Comments on: “Naughty boys” trying to learn

By: Roxxan

Roxxan — Sun, 05 Nov 2017 08:23:00 +0000

Thank you for the post refers to real life issues. The boy in the article was discriminated by his teacher, which is a similar experience I had when I was a child. My family immigrated to a city where mainly speak Cantonese in China. While I was a child who know nothing about Cantonese, both teachers and classmates regard me as a ‘alien’, teacher teach in Cantonese and students discuss in Cantonese as well. As I could not understand even one word, teacher seems just ‘ignore’ me, because I was the only one who could not understand that language. At that time, I felt I was ‘abandoned’, as a result, I tried to refuse to go to school and asked for quit that school, but I failed. Therefore, I began to sleep and read novels in class. Again, the teacher just left me as I didn’t sit in the classroom. Finally, my result of that semester was extremely terrible. After that black time in my childhood, I realised that teacher plays a vital role in guiding a child, teacher is the key to decide the children’s future in his class.

By: S_A_

S_A_ — Mon, 30 Oct 2017 01:15:00 +0000

Thank you for this article. It is quite saddening to read, especially the story of the guy from Angola who got teased because of his girls’ pants and then, unfairly, they all got banned from interacting with the younger girls. I completely agree with the article in that sense that proper educational guidance is one of the most important things young immigrants need. Because now, it is as the article says: the presuppositions of young male immigrants become a reality because it is very difficult for them to break the cycle without any help from authoritative figures, such as teachers themselves.

By: Phoebe N

Phoebe N — Tue, 17 Oct 2017 10:44:00 +0000

Thank you for your insightful article. Yes, it is not an exaggeration to say that a great teacher can change a student’s life whether by better or worse way. With the role of providing role models to assist and facilitate students’ development, teachers often take responsibility for more than just academic enrichment. In fact, students’ misbehaviour, truancy or disengagement tend to be prone more to the way teachers deliver instruction and treat them in class. As a result, creating classroom as an exciting, comfortable and fair environment for learning will hold the students’ fascination, and students learn best when they are both challenged and interested. Though it may not be an easy task and requires considerable efforts from teachers, it will benefit students immeasurably in the long run.

By: HANIFA RAHMAWATI

HANIFA RAHMAWATI — Mon, 09 Oct 2017 08:03:00 +0000

I found this issue relatable to some schools in Indonesia in which one of them is my workplace. Sadly, some teachers in the country, including some of my fellow teachers, seem to demotivate the weak students instead of encourage them just because of their slow progress of English language development. This kind of teacher cognition has resulted in a quite high number of weak students deciding to quit the after-school class at the institution where I taught, even what is worse is the student parents report that their kids cannot keep up with the class discussions and are not well treated in the class. This might not be as terrible as the issue in the article but unfair treatment for students regardless a matter of age, cultural background or developed skills remains a big concern.

By: Dwitiya Nugrahaeni

Dwitiya Nugrahaeni — Mon, 02 Oct 2017 08:22:00 +0000

It is indeed true that teachers cannot generalise that all students have the same level of preparation to learn in school. However, it is also true that teachers tend to easily judge students based on these different levels of preparedness. Teachers need to realise that what makes up a student now is so much affected by what this student has been through in the past, especially for the case of migrant students. This is where the role of teachers as facilitators come into play. The key is probably understanding them and assisting them with their literacy practice because it has long-term effects on students both academically and psychologically.

By: 44277660

44277660 — Sat, 09 Sep 2017 06:20:00 +0000

Personally, I think that it is the teacher that makes students love or hate the subject rather than the subject itself. It is also so true that the way teachers treat students directly influence their achievement and motivation. In my home country (Vietnam), the teachers always ask students to fill in a form with their personal details and background at the beginning of the semester . The purpose of that form is, in teachers’ perspective, to understand more about their students so that they can know about their learning preference, strength and weakness. However, the teachers unconsciously have social stereotype about students’ class, gender, race and cultural background. Then they have different expectancy for different students. For example, English teachers may have low-expectation on students who come from the Central of Vietnam as they have really strong dialect.
“How students become may not be what they hope to become but what others expect them to become”. Seeing the importance of teachers’ judgement in cultivating students’ motivation and aspiration, teachers should treat their students equally and create a friendly learning environment in which all students feel included.

By: THI THU NGAN DONG

THI THU NGAN DONG — Thu, 10 Aug 2017 07:42:00 +0000

Yes, I also think that teacher expectations can play a vital part in student progress and as the post mentioned, “how students become may not be what they hope to become but what others expect them to become”. As educators, therefore, we should make it fair and try our best to treat students equally regardless of their gender and cultural background. Frankly, it is, however, not always easy for teachers to make objective judgments about male refugees when terrorism (e.g. ISIS terror attack) has now become a growing threat, especially to Western societies.