[emile]

How do you determine whether a class was a success?

[simplyesl]

1. If the sts can remember what was taught in the next lesson
2. If you end the lesson and the sts plead with you to keep going

You want the combination of those two!

[Mr. E English]

Oh, good question emile!

Certainly, I'm only too aware of the classes which weren't a success!!

For me a class is a success if I've achieved my lesson aims, the students have advanced their language knowledge / ability (even just a tiny wee bit!) and eveyone had an enjoyable time!

Difficult to achieve!!

[susan53]

Quote Mr. E English

For me a class is a success if I've achieved my lesson aims, the students have advanced their language knowledge / ability (even just a tiny wee bit!) and eveyone had an enjoyable time!

Difficult to achieve!!

Yes I agree. As a trainer I watch a lot of lessons. I've seen some where the students have had a whale of a time - a couple where the teacher even got a round of applause - but which were a total waste of time from the learning point of view. In others the lesson plan may have been fine but the teacher either terrified the students or (more usually) just bored them to death - which also doesn't help learning.

You need a balance. The students need to like/respect the teacher and feel at ease in the classroom. the more they enjoy the lesson the more learning (I think) is liable to take place. But enjoyment should never take over from learning. There have to be clear learning aims, and a series of activities carried out in such a way that the students learn something or improve in some way at the same time as having fun.

That's edutainment ...

[emile]

I guess that raises the question whether a lesson could be said to be effective if the students didn't enjoy it... kinda like 'tough love'.

[Mr. E English]

I agree with you Sue, there needs to be a balance between the entertainment factor and the learning - although personally I've always found learning to be very entertaining in itself.

But as teachers I think it's important we bring humour and interest into our teaching. All too often in the teacher training I have attended this 'human' side of our job is negated. Certainly it's an intangible quality and to that end difficult to assess or measure but then we're not dealing with balance sheets, we're not accountants.

The other side of this is the 'stage act' teachers who do nothing but entertain, like you I've seen plenty in observed lessons. It's always been my assumption that the acting is a cover for not actually knowing how to teach - teaching is so much easier than acting.