37% of teachers think colleagues inept
The Yomiuri reports that according to an official survey, “thirty-seven percent of teachers believe an increasing number of their colleagues lack sufficient ability to teach students, compared with 21 percent of prefectural education boards that feel likewise.”
Among the explanations given:
The majority of teachers who responded to the questionnaire 59 percent said the main reason for the increase was that they did not have enough time for self-education due to long working hours and an increase in workplace duties.
Teachers also said conventional teaching methods were no longer appropriate and that there was always a certain percentage of teachers who were inept.
About 70 percent of prefectural education boards stated that current training and guidance procedures are effective for teachers. However, only 30 percent of municipal education boards and teachers believed this to be the case.
Teachers have a very hard and responsible job. They are thought inept because they don’ t have sufficient ability to teach students, but more likely it’s because they have no time.
I think one of the most important jobs of educators is giving students interesting classes. But for this to happen, teachers need to be well informed, so they need lots of time to acquire that knowledge and prepare their classes. After all, they must inspire students to study of their own accord, which is the conventional aim of teaching. Therefore we should increase the number of teachers and lighten their workloads.
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Comments (4)
techan
wrote on December 16, 2005:
This is bad news for me because I will be a tutor at a junior high school next year (I’m not sure, though). If I were told by colleagues that I am inept, I would be angry and say, "So are you!".
However, it is said that teachers have a trying time after being employed at schools. I have heard from a senior of mine that he had no time to improve his teaching plans or even brush up his English.
It is true that teachers should be studying special subjects, but it is difficult for them to perform their duties because they have no spare time. That is a big problem.
I think some improvement is needed to change and reform the present condition of education in this country. My plan is as follows:
Boards of education in every prefecture should understand how teachers are regarded among their students every year. If a teacher's result is extremely bad, he or she should be dismissed.
That may sound like a horrible plan, but teachers in Japan would make an effort!
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Rudolf
wrote on December 19, 2005:
Techan—firing a teacher for incompetence is a pretty drastic step that isn’t to be taken lightly and if it is taken, shouldn’t be based on student evaluations. Student evaluations have become part of higher education throughout the world, but you obviously cannot take them as the only measure of a teacher’s performance because students have their own bias: they’re more likely to approve of a teacher who is especially entertaining or who gives them little homework, for example, neither of which says a great deal about the teacher’s ability as an educator.
Being a teacher in this country obviously isn’t easy—there are ever-increasing demands on teachers but there isn’t an increasing amount of time or money for teachers to educate themselves further.
Dan Kirk is an American English teacher at Yokkaichi University who has been offering further education courses to in-service teachers; he writes about his experiences as a teacher on his weblog, EFL in Japan.
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Masami
wrote on January 18, 2006:
Now I work at an elementary school in Suzuka. I also think teachers have little spare time, as my today’s schedule below .
Today I made 5 classes and said good bye to my students at 2 o’clock. After that, I joined a meeting which all the teachers in my school should participate in. The meeting lasted for 3 hours. Next I had to prepare teaching materials for tomorrow claasses.So I’m so tired every day.
But I don’t think my colleagues are enept. They are so busy with many tasks, for example, checking students’ notebooks, copying hadouts, counting the collection of money from parents. However, they try hard to understand kids and to make plainer and more interesting classes for them, I think. I can say there are many teachers who are eager to improve their skills.
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Hi, Ruedi. Long time no see.
Today I looked in Tawawa after a long separation. To my regret, I hardly used English since I graduated from university. If I had more time, I would have a chance to use English…
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