If you’ve been reading the Edmonton Journal lately, you’ll see a certain journalist has been really questioning the wisdom of Alberta Education’s Small Class Size Initiative. His premise is that research tells us that small class size makes very little difference in student achievement. So, he suggests that rather than pour huge amounts of money into keeping the numbers down, let’s focus on the real difference maker in student achievement, the teacher. Well I don’t agree with him on the class size argument, especially in the primary grades where small class size is really being targeted, I would like to give him kudos for recognizing the importance of the teacher. They really can be the difference maker in a child’s life.
If, as I think we all agree and research suggests is true, the teacher has the biggest impact on student success, what are we doing to ensure that teachers are the best that they can be for kids? I have the luxury of interviewing prospective teachers in our district as they try to enter the workforce, often for the very first time. It’s a great benefit to see the outstanding candidates but something really sticks out as they are interviewed. What seems to be very obvious is who their cooperating teacher was as they did their student teaching. These are the true mentors for these young people. This is where they learned what life was like in front of actual kids, not simply in theory. When student teachers are assigned to “veteran” teachers there is some real benefit. Often these veteran teachers are the very best. they know what works in the classroom and they know how to get children to be compliant. We all know that if you don’t have good management, you really are sunk.
The fear is, as we try to venture down the road of more collaborative classrooms which celebrate creativity and open minded thinking, some of these mentors can be bogged down in more traditional form of teaching and learning, focusing on rote memorization, compliance and individual work. If student teachers are mentored to see that this is what schools are like, guess what? They are likely to start their career in the same way. Admittingly, there are still many opportunities for new teachers to change their thinking but that original stint of teaching can have a huge impact on how these new teachers teach for years to come. It’s a slippery slope.
My advice to mentor teachers; teach these young new teachers to be creative and make the classroom a learning lab for them to take some risk. Encourage them to take a step outside the traditional teaching mode. Don’t try and create a mini you. We want all learners to experience failure and risk, encourage it in teacher practice too. Some lessons will work, some will work less effectively. Embrace these lessons as opportunities to learn with the students.
Keep on learning,
Dave
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