Describe a teacher who influenced you in your education.
You should say:
and explain how this person/teacher influenced you so much.
Rounding off question
Did you ever see this teacher again after you left school?
One teacher that comes to mind is my maths teacher in middle school, Mrs Li. Before entering her class, I was very good at maths but for some reason in her class I always struggled. She was a very negative person, she had very little patience with students, particularly if they had some kind of difficulty. I vividly remember when we were learning our times table and I was having difficultly with something or other and she lost her temper, it was quite a frightening experience for a 10-year-old.
To be honest I didn’t get to know her well as I was only in her class for a year and had a different maths teacher in year 3. I was glad when that year was over, and my maths improved a lot after that. It’s difficult to say what was special about her as we always assume that something special is a positive attribute but that definitely was not the case with her. Maybe she was like that because she had some problems of her own or was disillusioned with her career. Whatever the case I think students suffered as a result as she tended to take out her frustrations on the students.
She did have quite a positive influence on me though believe it or not as my major is teaching. She set a poor example and that is something that I would never do for students in my future career. No matter what is happening in a teacher’s personal or professional life they should not take it out on the students. Teachers have a responsibility to set a good example to students and to be supportive and encouraging. They should have patience to deal with students that may find something difficult, help to solve the problem and offer support to the students. So, although my experience in her class was a negative one, I took something positive from it and decided that I would be the complete opposite to her when dealing with students in the future. I think it is very important to have a positive attitude and it’s certainly important for teachers to be confident in class and also to be a positive role model.
Did you ever see this teacher again after you left school?
To be honest after leaving her class I have little memory of seeing her again. I never saw her outside of school, but I can vaguely remember that she was still at the school when I left.
Ways of teaching
Technology in education
Student behaviour
I think to some extent they have. I went to an international high school and the teaching methodology is different in that environment. These schools don’t have to strictly follow the standard curriculum in state schools. As a result, we studied a much broader range of topics and teachers introduced critical thinking into the classroom which was good. The main problem state schools have is the large class sizes, so it is not easy to teach a class of 50+ students and make the class active.
Absolutely, for example young children have a very short attention span so teachers have to design activities that take this into account. Children also respond well to visual stimuli and enjoy playing games but obviously when children hit their teens a more academic approach is needed. I am a great believer in discovery-based learning, so teachers need to guide students and allow them to problem solve themselves. Classes can also be broken into pairs or small groups where appropriate to discuss topics in groups which helps develop their communication skills.
That is not an easy question to answer and certainly not an easy problem to solve but it would be good if class sizes could be reduced. However, because of the population size in China obviously schools have a huge number of students. I was very lucky as my parents could afford to send me to an international school but not every family has the financial resources to do that. I guess the government could invest more in education and build more schools which would be a step in the right direction.
I had to do some online classes last year and I don’t think there was a great deal of difference really in the class content delivered or study methodology. The same things can be taught depending on the platform the schools or teachers are using but the major difference is the face-to-face interaction with other students. For teenagers it is not so bad as they can deal with a lack of social interaction for a time, but I think it is really important for young children to see and play with their classmates.
It would seem that to some extent that is the way education is heading and we haven’t had a great deal of choice in the matter really over the last year. It would mean a major upheaval in education systems though, for example I want to study in the U.K. and the tuition fees are expensive, but if the course was online there would be no need for me to go to the U.K. and fees could be reduced. However, this would pose a real problem for universities as they would lose a huge proportion of the annual revenue and may not be able to survive.
I think it is very important to use technology in the classroom. In my high school we didn’t just study from books, the teachers would use PPT’s to make classes more interesting for students. There is no doubt that the use of technology plays an important role as it is such a large part of our everyday lives. Students have to learn how to use applications on computers like Word as they are going to be using them for their future studies or in the workplace when they get a job.
In both state schools and private schools, I think teachers are still respected but the interaction between teachers and students is very different. In state schools the atmosphere is still very formal compared to international schools where teachers are more like a friend. At international schools, teachers are much more accessible for students and it is easier to ask questions if you have a problem, whereas in state schools, students might be apprehensive about asking for further clarification on something.
There are many reports about the disruptive behaviour of students at school nowadays. How can teachers control this kind of behaviour?
In the past in some countries used corporal punishment to manage difficult students. Do you think this is a good method to stop students misbehaving?
Many experts believe that disruptive behaviour stems from some form of learning difficulty. Would you agree with that based on your own experience?
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