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bobs12 · Joined: 27 Apr 2004 Posts: 310 Location: Saint Petersburg

No, not the smut I bet you were expecting, but now that I've got your attention:

Has anyone found themselves in the position of teaching the same few people in a closed environment (like a small school or a business) over a long stretch of time, say a year and a half or more?

Any observations on the matter at all? Good things, bad things, advantages, disadvantages?

Volodiya · Posted: Fri Apr 29, 2005 8:33 am Post subject:

Yes, lots. Surely it's better for them to have a change of teachers, from time to time. Team teaching, or simply rotating with another teacher every six months, or so, would accomplish this.

I had some students who studied with me for many years. I just didn't want to let them go....

bobs12 · Joined: 27 Apr 2004 Posts: 310 Location: Saint Petersburg

Aha! Anyone else agree with the roatation point, and without me being too leading, can anyone give arguments in favour?

Nexus · Joined: 08 Mar 2004 Posts: 189 Location: Moscow

Consider this situation, it's one a lot of people have probably encountered.
Teacher A is teaching a group for a long time and he's one of those popular teachers that the group love, they laugh at all his jokes etc and point out (to management etc) that they don't want to change teacher. Afraid of losing some of the students, the school keep him in place and the students build up more of a reliance on the individual.

It's obvious where this is leading, of course. Eventually the teacher leaves, or asks for a pay rise and the boss says no. So he leaves and the attitude among the students is: we don't want to study if we can't have teacher A anymore. Even if only one student stops studying because of this, the result is that one person's attempt to learn has been scuppered due to the lack of autonomy / dependence on the individual that was created.

Sooner or later, every teacher will walk out of the door for the last time. This shouldn't mean that someone has to stop learning.

On the flip side, its the students choice of course. But if they know the way things are going to be from the start (ie your teacher will change every x weeks) then it's probably better.

bobs12 · Joined: 27 Apr 2004 Posts: 310 Location: Saint Petersburg

Good call.

Anyone have experience of teaching one-to-one or small (< 5) groups long term?

Volodiya · Posted: Mon May 02, 2005 8:45 am Post subject:

Those students who studied with me for a number of years fell into patterns of work/effort that were comfortable to them. I fell into patterns, in relation to them and their effort, that were comfortable to me. We became less demanding of each other, to their detriment (perhaps to mine, too, in some more subtle way). But, we were just too familiar with each other, by that point, to make any big changes in the relationship.

bobs12 · Joined: 27 Apr 2004 Posts: 310 Location: Saint Petersburg

Interesting... further on the topic of familiarity - anyone else have any thoughts on this? Good thing or bad thing? Difference between effects of familiarity in small/large groups?