Can a student only be as good as the teacher teaching him/her?

I think that in many cases, this is true because many students are reliant and don't do work outside of class...

I think that for those who fully utilise the resources, a [worse] teacher does not affect them as much.

What do you guys think? Should students be more proactive in their learning?

Reply 1

username1082104

There are so many books and online resources to work from. There is no excuse (unless medical/psychological). This is specially true during college, where you should be mature enough to care about your eduction. During GCSEs, the teacher does seem to somewhat have an effect as little as it may be.

Reply 2

blossomx

Nooo definitely not, I'm a huge advocator of being proactive in your own learning. People should not let anything stop them from getting the grades they want. I self-taught most of my GCSEs because, despite being in the top set, the class average was around grade C and that's what teaching was aimed at so I did the necessary work to bring me up to As in all of my subjects (except photography lol). At a-level you're obviously a bit more responsible for your learning so it's a bit different but at GCSE at least there is no limit to what you can acheive if you buy textbooks and revision guides and ask for help on TSR.

Reply 3

BobbieShamrock

Original post by metrize

Students should definitely be proactive in their learning!
Having said that, a good teacher can make your life a lot easier (and hence can take the pressure off).

Posted from TSR Mobile

Reply 4

TheMagican

Original post by metrize

Definitely true, especially at A-Level. At GCSE i was not mature enough to teach myself independently so was reluctant upon mt teachers. At A-Level, i would only use my teachers as a resource, if needed. They influence your grade by 10% the rest is down to you. I self taught myself two of my subjects and got B B in both at AS.

Reply 5

Rakas21

Original post by metrize

Definitely not.

My GCSE experience was such that i was told quite explicitly that "i intend only to teach C and possibly B work, if you want an A* then you need to push yourself independently". Now obviously i did not push myself however that inherently proves that in the modern world, there's so much extra reading available that you can end up quite significantly more knowledgeable than your teacher. Especially until university where a lot of tutors are actually academics.

Reply 6

Rakas21

Original post by Gott

At A level the teaching is not the predominant part of the learning process, that is to say that most of the actual consolidation if the infomation in order for the teaching to be beneficial at all must be done outside the lesson.
This has proved painfully true for me at least

I think in hindsight now at 25, if i had studied and done extra reading for just 3 hours everyday from the age of 15, i'd have probably walked out with all A*'s and an 80+.

The teaching in this country really does not instill the required attitude for excellence in my opinion.

Reply 7

ihavemooedtoday

This can easily be proven to be false.

If it was true, no one on earth would be smarter than an ape.

There are people on earth who are smarter than an ape, therefore the original statement must be false.

Reply 8

RF_PineMarten

Depends. If they take it seriously and do work outside of class then they could still get very good grades even with a bad teacher. Independent learning is a vital skill.

Reply 9

MrMango

funny this topic has sprung up.. I was thinking about this the other day after my lecturer admitted he was no expert.. and is constantly being corrected. I dont want to be as crud as him.

Posted from TSR Mobile