From Leaving CertiFiCate to Leaving SChooL a Longitudinal Study ...

Curriculum, Teaching and Learning 57
Interviewer: What would you say makes a good lesson?
They [teachers] don’t push you too hard.
It’s [that] they’re letting you work at your own pace. (Dawes Point,
boys’ school, working-class intake)
Interviewer: What’s a good teacher?
Someone who makes you understand it.
Someone that explains it.
… And if you don’t understand they don’t just say it again, they
change it.
Someone who is interested in it.
Someone who can explain things in more than one way.
If you say like I don’t understand that, someone that can rephrase it.
Or apply it to something in real life that you’ll understand.
There’s no point in having a teacher that they know it all but they can’t
explain it to you. (Harris Street, girls’ school, middle-class intake)
Many of these students were aware of the difference between teachers
who covered the curriculum and those who ensured that the curriculum
was understood:
Interviewer: What makes a good lesson or a good class?
Down to earth teacher.
… She can get in contact with you like. And she’ll talk and she’s not
just flying though things like. If everyone understands in the classroom
then you can continue. (Barrack Street, girls’ school, workingclass
intake)
Students also emphasised the nature of day-to-day interaction with their
teachers, pointing to the importance of a positive and ‘caring’ classroom
environment and of teachers who were approachable (‘helpful’, ‘easy to