I will write about a situation which happened year ago at my
home university in department of Asian studies.
Our teacher of Chinese Conversation from China had to go
back to her country so for an upcoming semester a new teacher came. She was a
young student of English from Taiwan. Everytime when somebody new is coming I
am curious how the person will be like and so me and my classmates were happy
as our new teacher seemed to be very kind and smiling all the time. As it turned out later, the only problem was that everyone could recognize she was originally a student of English. She was supposed to teach us Chinese and use
this language in lessons as much as possible, however she used English most of
the time and instead of teaching us something new, she wanted us to play games.
But nobody was complaining, there were so much work for another subjects and it
seemed that the final exam of Conversation will be easy, the lazyness was
winning.
Then, the exam period came. In every subject we had a proper
exam, only in Conversation our Taiwanese teacher took us to the tearoom and ask
us to write an essay. After writing we should obtain the result. However, when
I came to her with my index, she told me to stand on the end of the queue and
wait for the decision. Many of my classmates was told the same. In the end she told
us that she has to think about it and consider who will obtain the note and who
does not deserve it. During following week many of students were coming to her cabinet to ask her to obtain the note. We found out that our teacher gave the
notes mostly only to boys, not to girls. Her excuse of it was that we used
Chinese in lectures very rarely and we should speak more. Nevertheless, not to
obtain the note of this subject meant to repeat one year or quit school.
After this situation many students were complaining to Head
of Department about our Conversation teacher. Some of us managed to obtain the
note but some had to take very difficult test and did not succeed.
Why do you think teacher was acting whole the semester very
kindly and finally she did this thing? How would you react in this situation?
Hi Kateřina,
ReplyDeleteThis is a very interesting story. I can certainly relate to your post very well. I have found myself in a situation similar to yours a few times, albeit, not with such drastic possible consequences such as having to quit school or repeat a whole year.
I need to clarify with you on a few points.
1. When you said that she was a young student of English, what do you mean by that?
2. Also, what do you mean by "when you came to her with your index"
3. By "note", you mean grade?
If I am not mistaken, your anecdote tells of how a new teacher came in, did not do her job properly, and when the time arrived for her to grades the students' performances, she did so very sloppily and unfairly. Plus, it seems to me that she was discriminating against her own gender.
It was good that you and your peers were honest with yourselves in admitting that the laziness was winning. Also, I feel that you guys were self aware of the standards of each lesson. It showed that you guys reflected on each and every lesson.
The issue here seems to be manifold. For example, the incompetency of the teacher, the fact that your class did nothing about it right at the start and the gender discrimination among other things. As a result, you found yourself in a tight situation of having to do a much harder test.
As to why I think the teacher was acting very kindly the whole semester, it seems to me like she knew she was not up to the task of handling your class or worse even, the subject and tried to make up for it by being nice and kind to your class throughout the semester in the hope that your class would close one eye on her incompetencies.
You would have to admit that in a way, it was your fault too for not having informed the authorities or given them feedback earlier on. Instead, your class just let the matter pass. Hypothetically speaking, if all the students had gotten a sufficiently good grade (which would have been close to impossible), it would have been a happy ending despite the the teacher clearly not meeting the objective of the course.
What I would have done is to get my class to sign a petition demanding that the authorities handle the situation better. As you have mentioned that the test was very difficult, you should have included, in your petition, that it was all the more unfair that the test was so difficult as your class was clearly not prepared for it due to to the incapabilities of the teacher. Moreover, it was the university administration's fault for not having gotten feedback earlier and putting a such a teacher there in the first place.
As for the grammar mistakes, do tell me if you are interested in editing them. I will gladly try my best to help you out in that aspect.
All in all, a very interesting example of interpersonal conflict. A good read.
Cheers,
Hakeem
Hi Hakeem,
Deletethank you for your detailed comment. About clarification of some points:
1) When I said she was a studentof English, I meant that her major at university was English and as she had a good opportunity to speak with us in English, she used that language very often, even more than Chinese, which she was supposed to use. For example it is usual to use Czech or English for explanation of grammar stuff, but she used it also in common situations.
