📗9 Reasons Why Students Don’t Want You as a Teacher👩‍🏫

In modern day and age more and more things are being replaced by the machines. Instead of asking questions to a person, we turn to asking Google. Same goes for learning. Now there are a lot of different online courses, where you don’t have to talk to a human. You can simply read the lesson, go though some test after it and then switch to practical assignments. In my opinion, tech cannot do everything as people can. Human interaction and connection are very valuable. And a person can really benefit from learning from a good teacher rather than from a book or online course. But to be a good teacher is not simply knowing your stuff…it’s much more than that.

In this article we’ll go over some key points why student don’t want to learn from you.

❌You have failed to understand what the student needed.

Every student looking for a teacher or a tutor have certain expectations of what they would get out of this experience. Many beginners even have certain misconceptions when it comes to learning programming, which can be easily dispelled. (We actually did that in one of the earlier articles on the programming myths). The student might have an idea in his head relating his learning needs and an image of what he’d be able to do with the obtained knowledge. Sometimes a person might think that after a first lesson he will be able to write code like a pro and do that thing that hackers in most movies do (tap on the keyboard like crazy and have cool things happen). Of course, oftentimes, those ideas differ from the reality and their wishful thinking might not be reachable in a way they have expected. Especially when it comes to customized lessons from the very start.

✔️As a teacher you understand that your students are not in the coffee shop and they can’t always get what they’ve ordered. Even though, have been a teacher myself, I know that sometimes using the same approach and basing your instructions on the assumption that they will work for two different students is not the best teaching strategy.

First of all, you have to ask questions and find out about your student as much information as possible. I’m talking about his or her level of knowledge (beginner, knows basics, intermediate, etc.), objectives, what he expects from this engagement, learning preferences, whether the information is better received aurally or in a written form, possible activities, the amount of homework. The more you know about your student in terms of his current abilities and expectations, the better you’ll be able to organize your lessons and know how to assist him in the best possible way.

❌You didn’t do any preparation for the lesson.

Different situations happen in life. You had an emergency and didn’t have time to prepare anything for your lesson. Some teachers just decide to wing it as they go. They don’t feel that any preparations are necessary, since they are so fluent in their subject. In any case, it’s bad. No matter how good you are or what happens in your life, you have a responsibility to your student. You must have a plan to organize your lesson in the best possible way to fit into a limited amount of time. So you don’t end up talking too much about one thing and forget to mention something else. It often happens when a teacher knows his material, but didn’t prepare the structure in which to present it. Unfortunately, I’ve made such a mistake in the past. After a lesson you start remembering all the things you should’ve said and all the things you could’ve done. If I had only prepared better…

✔️If something did occur which prevented you from getting ready for your lesson, better cancel it. It won’t do any good to your student if you came in without a plan and supporting material. You’ll be wasting both of your times. Believe me, I’ve also had such tutors…he got caught up with other work and came unprepared…we were doing a lot of scattered shit, which actually made no sense. As a result he got money for the lesson, I got the hell away.

As for those of you, who think that preparing is beneath them because they are so good. You are wrong! The best of teachers prepare before each lesson. It’s just a big sign of their professionalism. Every student requires a personal approach. Adjusting the lesson plan according to the student’s needs, using additional tools that he would benefit from are the right things to do. You can try adding more tests, quizzes, give more simpler examples or more complex exercises, make slides or even flash cards, try pair programming for a more advanced student. Be organized. Have just enough material, so the student could handle it. The better you are prepared, the more effective your lesson will be. Your student will definitely appreciate it.

❌Every lesson is nearly the same and the student is bored. No motivation.

Many teachers, me included, tent to get wrapped up in their lesson plans. They have a theory, then some examples, then exercises. And it’s like that every lessons. It’s not mentioning that simply writing code for extended periods of time can be mundane enough. Not including the variety into it will lead to your student’s boredom. When a person knows what to expect and the activities never change, he grew mentally tired of it and losses interest pretty quickly.

✔️To perceive information our brains have to be motivated, sometimes even excited, intrigued…hungry for knowledge. It may sound too idealistically, but your task as a teacher is not only to provide facts, it’s to also make your student want to learn more, to figure things out. It’s not always easy and full lot of teachers don’t think of this to be in their job description: “You wanted to learn, you came to me. I’m not here to dance around you making you learn. You know where the door is.” I’ve met the representatives of those kind, I’ve had the questionable pleasure of trying to learn from them…I didn’t have much luck.

Of course student has to do his part. He really did come to you. But as a teacher you must remember that learning is a process. And it’s not an easy one. Make your lessons more fun for a change. Think of some activities, even games. By the way, games can be useful in many cases. They put your students at easy, help them think in more creative ways, analyze the task at hand under different angles. You can reminisce to your students about some stories from your personal learning experience. What made you love this subject so much or what challenges have you faced. You can use other tech to your advantage. There are so many great resources online. We can even name 10 tools that will certainly improve your coding class. You want your students to be creative, be creative yourself. Inspire!

❌You are switching to sensitive personal topics during the lesson.

Being friendly is one thing, but being noisy and opinionated is the other. Some teachers would like to think of their students as buddies. It’s not the worst thing per say. But it makes it very easy to cross the line, which will make your students uncomfortable. Sharing your political views, religious beliefs, thoughts on gender equality, minority rights, racial differences, or even personal life is not appropriate during a lesson. Same goes for asking a student to do the same.

✔️Being nice and easy to talk to are great qualities for a teacher. That said, your personal opinions, which have nothing to do with education, are just that…your personal opinions. Keep them to yourself. And if you feel the urge to pry into your student’s life, resist it. There are very few exceptions, when asking personal questions or sharing an unrelated opinion is justified. In most cases, it’s just rude and intrusive.

