Teacher giving wrong information

[Questions1ww]

I’m just wondering how you all would react and if my reaction is normal. I was helping DS with his homework and he started getting upset with a question’s answer given by a book so I checked lots of sources and it’s correct but he’s adamant his teacher told him something else and even showed me his school book which he told teacher told him and rest of class to copy down. I reassured DS the answer is in fact correct and we spent a considerable amount of time checking different sources etc. I explained teachers are just humans and they get it wrong sometimes after trying to figure out that maybe he mis heard her or maybe misunderstood. He is very quiet and won’t say anything to her and truthfully I won’t be either as I feel it’s something we very quickly cleared up and I do studying with him after school so I can help him clear up any misunderstandings quickly.

I don’t think any good will come out of talking to the school, the teacher seems very lovely and I can’t be 100% sure she did actually mis-teach them or just a misunderstanding. It’s been a few issues I’ve noticed. I work in the field this subject is so maybe I’m noticing it a lot more but it’s very small things in some subjects such as for example one thing she apparently told them that a certain thing insect is a vertebrate but a quick think or even a Google search would tell you it’s not as it doesn’t have a spine so is an invertebrate.

I’m wondering what the rest of you would do? How would you raise it if you were going to? As I said I probably won’t as I’m worried about any fallouts etc. and I can easily go over any misconceptions at home with him. But on other hand I can only do this for one or two subjects as I am not very good with English, maths and computing etc. so can’t really help much with these subjects of which English and maths are obviously more important.

Honestly I think you’re way over thinking this.

Message the teacher on Dojo, if it’s used.

You are over reacting. How old is the child and what is the mistake? But in any case, just message the teacher about it. They are human and more than capable of discussion.

If this is very obviously an error in subject knowledge then I think I might try and gently raise it. Email? Point out why your DS was confused and let her work it out for herself. Primary school teachers are expected to know certain levels of knowledge for everything and will have certain subjects that they’re less confident with. A kind nudge to prevent misteaching again wouldn’t be a bad thing.

He’s 15, GCSE ‘s. We can’t afford a tutor so I teach him the subjects I’m confident with and he does the rest on bbc bite size and some other sites recommended by school.

Speak to the teacher at pickup/drop off/ write a note in your kid's book /send an email?

@Smartiepants79 the teacher subject I’m more confident with. Small school and I know some teachers teach more than one subject so this may not even be her actual subject.

@BreakingAndBroke i don’t see them as we drop off outside school. There’s parents evening coming soon.

Are you 100% sure? The teacher is probably qualified so they'll know what they are talking about. If you're 100% sure then I'd raise it otherwise they could be teaching the kids anything!

I’m a teacher, I can’t know everything about everything. I’m sure I occasionally make mistakes. I would prefer to be kindly told. Even by the kids. I can take it when I’m wrong as long as they’re polite!

I’m a teacher and would be happy to be told, especially if it were done gently and quietly.

I have sympathy for teachers who may not be teaching their own subject - for instance, this might be a Chemistry teacher preparing students for Double Science.

But before you teach a class you must brush up on it. I doubt you make many mistakes.

I'm a science teacher and unfortunately we are dying out (not literally). It sounds like you're talking about Biology which isn't as shortage as Chem or Phys but still in shortage. This means people with shaky subject knowledge, eg due to irrelevant degrees, are being incentivised to train as science teachers because we are so desperate for people.

I've actually done some pro-bono short subject knowledge enhancement sessions for the institute of physics, and I've had huge groups of non specialist teachers (eg geography teachers) saying their school forces them to teach science as well and their subject knowledge isn't up to it. It's not their fault.

Leave it, op. Look at the outcome of what's happened: you helped your ds look up the true answer, you had an interesting discussion with him about it, he's learnt the correct fact. All's well that ends well for your son.

Are they a specialist? Due to shortages some subjects are being taught by just about anyone they can find.

If this was primary I’d be less surprised as you are expected to teach everything from English and maths to art, music and French.

I think I'd raise it tbh.

One of my DC's teachers regularly marked spellings incorrectly. I never knew what to do about it at the time and tended to ignore it. The teacher was young and inexperienced.
It came to a head when DC's maths test was marked incorrectly when it wasn't. I ended up writing little notes beside all the incorrectly marked answers.

I never heard anything back.

This year one of DC's teachers insisted the class all memorise a maths equation except it was wrong! I wrote an email explaining I was trying to help DC but was confused myself and could they let me know if it was now being taught differently. I never received a reply.

There are some very poor teachers.

If he's 15 can he not just have an interesting conversation alone with the teacher?

Most teachers I know would be only too delighted if a pupil came to them to discuss something like this.

It's not like he's going to point and laugh and shout 'you're wrong miss, so just sit in the corner and be wrong' 😁

This. It's easy to make little mistakes. I make them all the time despite having prepared really well for lessons. I'm human and I sometimes get tangled or forget things.

Not many, but some. I’m just a human being. Currently peri menopausal with a busy brain filled with much stuff.
Some things I forget, some things come out wrong. The mistakes are not the issue. In fact adults making and owning up to mistakes is a very important example for children. We learn from our mistakes.

Don't 'do' anything.

The 'lesson' is that different sources give different answers and his job (especially in the age of the internet) is to find the definitive source. The supplementary lesson is that teachers aren't always right. You appear to have taught that very well.

Demonstrating your own superior knowledge to others isn't a necessary part of that process.

You can't be serious.

The teacher is supposed to deliver the correct information to students. If the teacher is giving the incorrect information, it is not the student's role to double check everything the teacher has said to see if its correct or not.

The students are not self taught.

The OP's son is very lucky that the OP is available and able to revise the class work with her son. Many other students don't have fall back and it absolutely should not be necessary.

If there were enough teachers so this didn't happen then education would be in a far better place than it is.

He's 15?? I thought you were going to say he was 5.

Right. All teachers teaching GCSE should have a degree in the subject they teach... unless it's an academy, of course.

Go straight to the teacher and explain the issue. If they are teaching multiple things wrongly, this is major.

Lots of teachers are teaching subjects they didn't do degrees in. There's a massive teacher shortage. They're doing the best they can.

Gcse I would be more worried. I teach year 4 and that insects are invertebrates and most have exoskeleton so I would hope higher up would know. But as many have said many are not experts or are covering subjects and they are only human.

Right. All teachers teaching GCSE should have a degree in the subject they teach...

Oh my goodness I think you are really out of touch.

40% of schools in the uk don't have a single teacher with a physics-related degree. But nearly every GCSE student studies physics, sometimes as part of double science award.

You can shout "should" all day long but it is just never going to happen. There's been a total brain drain of specialist science teachers in this country. All quitting in favour of other careers or teaching abroad.

Edit - of the other 60% of schools, most might only have one or two physicists, not enough to cover every gcse class. So a huge proportion of Physics lessons are taught by non specialists.

I'm focusing on physics as it's the one I know more about, but the other sciences are almost in as bad a situation