25 Biggest Mistakes Teachers Make and How to Avoid Them

Mistake 17: Academic Shortcomings
I tried to do this in a humorous way. It
worked for me. Sometimes students
would give their own genuine apology
and they would play together at
recess.
Years ago I visited a classroom
that had a rule posted that said,
143
“Hands are for hugging and for loving.”
I was really impressed with the
prosocial message in this rule. My
hope is that more teachers will adopt
prosocial rules for their classroom
that extends beyond the traditional
“Don’t do this and don’t do that.”
SCENARIO 17.3
A Know-a-Little and a Know-It-All
I cannot pinpoint a specific negative experience. The general ideas that come to mind
include a teacher who did not know her content area as well as I did as a student. We
often had arguments about answers that I would win. Another teacher told students they
were “misguided and wrong” if they did not agree with his interpretations of history.
Some above-average students
have an overinflated sense of
what they think they know. In some
cases they’re not teachable because
they think they know more than the
teacher knows. On the other hand,
sometimes these students are correct;
sometimes they do know more than
the teacher knows about the content
area. Some teachers have an overinflated
sense of what they know about
their subject and fail to adequately
prepare for their lessons. I was supervising
a student teacher who found
herself in the embarrassing predicament
of not knowing some fifthgrade
math. She informed me later
that she was so sure that fifth-grade
math would be easy that she didn’t
bother to prepare for the lesson.
Wise teachers seldom take content
for granted. If they have been
teaching for awhile, they know that
content may reflect new developments,
techniques, concepts, and under -
standings. Most teachers know that
nothing is constant but changes, and
that it pays off in instructional dividends
to be prepared. Advanced
preparation of lessons helps teachers
pinpoint areas of weakness before
they present the information to students.
Resourceful teachers make
productive use of this advanced
warning to correct any deficiencies
that are apparent.
The second example in this scenario
features a very authoritarian
approach to instruction. The teacher
seems to think he’s all knowing and
students are misguided and wrong
if they don’t agree with him.
Constructivist teachers know that
it’s important to help students construct
their own meaning to make
sense of the world (Anderson, 1989).
They are aware that it’s difficult to
do that if they discount their students’
contributions. These teachers
realize they must let students have a
voice and a choice in instructional
matters. Belenky et al. (1986) suggest
that teachers learn to trust and
respect each student’s experience.