It was the day before the Great Flood of Louisiana when the Center for Academic Success hired me as a supplemental instruction leader for a sociological statistics course. It was all fun and games until I had to resign a few days ago, once I realized there was a fundamental flaw in the tools used by the program that was being overlooked.
Many of us are guilty of this: We work so hard to improve the tools to make our lives better, but we forget the very purpose of even making the tools in the first place.
I became a supplemental instruction leader because I truly believe in students’ success. I went to trainings and participated in games to make sure I truly understood the framework of supplemental instruction.
I thought I was adequately trained to use the program’s style of teaching, especially because I already had more than two years of tutoring experience. I know how to teach, and I know my students liked me, and many of them returned to me again and again.
The mythical ideal of tutoring and supplemental instruction is that the tutors are supposed to teach students how to study, instead of focusing on the materials themselves, so that they can get back on their feet.
The problem is if a student truly struggles in a course, I cannot just teach them the ideal of metacognition. Instead, it is important for me to make sure my students understand the materials themselves.
In other words, if a student needed help with homework questions, as a supplemental instruction leader, I did not think I should deny help, even though I knew some of my former colleagues did not do homework help for their students. If I decided not to do any homework help, I did not believe that I was taking my position seriously, and felt I was neglecting the purpose of the tool — in this case, supplemental instruction.
If I am constantly evaluated based on how well I use the teaching tool instead of how well my students do, the teaching tool is the problem.
Incidents like this do not only happen at this micro level, but everywhere. Gov. John Bel Edwards is right about our educational system: There are too many standardized assessments that students have to take to pass their courses.
He also mentioned that public school teachers should be evaluated by their overall performance instead of the students’ test scores alone. In other words, the educational system should be focused on the wellbeing of the students and the teachers and not the teaching tools themselves.
If teachers are evaluated solely based on students’ ACT scores, they should just turn all of their classes into ACT preparatory courses.
If we kept doing that, I predict within ten years school children will be prepping for standardized assessments instead of learning how to cook and do their taxes.
Imagine a world where everyone can get 36 on ACT, but they cannot even cook an egg without burning it. Imagine a world where adults produced in such an educational system can recite the Encyclopedia Britannica but do not know how to rent an apartment.
I guess these are some of my former colleagues’ ideals.
Kevin Yau is a 20-year-old sociology senior from Prairieville, Louisiana.
It was the day before the Great Flood of Louisiana when the Center for Academic Success hired me as a supplemental instruction leader for a sociological statistics course. It was all fun and games until I had to resign a few days ago, once I realized there was a fundamental flaw in the tools used by the program that was being overlooked.
Many of us are guilty of this: We work so hard to improve the tools to make our lives better, but we forget the very purpose of even making the tools in the first place.
I became a supplemental instruction leader because I truly believe in students’ success. I went to trainings and participated in games to make sure I truly understood the framework of supplemental instruction.
I thought I was adequately trained to use the program’s style of teaching, especially because I already had more than two years of tutoring experience. I know how to teach, and I know my students liked me, and many of them returned to me again and again.
The mythical ideal of tutoring and supplemental instruction is that the tutors are supposed to teach students how to study, instead of focusing on the materials themselves, so that they can get back on their feet.
The problem is if a student truly struggles in a course, I cannot just teach them the ideal of metacognition. Instead, it is important for me to make sure my students understand the materials themselves.
In other words, if a student needed help with homework questions, as a supplemental instruction leader, I did not think I should deny help, even though I knew some of my former colleagues did not do homework help for their students. If I decided not to do any homework help, I did not believe that I was taking my position seriously, and felt I was neglecting the purpose of the tool — in this case, supplemental instruction.
If I am constantly evaluated based on how well I use the teaching tool instead of how well my students do, the teaching tool is the problem.
Incidents like this do not only happen at this micro level, but everywhere. Gov. John Bel Edwards is right about our educational system: There are too many standardized assessments that students have to take to pass their courses.
He also mentioned that public school teachers should be evaluated by their overall performance instead of the students’ test scores alone. In other words, the educational system should be focused on the wellbeing of the students and the teachers and not the teaching tools themselves.
If teachers are evaluated solely based on students’ ACT scores, they should just turn all of their classes into ACT preparatory courses.
If we kept doing that, I predict within ten years school children will be prepping for standardized assessments instead of learning how to cook and do their taxes.
Imagine a world where everyone can get 36 on ACT, but they cannot even cook an egg without burning it. Imagine a world where adults produced in such an educational system can recite the Encyclopedia Britannica but do not know how to rent an apartment.
I guess these are some of my former colleagues’ ideals.
Kevin Yau is a 20-year-old sociology senior from New Orleans, Louisiana.