Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Benefits of ‘looping’ kids with teachers for multiple years

newsnationnow.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

131–140 of 142 posts

Re: Benefits of ‘looping’ kids with teachers for multiple years

#131

Post by vidarh »

WaitWaitWha wrote: post #83
kbenson wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In this scenario switching is not just getting a different teacher, but an entirely new set of classmates as well, meaning the child is willingly walking away from all their friends and acquaintances they've made possibly over years. I suspect the vast majority of students will choose to stay with the current teacher, even if a very poor fit for them, because of that.

> In this scenario switching is not just getting a different teacher, but an entirely new set of classmates as well, meaning the child is willingly walking away from all their friends and acquaintances they've made possibly over years. Do they (correct me if I am wrong)? What I have seen in the USA, children indeed would switch classes, but relationships are continued on, especially middle and high schools where free…

My sons school (in the UK) intentionally mixed up classes every year through primary school, and I was sceptical at first but it seemed to work quite well, in that they were able to get people away from kids they didn't do well alongside.

Obviously mixing like that does not work if you want to keep the kids with the same teacher.

Re: Benefits of ‘looping’ kids with teachers for multiple years

#132

Post by mburee »

beefman wrote: post #48
onemoresoop wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That one student should be able to switch to a different group. If all want to switch then there's a problem with the instructor. Let's look at the opposite end of the spectrum. Student loves an instructor but is needlessly switched to someone new. My point though is that the flexibility to change or stay in the same group should exist.

In U.S. public schools, this will not be allowed. Schools already do everything they can to discourage and deny teacher switching requests. Why? Because there is a large difference in quality between teachers, and everyone knows which teachers are best, but administrators aren't allowed to fire a teacher with low enrollment because of switching requests, and face class size limits in the case of the good teachers.

There are also the sorts of teachers I hated having as a teenager, but am deeply grateful in terms of what they taught us, after all.

Many of those were pretty much universally disliked often mainly due to the amount of work we'd have to do compared to others.

But when our class would get merged and we'd get one of the more 'popular' teachers, we were often kinda surprised how little the other half knew/had learned.

Re: Benefits of ‘looping’ kids with teachers for multiple years

#133

Post by jvvw »

lumost wrote: post #3

This seems like a practice that would work for some students and hurt others. Some students may not do well with a particular teacher. Being stuck for years with that teacher is a disservice to the student.

Also some teachers are better than others! I think two year in a row can have advantages. But different teachers bring different perspectives and different strengths. Sometimes a teacher will magically click in some way with your child and bring something out of them that other teachers hadn't managed.

I remember having the same English teacher (as in English literature) for five years (slightly accidentally - we got randomly allocated a couple of times and I ended up with her each time) and I think it gave me a rather narrow view of the subject.

Re: Benefits of ‘looping’ kids with teachers for multiple years

#135

Post by lambertsimnel »

TimPC wrote: post #67
ghufran_syed wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If a teacher can't "learn" the next year's curriculum faster than the children they are teaching, there is something very wrong with the selection and hiring process for teachers...

A teacher can learn the curriculum far faster but any educator will tell you they do a better job of teaching a lesson when they’ve already taught it before. Looping literally means every lesson you teach will be your first time teaching it. It’s silly to give up on all the advantages that come from adapting a lesson after seeing what works well and what doesn’t. The challenges from having a different teacher in grad…

> Looping literally means every lesson you teach will be your first time teaching it.

I don't think that's literally true, even if you're correct that looping for more than a year is suboptimal. A proportion of teachers are teaching a curriculum for the first time even "without looping" (i.e. looping for only a year). With two-year looping, teachers only take a year longer before they're teaching a curriculum they've taught before.

Is there any advantage in looping for less than a year (e.g. changing teachers each semester)? What's the optimal amount of looping?