❌You are hard to connect with and create rapport.

This one is a complete opposite to the previous point. Some teachers can be too strict and distanced. The student doesn’t feel connected and accompanied in the learning process. He might not even feel that he’s accomplishing anything.

✔️Students want to feel supported and understood. Make sure that your student knows that his difficulties is not uncommon and you know what he’s going through. Make it obvious that you as a teacher is close by and ready to explain an correct at any time. Be empathetic and kind. Rare person can absorb information or be productive under stress of disapproval or fearing to make a mistake. And learning programming is complex enough. You as a teacher might also not have all the answers and explanations. It should be okay. The valuable things are to continue trying, making efforts, encouraging your student to take chances and highlighting their wins.

❌You are a bad explainer.

It’s hard to admit to yourself as a teacher that you have bad ways of explaining the material. Sometimes you might not even know it. Some teachers are too smart for their own good. Others are just ignorant. The first type sincerely believes that if they understand what they are talking about, then everyone around must also understand it just as well. So many great minds are so self-absorbed in their greatness, that there are no place for others to make a point. The second type simply don’t care whether their students get anything. We won’t be highlighting those two extreme types of assholeness. But these behaviors are not uncommon even in the best of us. Some teachers might be simply unorganized. They don’t highlight key points, don’t try using simpler explanations or just explaining in a roundabout way.

✔️If your student isn’t getting anything, don’t automatically assume that he’s dumb. (That might be the case, but it shouldn’t be your first though😂). Try self-reflection. Maybe you are the problem. Try different approaches, find the simplest ways of explaining the topic, even if for you it’s ridiculously simple. Stick to this — take a complicated block of material, break it into the smaller ones, and then explain those little sections using mini examples and puzzles. After that analyze how clear that was for a student. Don’t show off how competent you are. It should go without saying, since you are a teacher. You’ll seem even better when your student will start showing results. Assuming that everyone around you are just stupid is arrogant. And not even trying to get your point across is lazy. You have a job to do, so be professional enough to exhaust every possible way to do it right. Engage your students, get them to come to conclusions, ask if they have questions. Don’t be a hardass who demeans a student because he admits of not understanding certain things.

❌You are switching topics and concepts too fast.

For an advance student who can keep up it might not be such a big deal. But the beginners who have little to no understanding of programming and code, it’ll present a problem. If you as a teacher continue this race, you’ll not only end you with a failing student who probably wants to kick you, but also you’ll have to come back to explaining same things all over again.

✔️Put yourself in your student’s shoes. Remember that he don’t have the same experience and isn’t so flexible with going from one point to the other in a blink of an eye. Take time and be patient. Baby steps will ensure that the particular concept is really understood. Little wins will later give better results than rushing to switch the topic when you’ve barely got your point through. Explain an idea at lengths, show examples, practice based on those examples, attack the problem from different angles. Only then move forward. Don’t try to explain all at ones, it’ll only confuse your student and exhaust him.

The minimalistic approach can be the key here, so you can check out more about it here.

❌You are not providing enough examples and practical usage cases.

Theory is just theory without the ability to apply it in practice. This is relevant for almost every subject. In computer programming a teacher can give a lot of concepts to remember, teach modules, functions, syntax. But it will mean squat if a student won’t have any idea on how to practically use it. The lacking of real-world usage cases will lead to your student’s incompetence. We’ve already highlighted that in one of our previous articles. Knowing the material is just 10 percent of understanding it. The lessons will be completely pointless if there won’t be any correlation between the concepts and how they actually work in real programs. Remembering functions by heart has nothing to do with knowing how to apply them in your code to get a specific result.

✔️You’ll know that you are a great teacher when your student will start solving practical tasks using various functions and concepts in just a right way, and even more, in creative ways. Always give real-world examples, especially for any new thing you teach. The more parallels between the given material and the usage cases your student can make in his mind, the more material will actually stick with him. After that give exercises which will be similar to those usage cases, so that the student can built-up some muscle memory.

❌There are too many distractions.

Very often during a lesson there a lot of distractions like ringing of the phone, buzzing notifications, messages that either teacher or a student is eager to answer. Also the surroundings play a big role. Many modern tutors like to hold their lessons in places like cafes or parks. Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s cool! But not all students can concentrate in such environment when people around them are coming and going, everyone is talking, cars driving by, coffee machine making irritating noise and so on. It’s even worse when a teacher himself is constantly distracted, like talking to somebody, or picking up the phone, messaging…but that’s really about too unprofessional individuals, so we’ll skip the details.

✔️As a teacher it’s your job to set the ground rules and follow them yourself. If the lesson is in person, ask your student to turn off the sound on his phone (the possible emergencies aside) and do it yourself. Talking on the phone, checking out your mailbox or texting should be an exception in some rare cases. If you are teaching, your attention should be at your student and not home chores you forgot to do or arrange for.

If you are providing the place for meetings with your student, you have to know where it’ll be more comfortable for him to concentrate. Some can ignore the background noise, but for many it’s too hard. Especially if your student is a beginner.

In case, you have remote classes, remind your student to pick a quite place, warn his homies and loved ones that he’ll be busy during that time, and take all he needs before the lesson started.

We actually have some tips on how to make home education more effective. They can be useful for both teachers and students.

👉Conclusion

So, we’ve highlighted some reasons why your students choose to look for a different teacher. Remember, each person is an individual and what works for one, might not work for the other. Pay attention to your students. We really hope that these points will be helpful for you.

Have you ever had a student who left you as a tutor? What’s the story there?