25 Biggest Mistakes Teachers Make and How to Avoid Them

Mistake 20: Teacher Misjudgment
Informed teachers know that
their opinion of students’ personal
characteristics have a powerful influence
on students’ self-esteem, selfconfidence,
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
SCENARIO 20.2
Damsel in Distress?
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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 sel ected
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.
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
pro blem 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