Re: Benefits of ‘looping’ kids with teachers for multiple years

#136

Post by tssva »

beefman wrote: post #48
onemoresoop wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That one student should be able to switch to a different group. If all want to switch then there's a problem with the instructor. Let's look at the opposite end of the spectrum. Student loves an instructor but is needlessly switched to someone new. My point though is that the flexibility to change or stay in the same group should exist.

In U.S. public schools, this will not be allowed. Schools already do everything they can to discourage and deny teacher switching requests. Why? Because there is a large difference in quality between teachers, and everyone knows which teachers are best, but administrators aren't allowed to fire a teacher with low enrollment because of switching requests, and face class size limits in the case of the good teachers.

U.S. public schools are locally run and any sweeping statements regarding them is going to be incorrect. For example my daughter is now in 10th grade. Over the years we have requested to switch teachers 3 times. Once in elementary, once in middle school and just last week. In each case there has been no push back from the schools involved and the change has taken place quickly. Last Monday I contacted my daughter's counselor at 10am regarding changing one of her teachers and by 1pm the change had been made.

People have been commenting on the early start especially for high school students and claiming it won't change because of sports. Our school district starts elementary schools at 7:30am or 8am, middle schools at 8:30am or 8:50am and all high schools start at 9:30am. The varying start times for elementary and middle schools is due to bus scheduling. Some of our neighboring districts have similar schedules and others still have HS kids starting early again showing that sweeping statements regarding U.S. schools aren't accurate.

Re: Benefits of ‘looping’ kids with teachers for multiple years

#137

Post by tstrimple »

atomicUpdate wrote: post #44

“There’s evidence that Black boys are more likely to be suspended for the same behaviors as other children, right?” This feels like a statement that needs some serious backing up, since the implication is that most teachers are racist. Assuming it true, then it’s pretty surprising how we can simultaneously call teachers heroes and racists without much debate.

This seems like a good place to start: https://www.edweek.org/leadership/opinion-why-really-are-so-...

It references multiple studies which show evidence that this discrepancy in disciplinary action is not due to a difference in offenses committed by black students.

It's probably not a coincidence that we see these same sort of harsher penalty in the justice system for sentencing of black folks for committing the same crimes committed by white folk. It's the same systemic issues at play.

Re: Benefits of ‘looping’ kids with teachers for multiple years

#138

Post by frozencell »

I opened it with a Tor Germany node and got > Our European visitors are important to us. > This site is currently unavailable to visitors from the European Economic Area while we work to ensure your data is protected in accordance with applicable EU laws.

Are they kidding?

Re: Benefits of ‘looping’ kids with teachers for multiple years

#139

Post by anshorei »

hardtke wrote: post #103
beefman wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In U.S. public schools, this will not be allowed. Schools already do everything they can to discourage and deny teacher switching requests. Why? Because there is a large difference in quality between teachers, and everyone knows which teachers are best, but administrators aren't allowed to fire a teacher with low enrollment because of switching requests, and face class size limits in the case of the good teachers.

When my kids were in public elementary school there was a teacher that was so bad that most families who had children assigned to that teacher simply left the school. The administration was going through the procedure to get the teacher removed but it was going to take more than one year. They finally came up with the solution of having the terrible teacher become a "social studies specialist" and have her teach a fe…

> diluting her awfulness among the maximum number of students

*polluting with her awfulness the maximum number of students

Re: Benefits of ‘looping’ kids with teachers for multiple years

#140

Post by anchochilis »

LoveMortuus wrote: post #114
anchochilis wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People with jobs are free to seek out new jobs. Yoking a student to a bad teacher for 2+ years is the opposite of a real-life situation.

Sadly many people especially those that work in factories can't really seek out new jobs, as that could mean not being able to put the food on the table and pay for school stuff that the kids might need. Learning to be able to tolerate and deal with people that you don't like or don't get along is an incredibly valuable thing.

I agree, but a single year is long enough to learn that lesson. Looping magnifies the positive/negative outcomes of being assigned a good, bad, or indifferent teacher (or one you just don't get along with).
Post reply on HN