Taught vs Self revision: the new controversy?
There seem to be two types of teachers when it comes to exams: the ones who do the work for the students and the ones who worry because they aren't doing the work for the students. You may have seen them in the staff room, comparing notes about what they're doing next lesson to help the students revise; it's a tough time for all of us.
I don't think either camp is particularly wrong, indeed, depending on the class I am teaching I fall into both these camps throughout the week and sometimes throughout the day. But much like the traditional vs progressive argument that is raging through Twitter at the moment, the taught revision vs self revision argument seems to rage in most staff rooms throughout exam season.
The argument is essentially over the following ideas:
Taught revision enables the teacher to be in control of the amount of work done (something we all know varies considerably student to student) and allows them to either 'troubleshoot' spots students don't understand or cover the whole course in less detail as a 'key reminder' kind of lesson. The problems with this are inevitably that some students 'don't revise like this' and moan and gripe throughout and also, you can never be sure that the troubleshooting is working unless you through some practice questions in there too which student x then proclaims he can't do and you spend all lesson teaching him.
Self revision has the bonus that students can focus on the areas that they themselves need extra work on, follow their own revision timetable and they can work in the way that suits them, some may do mindmaps, some revision cards, some test themselves with practice questions. It also helps build some resilience and self-reliance. However, the problems then come with student y who can't self motivate so does nothing, student z who teaches themselves a misunderstanding and students a, b and c who don't turn up because they can revise at home.
Here's the things: neither technique has the monopoly on the truth, neither one of these arguments is the ultimate answer to exam time revision, and often the best lessons I have observed have alternated between the two, with a good dose of kahoot or questioning to break things up. I really don't see why this needs to be an argument; we all teach different classes, we teach in different ways and at the end of the day, we are paid to be responsible and professional in our approach to our classes, indeed, our performance management is based on this. We need to trust ourselves to make professional decisions and stop second guessing what we do because someone else does it differently. Have confidence, hold you head up high and teach to your best ability!
I don't think either camp is particularly wrong, indeed, depending on the class I am teaching I fall into both these camps throughout the week and sometimes throughout the day. But much like the traditional vs progressive argument that is raging through Twitter at the moment, the taught revision vs self revision argument seems to rage in most staff rooms throughout exam season.
The argument is essentially over the following ideas:
Taught revision enables the teacher to be in control of the amount of work done (something we all know varies considerably student to student) and allows them to either 'troubleshoot' spots students don't understand or cover the whole course in less detail as a 'key reminder' kind of lesson. The problems with this are inevitably that some students 'don't revise like this' and moan and gripe throughout and also, you can never be sure that the troubleshooting is working unless you through some practice questions in there too which student x then proclaims he can't do and you spend all lesson teaching him.
Self revision has the bonus that students can focus on the areas that they themselves need extra work on, follow their own revision timetable and they can work in the way that suits them, some may do mindmaps, some revision cards, some test themselves with practice questions. It also helps build some resilience and self-reliance. However, the problems then come with student y who can't self motivate so does nothing, student z who teaches themselves a misunderstanding and students a, b and c who don't turn up because they can revise at home.
Here's the things: neither technique has the monopoly on the truth, neither one of these arguments is the ultimate answer to exam time revision, and often the best lessons I have observed have alternated between the two, with a good dose of kahoot or questioning to break things up. I really don't see why this needs to be an argument; we all teach different classes, we teach in different ways and at the end of the day, we are paid to be responsible and professional in our approach to our classes, indeed, our performance management is based on this. We need to trust ourselves to make professional decisions and stop second guessing what we do because someone else does it differently. Have confidence, hold you head up high and teach to your best ability!
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