25 Biggest Mistakes Teachers Make and How to Avoid Them

Mistake 14: Inappropriate Educational Strategies
SCENARIO 14.12
Competition Isn’t Always Good
I hated being “bawled out” by teachers. I hated being forced to participate in competitive
sports at school. I wasn’t good at this and found it humiliating.
Students are often required
to participate in competitive
sports. Forced participation becomes
a shame-based activity because students
who are reluctant to participate
are usually poor performers. They
are uncomfortable about their ability
to perform and about their teammates’
reaction to their performance.
Reluctant students are usually the
last to be chosen to be on a team. This
agonizing form of rejection has longlasting
effects. It reinforces a child’s
feeling of inadequacy.
Although teachers cannot eliminate
competition in sports at school,
they can minimize its adverse effects
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on students by recognizing their
good qualities. Gardner (1993) proposes
a theory of multiple intelligences
that suggests that different
students may be intelligent in dif ferent
ways. Versatile teachers will
showcase the poor performers’ talents
in one of these areas. Beha v -
iorists such as Skinner (1953) would
argue that this student’s dislike of
competitive sports may be attributed
to classical or operant conditioning,
where the student asso ciates
the negative feelings of humiliation
with the sport and sub sequently
becomes conditioned to hate competitive
sports.
SCENARIO 14.13
Keep Working, Rain, Shine, Sleet, or Divorce
When I was in the third grade Mrs. L. was my teacher. I lived in Massachusetts and my
parents were getting a divorce so I was quite upset most of the time. Mrs. L. would
always make me read when I had been or was crying. I could never understand why
but now I do. I believe that she was trying to deter my thoughts to something else, but
at the time I hated her for it and will never forget it.
This is an inappropriate strategy
to expect some form of academic
performance when children are
visibly upset. This strategy may set
children up for conduct problems or
other inappropriate behavior. The children
may either refuse to participate
or, as in this case, be so anguished that
they are scarred for life. This student
was traumatized by this event, as evidenced
by the strong emotional tone
of the sentence, “I hated her and I’ll
never forget it,” and underlining the
sentence for emphasis. If children are