Effective teaching has always been a difficult task. But a hard job done well has always been satisfying regardless of one\u27s management style. Management and evaluation styles may change, but effective teaching has always been proven by having all of the students doing high-quality work

Hungerford, James J.

English

University of Northern Iowa

Iowa Science Teachers Journal Volume 27 Number 1 Article 21 1990 Editor's Corner - Quality Teachers = Quality Pupils James J. Hungerford Marshalltown Senior High School Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.uni.edu/istj  Part of the Science and Mathematics Education Commons Recommended Citation Hungerford, James J. (1990) "Editor's Corner - Quality Teachers = Quality Pupils," Iowa Science Teachers Journal: Vol. 27 : No. 1 , Article 21. Available at: https://scholarworks.uni.edu/istj/vol27/iss1/21 This Editorial is brought to you for free and open access by UNI ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Iowa Science Teachers Journal by an authorized editor of UNI ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact scholarworks@uni.edu. GUEST EDITORIAL Quality Teachers= Quality Pupils Effective teaching has always been a difficult task. But a hard job done well has always been satisfying regardless of one's management style. Management and evaluation styles may change, but effective teaching has always been proven by having all of the students doing high-quality work. Teachers are being told to standardize their teaching, to write objectives and activities. Are we to assume they never had any before? Or that this practice will help teachers carry them out and become more effective? As teachers attempt to comply, education is being fragmented, dissected, cataloged, mystified, unitized and perhaps sanitized, too. Content areas that might be controversial, or simply interesting, may be omitted from the curriculum. More and more often, teachers are being addressed as unknowing and nonintellectual beings, certainly less-than-capable professionals. Centralized curriculum, centralized standardized tests and standard-ized teacher behaviors frustrate teachers who have shown students what education should be about. Competent instructors recognize that the effort to stuff students with measurable fragments of knowledge has little to do with high-quality, long term education. Yet, their concerns have been ignored or deprecated by politically motivated state or national standardizers. It is difficult to give up what you believe because you are being evaluated on the current fashion or buzz-word philosophy. Any method of teaching that is imposed from above without concern for the needs of teachers and students is bound to fail. Research data has shown this; yet thousands of dollars have been spent on currently fashionable programs. In the past, teachers have had the good sense to pick and choose. Now, teachers are being asked to accept class loads and working conditions that practically ensure failure. Of course, there are those--usually non-classroom personnel--who maintain it doesn't make any difference how many students are in a class. However, the position papers on the negative effects of large science class size (Science Teachers of Missouri) will, hopefully, change a few minds. If teachers teach the way they are told, emphasize trivial facts and right answers of low quality, avoid controversy and discussion, tailor what they teach to the state testing programs and fall in line, they will be praised as successful team players and the students blamed as incompetents. Able teachers who want to teach conceptually and challenge students to think find themselves in a catch-22. Some are giving up what they believe. Iowa Science Teachers Journal I Spring 1990 53 All teachers need "time to teach," the tools to lead and lots of encouragement. Given these, quality will grow in them and their students. Glasser (1990) states, "The more that the work which students are asked to do satisfies their . needs, the harder they will work." There seems to be a fear in education, especially among the meas-urers and fragmenters, that high quality inevitably means low quan-tity, i.e. covering less ground. However, research shows the opposite occurs. Quality always leads to increased productivity and more material covered (Glasser, 1990). If the leader in the classroom does and expects quality work, and if emphasis is placed on quality work in a cooperative atmosphere, we don't need everyone to do the job the same way. Diversity is the American way. James J. Hungerford Teacher Resource Specialist Department of Science Education Marshalltown Senior High School Marshalltown, Iowa 50158 References Glasser, William. 1990. "The Quality School." Phi Delta Kappan . 71(6):422-435. Science Teachers of Missouri. 1990. "Position Paper on Science Class Size." Missouri Science News . 31(1):3. 54 Iowa Science Teachers Journal I Spring 1990 

Editor\u27s Corner - Quality Teachers = Quality Pupils

https://scholarworks.uni.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1402&amp;context=istj

Editor\u27s Corner - Quality Teachers = Quality Pupils

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

University of Northern Iowa