Less Teaching, More Learning?

[Donkey Kong]

Dear Teachers,


Govt encourages us to start businesses, hopefully become global companies like Acer, MSI, Gigabytes, HTC. To provide more jobs for Singaporeans. Startup businesses, a lot of time/energy consumed...

Also, we need to make more $$. Just in case, kids cannot get scholarships, cannot get in local Us, we still can send them abroad.... $$ very important. :lol:

How to make $$$ if we everyday doing kids homework, coursework, assignment until midnight? :?

This is unhealthy for our economy..... :stupid:

Do your part, dear teachers... guarantee our kids PSLE passes (standard subjects, not foundation level)....
We will work hard to boost Singapore economy, and birthrate! :celebrate:

[LOLMum]

we have to help dd with some of her homework as well but at least we know what is happening in school and where she is in her understanding of the subject.


i, the mummy, was guilty of piling lots of enrichment lessons when she was in lower primary. though she could cope with it, there were times she was tired and upset.

by taking away most of the "necessary" enrichment lessons, dd has more time to finish her work and play and happier. so maybe parents would like to take a look at the no. of enrichment lessons the kid is doing and decide if it is necessary.

i dont know about other schools but i know that my ds’ teachers have not been overstretching the kids with work. we the parents talked about it but so far have not heard any complaints from either kids or parents.

however, the teachers are the ones who are really really given too many duties (which shouldnt be theirs in the first place) besides teaching. so i dont think "lazy" is the word i would use on any teacher.

i think the only way the teachers could guarantee that all our kids pass the psle, is to make the papers easy which means lower the standards. i am unsure if this is what anyone wants.

[mathsparks]

Donkey Kong:

How to make $$$ if we everyday doing kids homework, coursework, assignment until midnight? :?
:

Perhaps you're too kiasu or exaggerate too much? How do you expect teachers to cope with a class of 40 students? And some teachers teach more than 1 class, hv worksheets/assignments to mark, meetings to attend, ccas, tests/exams to set etc.

Please spare a thought for the strain they are under. Direct your query to MOE, to employ more teachers, reduce class size etc, then perhaps you wont have to lift a finger to educate yr kids.

[mummy of 2]

LOLMum:

i think the only way the teachers could guarantee that all our kids pass the psle, is to make the papers easy which means lower the standards. i am unsure if this is what anyone wants.

Sad to say, I do not think that it is possible for all kids to pass PSLE. As far as I know, all national exams follow a bell-curve distribution, so there will always be some at the extreme end ie do very well or can't pass. All we can do is our kids are at least in the middle segment.

[Lock]

autumnbronze:

Hmmmm, ironic that this topic is highlighted in this manner ..


Anyway, speaking from a personal perspective of an ex sec sch educator ...

All this TLLM is just all talk lah. Truth is, teachers end up having double the workload. Not only must they come up with 'innovative' ways to enable pupils to learn less, they have additional KPIs to counter for. And because more time spent on students 'learning less' during classroom hrs so to speak, they have to make it up by giving them additional homework.

Please, no way does TLLM means less homework ... the KPIs, remember.

All this is w/i the classroom context.

Lets see now, what about out of the classroom .....

When I was teaching then, we teachers were involved in x no of events in a year, take on leadership roles, mentor pupils on a one to one basis and you can have more than one 'mentee', provide one to one coaching to PRC pupils who are super kiasu (imagine having 10 such pupils in your EL class), be in-charge of a CCA, organize CIP activities for form class AND CCA, take on external invigilation roles, clock in 100hrs worth of courses in a year so that we can TEACH properly, attend meetings ON TOP of setting worksheets, (in my sch, cannot anyhow photocopy from assessment books, so I ended up creating my own worksheets, can publish an assessment book on that oso), marking essays and worksheets, setting test/exam papers .. you get the drift by now right???

I used to work from 7am to 7pm. My DH used to wait for me as he returned home first. Even then, there was prepatory work to be done(because remember, all work had to be original). When on mc for 2 days, I would go back the next day as workload would be piling up. And ohh, even coffee meetings with fellow teacher friends ending up being marking sessions :!: I put on hold the idea of starting a family because I was on a slightly different track from others.

No doubt I am speaking from a personal perspective, but I do know that I was not the only one going through this ..... I know of at least 15 others who were more or less in a similar boat as I.

BTW, in my humble opinion, I always believe that teaching is a calling, not a profession. So based on this premise, I find it very very difficult to accept the fact that teachers are LAZY (quote, unquote).

So please ...I would appreciate the careful phrasing of your adjective(s) when you comment about teachers in future.

And on a last note, don't quite understand what you mean by your 2nd last statement??? If I think it is what you mean, then you have to expect kids to stay on even longer hrs in sch.

Just my very own 2 cents lah, since teachers can be so unappreciated sometimes

As an ex MOE teacher, I can attest to the above post. That was exactly what I had gone through as a teacher too. It's rather hurtful to be labelled 'lazy' when we had so many things under our belt other than teaching.

Having said that, there are also some rotten apples that spoil the barrel. But hey, there are black sheep in every industry.

[daisyt]

Donkey Kong:

After dinner, wife gave me 20 maths questions. Target to finish by tonight. All questions from kid's school teacher.


Last minute, I have to cancel my evening walk to Popular Bookshop. :x

How many times we have to study PSLE in our lives? 2 or perhaps 3 times? (incl. grand children)

Suffering. :x :?:

I don't understand ... If the kid does not know how to do the Maths questions, why don't he go back to school and ask the teachers to explain again? Then the teacher would know, this kid has some problem in his work and need extra help. If the kid keep having good results (due to his own effort or his parent's effort), the teacher would presume, the kid is doing fine. Your child is taking PSLE in the exam hall, not you. :?

[daisyt]

So far, I have not seen lazy teachers in dd's primary / sec school. In fact, there are many hardworking and willing to do extra type of teachers.


Teach less is a kind of teaching approach, they want to train the kids to be independent in learning, have good learning attitude and not spoon feed. Of course, not all kids are suitable but this type of training should start from young and from home too.

[care mom]

daisyt:

Teach less is a kind of teaching approach, they want to train the kids to be independent in learning, have good learning attitude and not spoon feed. Of course, not all kids are suitable but this type of training should start from young and from home too.

I have the same thought :celebrate:

[tree nymph]

i do feel like i’m doing more of the teaching with my kid with this method though…

[sunflower]

Actually, most teachers are overworked, but of course there are some who go into the profession to just earn a living with no passion for the job.


Basically, teach less is to spoon-feed less, but students have to learn more, so teachers need to think of innovative ways for children to learn by discovery, hands-on experimentation, research, group discussion, dramatisation/role-playing etc etc so that knowledge gained is not just superficial. Outcome is so that in-depth understanding and application of knowledge can be attained.

Teachers need to know how to facilitate the class in order to draw out and consolidate knowledge learnt and acquired by students, which is not an easy task and not all teachers are able to do it effectively.