2) The "index" is book in which the grades are written by teacher after obtaining the grade.
3) Yes, by "note" I meant grade :)
And I like you noticed that in this situation, if all of us hypothetically obtained a good grade, it would be a happy ending, although the method teacher tought us was not good. So yes, it was definitelly our fault too, because, as I said earlier, we were too lazy to do anything when the course was so easy as we had many stuff to do in another courses. As we say in Czech: "Don't extinguish something that does not burn you."
Thanks for feedback
Kateřina
I think at the start her intention was to have fun and make the class interesting so the students would like her but during the exam period, she might have been given a quota and could only pass a certain number of students. Then she picked the easy way out and picked the students that had been the most active during class. If I were in your shoe, it would be best to complain to the department earlier when she was not doing her job well as a teacher but as human beings, we know that it is not the way we would react. To some extent, the students should be blamed for their laziness but on the other hand, the teacher is also not doing her job well and it should be reflected to the department.
ReplyDeleteBy : Wei Song & Johanna
Hi Wei Song and Johanna,
Deletemaybe you are right in the opinion that our teacher was trying to make the class interesting at the beginning. But anyways, she was supposed to use Chinese in the class. I do not think that she had a quota of students she could pass because there is so small amount of students in our department that if it was like this, there would be almost no one left to continue with the study.
It would be definitelly better to complain to our department earlier, but as you wrote, it is not the way we would react so we let that happen till this unhappy end.
Thank you for your feedback!
Kateřina
Hi Katherina,
ReplyDeleteThat seems to be a tricky situation.
I would deem this teacher as being unreasonable to fail the girls for not using Chinese frequently in her class because she herself was not using Chinese frequently in class either. As for introducing games in her lessons, if her intention was to carry out her lessons in a more enjoyable manner, then it might be that she was relatively inexperienced and hence was unable to bring across the content of her lessons. However, if the games were merely played without any purpose, I feel that your class does not deserve to fail that subject because of an irresponsible teacher.
I am glad that your class feedback to the Head of Department about this matter and they intervened by giving some of the students the note. A possible way to avoid getting into a similar situation like this in future could be giving feedback to the Head of Department earlier when you realize that your new teacher is not doing her job by teaching the necessary materials. In this way, the Head of Department can arrange for another teacher to take over the class and the class have some time to catch up with the materials for that subject before the examinations. But of course, I hope that similar situations like this will not arise again in the future.
Here are some suggestions to improve on your blog post:
go back to her country so for an upcoming semester a new teacher came >>> go back to her country, so for the upcoming semester, a new teacher came.
I am curious how the person will be like >>> I am curious about how the person is like
so much work for another subjects >>> so much work for other subjects
In every subject >>> For every subject
Many of my classmates was told the same >>> Many of my classmates were told the same thing
Cheers,
Jestina
This is an interesting scenario, Katerina, clearly related to incompetence. Your Chinese teacher was obviously unqualified to do the job, and as a results, students suffered.
ReplyDeleteAs for your description, this is fairly clear and concise. We readers get a good image of the teacher and what she didn't do for you students. I have some questions though, similar to the ones posed by Hakeem.
I also think that it would have been better for you NOT to tell us the following: "After this situation many students were complaining to Head of Department about our Conversation teacher. Some of us managed to obtain the note but some had to take very difficult test and did not succeed."
You could have asked us readers to give you advice on what route to follow to rectify the situation.
In any case, you have received lots of feedback, and I appreciate your hard work.
Furthermore, I think effective communication skills are important to me in my job application, as I will go into the workforce in just phd thesis dissertation months. I used to have a painful experience writing my application letter and resume for summer internships last May.
ReplyDeleteWhich would lead to another conflict with the cop that pulls them over for drinking and driving... Part 2 perhaps? To see more info please visit essayswriters.org/college Good video though!
ReplyDelete