School Performance

In what way is school performance linked to learning and teaching behaviours?
To what extent can a teacher make a difference where a student's ability to learn is impaired by their learning behaviours?
These are the questions that are asked over and over at last night's parent teacher night for Tom.
Teachers would overwhelmingly like to teach students who do not have learning behaviour which is outside their teaching style.
Students would like to learn without having to meet rigid teaching styles.
Formal schooling in Australia is now compulsory to age 17. For most students this will mean that they are in school until the completion of Yr 12 - 13 years of schooling. It will still be possible to be enrolled at TAFE after Yr 10 on a full time basis to complete the years of schooling.
The pressure this places on junior school teachers is obvious, all years of education are now geared towards the HSC. Even yr 7 students sit two papers for their English exams in replica of the final formal and compulsory English exam in Yr 12. Texts are studied for essays and their examinable content. Students in lower grades are having their educations focussed by formal assessment tasks. There is no longer scope for individual learning styles and wider reading. Yes the books that we all read in between - the ones that we learned to love and re read in our adult years and share with our own children.

The exam system is flawed as a sole teaching and learning model.
It is failing our son. It is no fun for teachers - or students.

If you have comments on this topic I would like to read them......