Classroom teaching - is there a better way

My aim here is to look at the staple of teaching and to consider if there is a better way? Please be critical - it is the only way to move on and to change the concept of EDTECH to something that is genuinely helpful for the development of education and training. dont get me wrong classroom teaching has its role... its place and for younger children it is a place where much more is learnt than simple content.

We live in a changing world - I am interested in the concept of 'flipped classrooms' and again have come to the conclusion that it has its place in what I term an INTEGRATED TEACHING MODEL (ITM) I am interested in edtech.

My following observations are particularly aimed at education 18+ but could also easily apply to 16 to 18 education as well!

THIS IS aimed at language teaching as well as academic teaching

So lets start by looking at the problems of classroom teaching - the follow up to this I will publish at a later date

The fundamental problems with class-based teaching

Definition of Class based teaching = learners being taught in any given place as a group. Classes may vary in size BUT 15 to 25 would be considered a small class of 25 to 35 are normal and 40+ far from uncommon

For the critics – a really good teacher can compensate for SOME of these points BUT it is very difficult to eradicate these problems AND the point is – that there may be a better way!!! Likewise the presence of teaching assistant(s) can help with those who may struggle - key word here is help BUT as a class must progress at a given rate if the aim is to reach a certain standard in a given time period, it doesn't solve the problem!

i.                Classes are always organised for the benefit/convenience of the organisation running the classes NOT the learners in the class,

• At work businesses run classes in work time, would be to the benefit of those in the class.
• For Schools, why do classes end at 3pm? That is certainly not for the benefit of parents who may be at work
• Courses are run to a syllabus and generally with the end outcome of an exam - what does that end outcome actually achieve = entry to the next level of education! Does it actually prepare the learner for life or even for a working life? This is questionable

My point is also that the times, days and locations + courses are provided are based on what an organization wants to offer and often have little or no input from learners (or parents)

ii.              Classes are FIXED – ie at given times, days and in a given location, this links with the first point as classes are either arranged by the business (usually outside of work time) OR by a school, who fit the class into the schedule of the site and the teacher/trainers available. This is almost impossible to arrange so it is convenient to all learners. Indeed, usually it is convenient for very few in a class. At school age it is sort of accepted but this becomes a major problem for adult learners

iii.             ALL classes are mixed ability (the more ‘mixed’ the ability and/OR bigger the class the worse the problems I outline will be!) this means that a teacher/trainer needs to aim at the level of the average student, which means those who are NOT of average ability will find the lesson either challenging/impossible or easy/extremely easy to the point where they will learn little more than they already know – this is true of all classes even if they are put into ability sets, which only reduces the problem (the problem is still there). The results of this are:

*Those who are very able do not develop at the rate of which they are capable and can become demotivated as a result, effectively it is wasting their time.

*Those who struggle will drop further behind the longer the programme lasts and become demotivated as eventually they will give up when they realise that they are not reaching the standard expected in the time allowed (the time allowed is the key point as everyone develops at different rates and they may be able to develop BUT it will take longer than the average learner)

*Actively encourages being average – this is really not a good thing to do if you want a progressive organisation and/or society

There are teaching methods to help a bit with this, BUT the fact still remains that top and bottom suffer for the sake of class togetherness and it produces a culture of aiming for average! (WHY – because classes are organised for the convenience of the provider)

There is are further problems with this and they are:

• What is normal or average, who dictates this? Uually a syllabus from an exam body which are now companies themselves out to make profit!
• Why should individuals be limited to being normal and/or average because of a system?

iv.             Leads to a substantial waste of time, for learners, which is extremely inefficient in the learning process. The difference between school age learners and adult learners is that adults time is precious in that outside of work adults need to balance family and personal time and generally become anti to schemes that use their personal time unnecessarily, causing friction to their work/life balance. School aged learners are in a system which accounts for time at school, this doesn’t generally interfere with social time and indeed schools give breaks, lunchtimes and activities to encourage social time.

Time is wasted in the form of:

• Travel time to and from the class location (classes in the workplace eliminate this)
• Preparation / settling time for the class
• Distractions from other learners who may not be so focused on the task(s) at hand
• For able learners – waiting for other members (who are less able) to finish. For example, if an able learner finishes 5mins before other learners they are very likely to contribute to the distractions

This is true for good classes of quite well focused learners, so even a small number of learners who are less focused can reduce the effectiveness of any class a great deal and the bigger the class the more likely the chance of less focused learners + add to that the growing gap in mixed ability.

These problems can come down to class preparation, for example having extra work for the able and class management of distractions BUT even good teachers will struggle to instill class discipline with adults (who really do NOT want to be back at school and treated as children)

v.              Lack of flexibility – classes teach to a syllabus and teachers are judged by their results. The result of this is teachers, teaching to pass an exam. Business should be one subject that can delve into real business and situations BUT I find myself time and again having to state ‘this is how reality is BUT don’t put it in an exam answer, because that is not theory’! and with effectively 30 weeks of teaching time to get across the necessary content there really isn’t that much time to go off syllabus and there is little opportunity to cater for the needs of the individual. 

This is only generally achieved when a group can be put together with specific needs that a course can be built around. Hence it doesn’t happen often. Flexibility is lacking in terms of the specific skills required by employees, the situations that different employees in different industries find themselves in and the individuals’ weaknesses in different areas of English

vi.             Difficult to maintain progress if the learner is not available for class time – IF students are absent due to illness, family problems/matters, family holidays etc. they will miss the lessons that are given and the content therein. Teachers cannot go back to previous lessons and delay class progress so it is normally down to the learner to catch up by themselves. 

This article is put out there to get others to think about what has been an accepted norm for centuries and perhaps now with technology there is a way to actually achieve the panacea of education which to me has always been a truly individual education which caters for the needs of each individual (which will involve the ability to work in groups either as leader or team-member)

Summary

*Class teaching wastes a lot of learners time from travelling to waiting in class to distractions

*It encourages working towards the average, whilst highlighting the talented, which it doesn't really serve either (ie 'top of class' - who could probably be much better IF they were allowed to be

*It doesn't really help the strugglers who need both time and assistance - assistance can be given but ... sorry time you dont have as you need to stick with the class.

*It gives very little scope for flexibility - in terms of what is taught in relation to the needs of the learners being taught