25 Biggest Mistakes Teachers Make and How to Avoid Them

56 Teacher–Student Relations
point to focus on the students who
had the worst performance. This is
not a common practice among teachers.
They usually focus on the topscoring
students. She made very
destructive criticisms and comparisons
about these students in front of
the class.
Apparently, she thought public
disclosure would motivate the two
students to improve their performance.
Her personal attacks on the
students were unprofessional and
ineffective; these attacks only served
to make the students hate the teacher
and the class. She made her low
expectations and poor perceptions
of these students very evident.
Although the student managed to
pass the course, she didn’t feel that
she had learned anything in the class.
Perhaps she was misplaced because
she felt she actually learned in a regular
math class.
A simple remediation strategy
for students performing poorly in
an advanced class is to offer them
retreat privileges without penalty. If
students feel that they are not doing
well in a course, they can take the
class that’s a level lower and not lose
their honors status. Responsible
teachers may opt to offer lagging students
more instructional assistance.
They realize that honors students
encounter difficulty in certain courses
just like any other students. They can
reasonably expect a high level of
autonomy and responsibility from
honors students, but when it seems
that someone is drowning alone in
their own little pool, it’s the teacher’s
responsibility to jump in and give
some assistance and reteach problem
concepts when necessary. I took a
graduate calculus course that was
practically self-taught. The professor
gave us copies of his typed manuscript
as our text. We were thrown
into the choppy waters of calculus
and we had to sink or swim to survive.
We had to complete so many
chapters and take a test before we
could move to the next level. By the
time we were ready for Integral
Calculus, many of us were sinking
fast. Finally, in a desperate move to
save the class, the professor started
having class again and actually
started teaching the course material.
He made no comments or jokes about
our poor performance. His assistance
helped us to regain our confidence and
pass the course. Effective teachers are
alert to stu dent difficulty and assume
the role of instructor or facilitator,
whichever is most appropriate for the
learning situation.