Teach English in Maji Zhen - Heze Shi

Difference between Teaching a Group of Students and Individually By: Hina Imran The teacher and students have a special bond among each other. However the nature of this relationship varies once a single teacher deals with a single students or a single teacher deals with multiple students or a group of students, especially if we keep in our mind that teacher’s job is not just teaching but it also includes understanding the students’ psychology, his strengths and weaknesses as well as his aptitude. Based on that a teacher then formulates his teaching methodology which best suits the students’ personality and makes the students’ task of learning much easier. Now a ‘one on one’ interaction between a teacher and a student has its own peculiarities. Not only the student is more focused on task at hand but the same is true for the teacher. There is no communication gap between the two and student’s issues are amply highlighted. Teacher can give more attention to the specific learning needs of the students individually, which in a group may not be possible. Similarly the assignments given to the student can be better graded and judged for the mistakes and be corrected accordingly. The groups on the other hand have a totally different psychology and mentality. There could be a lot of interference in a group coupled with lack of focus and attention of the group of students towards non-essentials. Despite these drawbacks and vulnerabilities which a group may have, the same if properly groomed and directed by the teacher could be very fruitful for learning of the group as a whole. The group has a competitive spirit which can be counter-productive in some instances but the same could be very useful for learning. Similarly peer pressure as well as group spirit can be useful to bring the weaker students to the level of better students. After a general discussion on teaching groups and individuals, let me spell out some advantages and disadvantages of the either case in succeeding paragraphs. In case of teaching individual students or ‘one on one’ teaching/learning model, a student gets all the attention, all the time. Teacher is focused on the student. Student can, with the passage of time become more confident to ask questions as per their curiosity. The teacher has more opportunity to understand student psychology, his strengths and weaknesses and hence, can better help him/her. On the contrary, individual learning can be more time consuming for the teacher as during the time that student is doing his assignments or preparing the responses for the teacher, the teacher is generally free and that time could have been used for some other student simultaneously. Similarly a lot of learning is done through interaction with peers, which may not be possible in individual learning. Learning in a group can also be helpful as teacher will usually meet different type of student and really learn about different stereotypical students. It is also good for students to be in a class with many different students as they get to interact with different type of people and build friendship. Another advantage is that it is easier for a teacher to teach a group of students, because sometimes students can help another students understand something better than teacher can. A competitive spirit exists in a group and hence a pressure to perform better is there in a group, which forces the students to work even harder. Group learning creates a class environment which has its own benefits. Moreover, a group learning experience can be a very effective time management method, especially from the teacher’s perspective. Among the disadvantages of teaching a group, all the students may not get equal attention. Similarly a weak student might be shy in asking a question due to presence of group and expectation of response from the group. The factor of jealousy also sometimes creeps in, once a group is learning together. A group class may also sometime create lack of focus due to action of even one of students of the class. To conclude, teaching a group or an individual are two completely different experiences. Each has its benefits and drawbacks. From certain perspectives, teaching a group could be more useful for learning of students, whereas from certain angles individual learning is more effective and useful for the students. Moreover, teaching itself is not only learning for students but for the teacher himself / herself as well. Hence both the techniques have their own pros and cons, and therefore, decision on which approach to be adopted, should be taken keeping in view the peculiarities of the situation, which may vary from case to case.