ChatterBank0 min ago
Is It Normal That I Couldn't Answer My Student's Question?
9 Answers
I just had my first tutoring session and while looking at the student's marked homework, I had no idea how to answer one of the questions. Is it ok? I feel really terrible because I didn't know what to expect so I wasn't prepared and I've never studied that stuff before.
Earlier, during a lesson, I gave the wrong answer to a student (I do workshops in schools) and now I really feel like killing myself because I feel really incompetent... I got a first honors degree in this subject and I really love it but I'm sooo absent-minded... Now I know what topic to cover during lessons/1:1 sessions, can I improve by just being prepared?
Earlier, during a lesson, I gave the wrong answer to a student (I do workshops in schools) and now I really feel like killing myself because I feel really incompetent... I got a first honors degree in this subject and I really love it but I'm sooo absent-minded... Now I know what topic to cover during lessons/1:1 sessions, can I improve by just being prepared?
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It's easy enough to get a degree without having a genuinely deep knowledge of a subject. It was only when I first taught A-level mathematics that I realised how much I'd not fully understood about the subject up until then. For example, while I could happily handle the most complex of problems involving differentiation and integration, I realised that I'd never really grasped exactly what differentiation and integration were all about. I vaguely remembered some stuff from my own school days about terms tending to limits but it suddenly dawned on me that I was going to have to explain what differentiation was when I didn't really understand the basics myself.
So I had to sit down with some text books and read back through all the stuff that I'd nominally 'learned' in my own 6th form days, imagining myself teaching it as I did so. To get it right I had to spend two or three hours preparing for every one hour lesson but I got it sorted out in my mind in the end (just as you will, I feel sure).
It's often been said that people often don't really understand their specialisms until they're called on to teach them and I fully support that view.
It's also often people who had to struggle a bit themselves with their studies who make the best teachers, as they can understand the problems their students are facing. Those who sailed through their own studies can sometimes struggle to understand why it is that their students can't grasp things straight away.
So I had to sit down with some text books and read back through all the stuff that I'd nominally 'learned' in my own 6th form days, imagining myself teaching it as I did so. To get it right I had to spend two or three hours preparing for every one hour lesson but I got it sorted out in my mind in the end (just as you will, I feel sure).
It's often been said that people often don't really understand their specialisms until they're called on to teach them and I fully support that view.
It's also often people who had to struggle a bit themselves with their studies who make the best teachers, as they can understand the problems their students are facing. Those who sailed through their own studies can sometimes struggle to understand why it is that their students can't grasp things straight away.
PS: I actually joined this site (13 years and over 64,000 posts ago) precisely because I was annoyed with myself that I couldn't answer a 12-year-old student's question. I'd spent over 30 years seeking the perfect answer to it by then and I've still not found it!
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One can learn the system one's lecturer taught and answer expected forms of questions. It's not until one is faced with an unexpected question, perhaps looking at the thing from a different direction, that one is forced to understand how it all really fits together properly, not just from the familiar view that's been memorised and thought to be understood.
In your spare time search out questions that aren't as you normally see, and take the time to see what route gives you the answer, and why other approaches turn out to be dead ends, giving you answers to different questions that weren't asked. The more you familiarise yourself, the better you'll understand, instinctively.
In your spare time search out questions that aren't as you normally see, and take the time to see what route gives you the answer, and why other approaches turn out to be dead ends, giving you answers to different questions that weren't asked. The more you familiarise yourself, the better you'll understand, instinctively.
I think it's good to struggle from time to time -- teachers shouldn't look perfect, and sometimes there's a good lesson to be taught even in the way you approach the questions you can't answer either. Do prepare, of course, but also be prepared to get caught out from time to time and be fine with that.
One of the better teaching assistants I'm aware of rarely answered questions of students, preferring to just ask them instead. Getting the students to try and think through the problem for themselves is also worth a try; and, if nothing else, it's a great stalling tactic while you look something up and/or work through it yourself.
But I'm wondering if there are deeper issues here than merely struggling to answer questions. Contemplating suicide is quite an extreme reaction to this. Have you talked to other people about those feelings?
One of the better teaching assistants I'm aware of rarely answered questions of students, preferring to just ask them instead. Getting the students to try and think through the problem for themselves is also worth a try; and, if nothing else, it's a great stalling tactic while you look something up and/or work through it yourself.
But I'm wondering if there are deeper issues here than merely struggling to answer questions. Contemplating suicide is quite an extreme reaction to this. Have you talked to other people about those feelings?
Nothing like teaching to reveal the gaps in one's knowledge....
You may not kmow the answer, but you do know how to get at the answer.
In fact, that's a much more useful skill than simply getting to the right answer.
Admit you don't know how to answer the question; then use the time with your tutee to show how you would tackle the problem when you don;t have the technical skills to solve the problem.
You remember that saying about giving a man a fish, or teaching him how to fish? It applies to learning too.
And getting an answer wrong in class.... Not a big deal. Probably best to research the right answer and use the next session to admit you made a mistake, and then give the right answer, and move on.
You may not kmow the answer, but you do know how to get at the answer.
In fact, that's a much more useful skill than simply getting to the right answer.
Admit you don't know how to answer the question; then use the time with your tutee to show how you would tackle the problem when you don;t have the technical skills to solve the problem.
You remember that saying about giving a man a fish, or teaching him how to fish? It applies to learning too.
And getting an answer wrong in class.... Not a big deal. Probably best to research the right answer and use the next session to admit you made a mistake, and then give the right answer, and move on.
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