Different Teaching Styles In Rockville High Schools

ROCKVILLE- In the past few years, students at Rockville High school have felt that the system of multiple teachers teaching the same courses has impacted them unfairly. They feel that despite weekly PLC meetings by teachers, the differences in style, grading, and content lead to a lack of consistency between the classes. Most students encounter this at some point in their academic careers, common examples of classes taught by multiple teachers are English, government, and chemistry. Students reported that differences exist in teaching style, workload, assignments, schedule, and routine. The biggest difference is typically teaching style.
Freshman Lucky Williams said that, “Teaching styles can be different, some teachers may be better
. .structurally, how you handle things like absences and homework and that kind of stuff is going to be different.” However she also described common tasks that all students taking US History must complete, so despite differences in some of the work, the big assignments are consistent.
Senior John Hurley-Novatney says describes his experience with Honors Chemistry teachers, “Although they each knew the material, one teacher was clearly better at explaining, teaching, and lesson planning than the other teacher. I also experienced this issue in my AP Government class, the knowledge level between the teachers was very different, one teacher was very knowledgable, and the other didn’t really know as much what they were talking about.”
Many students feel that teacher’s effort aren’t enough. Junior Collin Phillips says he wishes teachers would “communicate more to keep the classes consistent, and make sure that students are learning effectively and equally in each
Thompson said, “While challenging maybe, it’s ultimately good for kids. I think that seeing different leadership styles is important. I think that kids learning to cope with different attitudes, perspectives, appearances, is a good life skill.” Her advice to students is to, “suck it up,” and also to talk to their teacher.
This was also the advice of Gupta, who echoed the sentiments of many teachers when she stated that, “It is not the teacher, it your own thing that makes the major difference actually, teacher impact might only be 1% or 2%.”
Students and teacher may disagree on many points, but they mostly acknowledge that the current situation isn’t ideal. Junior Collin Phillips “would make stricter rules about students being able to choose whether to switch teachers.”
Junior Ben Yamada had a different idea, “teachers should assess students on the same test, and they should ensure that students are performing at similar levels.” He also thinks that teacher should work to adopt “similar teaching styles and methods that work for all students.”
If you are struggling with adapting to a new teaching style, Gupta, Thompson, and Seabreeze all gave similar advice, go in and talk to your teacher, talk to your old teacher, but definitely get the help you need to