erroneously confused a student’s shyness with conceit. Her misdiagnosis may be based on her definition of shyness. By its very nature, shyness suggests a focus on or an awareness of self, whereas conceit suggests a preoccupation with self. However, there are many factors that influence a student’s tendency toward shyness. Fear is a legitimate factor; fear of failure, fear of success, fear of strangers, fear of making a mistake.

Teachers with an understanding of child development know that fear is an integral part of growing up. Conceit is an overinflated opinion of one’s abilities or sense of self-efficacy. Fear on the other hand is a deep-rooted psychological and physiological reaction to a perceived threat to the self. The reaction can be so intense that it can immobilize a person and at the very least hinder performance. It is presumptuous for teachers to think that they can discount labels that students put on their feelings. The presumption is compounded when teachers change the student’s label, especially if the teacher’s label is negative.

Informed teachers know that their opinion of students’ personal characteristics have a powerful influence on students’ self-esteem, self-confidence, and ultimately, on their performance. These teachers exercise extreme caution when making personal statements about students. If a student is fearful or shy about talking in front of a group, I think the teacher should be empathic and try to encourage the student in such a way that the student’s feelings are validated but not encouraged. To discourage shyness or fearfulness, teachers can help desensitize shy students by having them practice being before a group as they approximate speaking before the group. For example, the shy student can pass papers to the group, can stand in front of the group with other students and participate in a discussion, can be selected to assist the teacher, or can call on other students by name. Students should know that some fear is a normal accompaniment of the uncertainty of growing up.

SCENARIO 20.2
Damsel in Distress?

I was at lunch in sixth grade and a girl hit me with her purse repeatedly. I chased her down and thumped her in the arm. The lunch monitor took me to the vice-principal and called my mom and said I would have to serve ICS, in-class suspension. My mom took me out of that school and transferred me to private school.

In this scenario, in which a male student was involved in an altercation with a female student, there are several problems. One problem is a failure to acknowledge that there are two sides to every story and that both sides should be heard. Assuming the lunch monitor was another student leads me to the second problem, the problem of delegating such an important responsibility to children. Piaget (1965) points out in his theory of children’s moral reasoning that young children may not consider a person’s motive or intent when judging that person’s behavior. Another problem is the possibility of gender bias. When a young male and a young female are involved in a conflict, educators and administrators frequently assume that it is the male’s fault. Even if a young woman starts a fight and the young man retaliates, he is perceived as picking on a “defenseless” female. A fourth problem is the harshness of the punishment. Males, minority males in particular, tend to receive harsher punishments and more frequent suspensions than do females (Gibbs, 1988).

Fair-minded teachers listen to both sides of the story when there is conflict. These teachers consider the merits of each argument without letting race, gender, or socioeconomic status influence their judgment. If they cannot settle the conflict with verbal reprimands, they make sure that any punishment administered is
appropriate and equitable. I do not think a student should be responsible for reporting another student to the vice-principal. A teacher as the lunch monitor may have been able to stop the problem and may never have had to report the incident. Teachers are usually more of a deterrent to misbehavior than are student monitors.

SCENARIO 20.3
Trust Me at Your Own Risk

My worst experience with a teacher was in high school. I was taking a government class at night and was receiving As on all exams. The last night of class the teacher said we could leave early. When I left the class I had an A. I was apprehended by a school guard on my way out and the teacher was reprimanded for letting me leave. After the guard left, the teacher handed me my grade, which was now a C. When I asked her why my grade had dropped, she accused me of cheating.

The teacher violated school policy and dismissed her students early. This heedless act spawned a multitude of academic sins. The first sin was possibly jeopardizing the students’ safety. Having a guard on the premises suggests a need for precautions. She exhibited displaced anger—anger at the student rather than at the guard or with herself. She did not accept the guard’s reprimand gracefully. She did not take responsibility for her actions. She took her anger out on her student who was caught. She lowered that student’s grade and finally, she justified the lowered grade by accusing the student of cheating. Unfortunately, her response to being reprimanded undermined her integrity.