Difficult Students/Students With Difficulties
The relationship between teacher and students plays a vital role in the life of a student's academic performance and child development. Positive relationships build confidence and help students to feel comfortable in classrooms.
Problem Statement: Difficult Students or Students with Difficulties
This heading has two perspectives 1) how to deals with Difficult Students as a Teacher 2) what kind of Difficulties Students faced during education as a student.
These two statements are co-related or interdependent. Sometimes teachers can’t be able to understand their students and sometimes students don’t understand their teacher’s perspectives.
In this project, I cover both problems because it’s really important to be heard from both perspectives; as a student and as a teacher.
For this project work, I decided to talk to them and understand the problem from their point of view.
Identify The Problem
Students with Difficulties:
Student feedback is essential for teachers and academic institutes to improve continuously. It is surely a great idea to know the perceptions and opinions of students and get to know what kind of difficulties they faced during their educational period.
I interviewed a few students of different age groups and from different schools.
I asked them some questions related to their studies and teachers, which are listed in the following:
Q)what do you like most about school? A)Playground, Friends, Studies, Teachers
Q)Did you understand your teacher’s lectures properly? A)Sometimes, Bored, Noises in the classroom, No Activity
Q)What is your favorite subject teacher, and why? A)Urdu, Islamiyat, Math (few others)
Q)Did you feel nervous or uninterested during the lecture? If yes why? A)Problems reading and/or writing, Problems with math, Problems paying attention, etc.
Q)What is one change that you would like to see in your teacher teaching method? A)Activities should be inclusive, don’t do too much strictness
Q)How much time do you spend every day on homework? A)15–20 minutes, 40 minutes, 30–40 minutes.
Q)Does your teacher encourage you to perform better? A) Yes, No, Sometimes.
Q)Do your teachers have fair judgments towards every student? A)Yes favoritism, No, Sometimes
Q)What else they want to share: Many students don’t want to go to their educational institutes because of teacher’s behavior or strictness
Solution
What did I observe? Besides these difficulties, I observed many students have different stamina. Some are quick learners and some are very slow. I think teachers and educators need to understand the psychology of students. They need to provide some space and make their lectures engaging through different activities. The English language is the main issue. I think educational institutes don’t teach English in a way that can clear student's points. English is a language; a foreign language. We learned English; it’s not our language by birth. Secondly, teachers should adopt new and attractive teaching methods. Make the learning compelling. I think there should be 4 main teaching modes included in the curriculum for engaging students in a class: 1) visual 2) Auditory 3) Read/Write 4) Kinesthetic. Here is an example:
Identify The Problem
Difficult Students:
Facing difficult students in class is not something that teachers look forward to but it is an interruption that every educator or teacher will meet at some point during their educational time period.
Now it’s time to listen to teacher’s perspectives about students. For this, I interviewed few teachers, to listen to what they think about students.
Teachers categories Difficult Students in:
1) Dominating Students: There are always students who talk too much and this is annoying for those quieter people who don’t get a chance to get a word in. Stopping these students may be difficult for teachers; as they didn’t want to discourage them.
2) Irresponsible students: There are always some students who didn’t prepare for their tests and also never complete their homework.
3) Overconfident students: Confidence is good but overconfidence may harm your abilities in the long run. Same case with some students, who think they know all.
4) Disruptive Students: This is the hardest group of students to control. Often, disruptive students like to sit together and make trouble for the whole class.
Individual Solutions:
What teachers say? These may be tough and sometimes emotional situations to deal with, it is important to stay positive. Teachers don’t take student misconduct so personally. Disruptive behavior may be caused by family issues.
What parents say? Teachers need to stay calm and adopt a problem-solving approach. Behind every disruptive behavior, there are some reasons. Teachers need to find out the reasons because sometimes we parents also don’t know what’s going on in the child's mind.
What did students say? Teachers need strictness on them.
What I think: Whatever kind of class you have adult, teenagers or children set rules and regulations at the start of your course/ Class/Semester. It’s your classroom and although you work with students, ultimately, you decide what happens there and not the learners.
Combine Solution
After the interview with both parties gave me clarity about a problem that there is not a right or wrong answer because teachers and students relationship is dependable. Both are incomplete without the other. There need to be some strategies to solve both parties’ problems. This interview cleared me about a gap between teacher and student relationships. I think a survey about teachers from the student’s side and about students from the teacher’s side should be conducted by educational institutes in every academic year.
Further, there needs to be counseling sessions and awareness. It’s time to work on these issues and resolve them for the betterment of this relationship.
In the end, I want to share some reflection questionnaires. Through which every Teacher, Facilitator, and Educator asked themselves in order to improve further.
Thank You!
