TeachingEnglish
Teaching teenagers is a hard task
Submitted by sohy.ahmed on 9 April, 2009 - 18:19
Hi all ,
It was a good chance for me to teach teenagers aged 18 years old and I found that it's important to understand the psychology of this age otherwise you won't be able to reach them and convince them of the teaching content you want to deliver. You should have a sense of humour as well as a firm character. Although some people say that teaching kids is harder, I will answer them by saying: No, I find an opposite picture: Teaching teenagers is harder. What do you think?
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Yes and No. In many ways it harder to teach teens but it really depends on the teen as you cannot put them all in the same boat. I can personally say it's harder to teach younger kids due to their attention span and their capacity to take in what you are presenting. But I think it's easier to teach teens. At age 16-18, then are becoming much more autonomous and will challenge you as a teacher but they are easlier to teach.
Hi! I wanted to ask you if you've ever had problems with disciplining teenagers. I have a small class of 12, but three of them have some behaviour issues. Do you have any piece of advice you would like to share with me, please?
You see, I'm new at teaching and I find that teenagers are definitely the more challenging ones.
thanks a lot!Dear Soher
You always come up with very interesting questions! :)
I taught teenagers for a couple of years and I really enjoyed it. For me the trick is to know that they have special interests and psychological needs but never let them realise that you know it. I mean, I always treated my teen students as adults and I explicitly told them so, because that's what I think they want and feel OK with.
It seems to me that many times teachers look down at teenagers'interests and the knowledge they have. My advice is: never patronise a teenager. On the contrary, treat them as intelligent and well-informed human beings, which most of them are, and you are likely to establish a relationship of mutual respect.
And of course, if you have a real, honest interest in video games, football and music, it usually helps a lot to set a common ground ;)
Cheers - Chris
Hi teachers,
It's great to communicate with such smart and excellent teachers like you . I just want to say that love can make miracles and the door by which you can enter to your tee nstudents is love . You should win the love of your students and then they will listen to all what you say . The mutual respect between teachers and teenstudents will lower the walls between them , remove the gap between them and build a bridge of respect and love . I can't deny that sometimes I meet problems concerned with dicipline but if you give those naughty students tasks to do and among these tasks creating disipline in the class , it will work . Thank you all for your great opinions and thanks Chris for your compliments . Waiting for more opinions from other teachers
Soher
Dear All,
Today when the concept of teacher centric class is not anymore in practise so learners have become all the more important. Learners are more finicky and intelligent so one has to go to any class without a bias that one knows better than them.
Teenagers are far ahead than we were at our times because of the net available to them which was a distant concept for us. They are also exposed to new technology that was not possible during our times so it's better to accept our short-comings & go to class with an open mind.
Because they are adolescent they have to treated that way rather than thinking them to be kids. Give them liberties & praise whenever required. Being friendly is another weapon to handle them. Lastly, teenagers are just a bit rebellious so preaching of anysort won't win them over.
Now, teenagers would love to have a teacher who is friendly & with whom they can share platforms. So go ahead win them.
Cheers!
Hi Nivedita ,
Thank you for your posting and in fact you summed up my view as I find the teenage as a challenging period in man's life and in my opinion a teacher of teenagers should be armed with vast area of knowledge in order to confront teenagers . Above all the internet broadened the scope of knowledge for them It's possible to find a learned student who might excel his teacher .Really it's a fact and we as teachers should expect that: yet, it's possible as well to gain their love and they in this case will be willing to hear you and accept your teaching what so ever it is . Cheers
Soher
I think you need to keep in mind that teenagers invented everything. When you are in your teens, you genuinely feel that you are the first person ever to go through it, the first person ever to have those feelings, the first people to discover the opposite sex, drugs and all that other stuff.
I think that, if you can, as a teacher, keep this in mind when dealing with teenage students, you will find the whole process easier and more enjoyable.
Hi Ruthy.
I don't know how to thank you for your wonderful posting which includes a valuable piece of advice. Yes, you got it we need to know more about the teenagers'interests , likes and dislikes in order to attract them to us Thanks a lot . Cheers
Soher
Let us understand that each group is a challenge for the trainer. The participant profile may be, a mix of all age groups, a teenage group, young children, housewives or retired people.
The mental picture that any participant carries of a trainer is a person who is a task master, has got excellent subject expertise, hands on experience and the ability to bring about a personality change within each participant. These qualities are expected and participants look forward to this. We are more of trainers than teachers. This is the equation which people do not get right and end up losing their respect and reputation by shouting or screaming at the group at some point of time and forcing them to listen to you.
I accept the fact that teenagers as of today are smart, get lot of exposure, they challenge set norms and would definitely throw up unexpected questions at the trainer. When I go through the earlier comments, I get a feeling that we are straying away from our basic objective of grooming them and are more keen on maintaining a healthy relationship or understanding as some trainers call it. We are not there to be popular. Our job is to enhance their personality by giving them practical inputs and make them raise their level continuously. No amount of knowledge can replace the practical experience and wisdom which a trainer carries.
The trainer has to be ruthless, firebrand, have a good sense of humour, should be a disciplinarian, be unbiased and lastly make each session a test of survival for them. It goes without saying that the training methodology has to be interesting and needs to be planned well.