"Experienced teachers" Makes No Difference?

Thursday 3 and Friday 4, 2008

Well, the topic seems a bit critical and arguable, doesn't it? However, I am not saying that less experienced teachers are as good as, better than, or not as good as the teachers who have been teaching for years or all their lives, nor am I saying that the latter group is more successful in teaching. It all depends upon circumstances, situations and passions.

These last two days, we had two relief teachers for each day in the class. Since it's a language institute, there are more permanent casual teachers and relief teachers to fill in the teachers who call in sick or on a business leave. Having helped the two experienced teachers, Kathy and Kristine, I learned that, in some matters, there was no such a thing as who could do better and be more satisfied with teaching between experienced and inexperienced teachers or between full-time and casual teachers in regard to teaching performance. Being a relief teacher could be satisfactory, yet challenging at times. It’s all about passion. They both have tricks and plans up their sleeves to keep the class go. However, it usually takes quite some time to get the “feel” of the class dynamics and students’ needs. As a result, meeting them for the first time, and only once, would not be able to serve their needs and smooth out the course outline easily. Then, you feel a bit unprepared and depreciated about your outcome or performance. Sometimes, you feel you feel nervous, especially when you assign them an exercise or some thing that they have already done. It also happens with those who are less experienced in teaching. The difference is that the experienced teachers have a lot of tricks, activities and techniques up their sleeves. They are able to conceal their anxiety versus the inexperienced ones would project it in the class, and therefore it creates tension in the classroom.

My observation in the classroom conducted by the two teachers, I found that they contained good attitude once they were right in front of the students. They explained the topic matters in the book and inserted explanation through examples and their real-life stories. They asked questions and tried to have them talk as much as possible. Students had a fine time discussion. All of the above, they were satisfied to be learning their students’ interests and exchanging intriguing cultural experience in the classroom. Time had flied by very quickly after all.

Having no students’ education background and plans often makes it difficult to capture their interests, to make them stay focused, and to get them understand the subject matters easily. It then comes down to how we, as teachers, go about finding the right approach to the right group of students and their learning capacity and pattern, which is required more experience. However, it can be proved that well-prepared teaching plan can make the class enjoyable and satisfactory no matter you are an experienced or inexperienced teacher. With this class, students lack writing and spelling skills (they also have no interests in writing much); therefore, we should write down instructions or expressions we explain on the board.