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.

Proportion of hours taught by non subject specialists... bearing in mind that many of these studies will allow very remotely related degrees to be included in "subject specialist" so I would count these as underestimates

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

Yeh they should but for sure they do not.

My MFL colleague taught history for a year; an English colleague taught geography. Neither had a degree in these subjects. Another colleague taught business to GCSE and A level students without any kind of qualification in it. I've taught Spanish and while I am an MFL specialist, I only have a very old O level (!) in Spanish.

I could go on, and so could any teacher. And this is a few years ago - it's got worse for sure.

@Questions1ww I would ask your DS to raise it with the teacher. I was always happy for a student to point out errors - spellings in a ppt for example. Better that I should know - and it's good for them to see that teachers are human too. Doesn;t make the teacher untrustworthy. Why do you have to "teach him the subjects you are confident in"? That's the school's job, are they really doing it so badly?

That is a very interesting table. MFL comes out particularly badly.

Would you give me the source, please?

https://schoolsweek.co.uk/extent-of-classes-taught-by-non-specialist-teachers-revealed/

Mfl comes out badly yes, but bear in mind that many mfl teachers teach at least two related languages proficiently but by definition are only "specialist" in one of them.

As you said teachers are human. Stop being so smug you caught them out. Move on.

Please tell us what insect it was 😁perhaps a millipede? Stick insect?

I once was made to memorise that kiwi fruit was from Australia. Despite the sticker on the kiwi in my lunch box saying New Zealand. Teachers can be wrong and you or your son should bring it up, especially at GSCE level.

Millipedes aren't insects but stick insects are.

Or was that deliberate?

I feel safer in Pedant's Corner lol

The OP isn’t being smug at all.

She is a concerned parent.

Stop being personal.

Haha, semi deliberate, badly explained - it was more than I could see why the teacher might think a millipede isn't an insecty arthropod and therefore perhaps is a vertebrate. That'd still be a strange thing to teach, mind.

Most if not all teachers have at least two subjects. I spent years teaching health and social care, that's not my degree but I did spend years working as a clinical physiologist.

OP

Is this biology and are you in coventry?

I ask because 1/2 to 3/4 of two classes I taught thought deoxygenated blood is blue and when you cut yourself the blood turns red because it hits the oxygen in the air.

Also sometimes things that are taught at GCSE are not actually correct. Eg in Computer Science at GCSE you have logic gates, these are OR, XOR, AND and NOT.

But at A Level you only have NAND and NOR.

It's a long time since I did physics but at O Level (yes I am ancient) acceleration due to gravity was 10m/s2 and at A Level it was 9.8 m/s2.

OP

I'd write a note or email the teacher for clarification.

Grow a backbone, OP.

You need to take this further. If the wrong information is being given, especially if this isn't an isolated incident, then it could impact many children's exam results. Your child was lucky, and you turned it into a learning experience, but not every child will have a parent who has picked up on these mistakes.

I'm not saying go in to school all guns blazing, but it absolutely does need to be addressed. I've been a secondary school teacher and I would much rather have been made aware. Unless someone picks this teacher up on it they could continue to teach the wrong information for many years to come.

I’d make an appointment and ask the teacher.
i wouldn’t wait until parents evening

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.

If this is a secondary school, why assume every teacher in every subject has misconceptions?

Most people these days are not good at their job? Do you know in some schools, teachers have to teach a subject outside of their expertise due to staff shortages?

Ideally your son is best placed to ask discuss this with his teacher as he can show her the references and working out and say he is checking with her.

What about the poor students with the parents without this subject knowledge?

I think you need to work on your son's confidence to ask questions as that is why the teachers are there.

This

I would definitely bring this to the teacher's attention (politely, of course). I would also encourage your son to do the same in a non-confrontational way at the time, e.g. "Oh, I thought all insects were invertebrates?" (Deeply concerning that someone teaching GCSE Biology would get this wrong; most seven year olds could probably tell you that all insects are invertebrates!)

I'm a teacher, and always tell my kids to challenge me politely if they think I've got something wrong, because sometimes I have!

All teachers absolutely should have excellent subject knowledge, but unfortunately that's not going to happen until teachers are paid considerably better than they are currently. The DfE can't afford to be picky, currently.

I’d just leave it- you’ve already told your son that teachers are only human and can make mistakes. I remember teachers of mine getting things wrong and I knew for certain I was right- I would go home and look things up to be sure! I would sometimes tell my parents and they would just laugh and say that teachers can’t know everything and good for me for questioning it and checking it out myself. They would never have got in touch with the school about it ( including one time where a teacher wrote all over my neat work in red pen saying a word I’d used didn’t exist- it did and I’d used it in the right context. Can you tell I’m still bitter? 😂)

Lots of teachers teaching outside their subject areas. And it’s bloody hard. I’m a chem teacher, specialist trained, have a chem degree as well as teaching degree. I know chem inside out. Last year I had to fill in for a few weeks teaching year 11 physics. Holy crap I was out of my depth. I had to study for hours and hours on the stuff I needed to teach. I could manage that for a few weeks but long term it’s not sustainable.

I once told a class the capital of Australia was Sydney. A girl came in the next day and very gently said that her mummy said people often think the capital is Sydney but it's actually Canberra . (Class of 8 year olds). I thanked her for her gentle and polite correction, acknowledged to the class I was wrong and I'm learning ever day too and we moved on .
A gentle correction would hopefully be well received

It happens.
DD3 had an awful teacher (yr5) who kept making the daftest of mistakes on the white board during delivery of maths lessons. Was particularly awkward for me because i was a 1:1 TA in the same class! Kept having to raise my hand and point it out! Cringe 😑How many times can you do that without it becoming really uncomfortable?! (same teacher lost all the classes SATs papers as well)

One of same DD's teachers at secondary marked a lot of her maths home work wrong once. DH wrote in the book that she'd marked it wrong. Heard nothing back. We didn't feel strongly enough to contact anyone.

However - the same teacher walked out of class and just left them all to it for over an hour a few weeks later. Chaos ensued obvs. DD and friend tried to go and find a teacher but weren't believed, astonishingly!)

Went up to the school about that one!

Smartiepants79 · Yesterday 22:56
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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!”

This. At GCSE, it’s important they aren’t misinformed.

In my son's school they completely mis-pronounce a foreign name of a famous children's book that they study. I corrected my son (it;s our home-country's language so, we know how it's meant to be pronounced) when he said it wrong, he said "oh, this is how they say it in school", so I said ah, well it would be written differently if you pronounced it how they said. This is how you say it correctly". He told me later in the week he got corrected for saying it the correct way, and when he told the teacher this is how we say it in our home country's language as the book is set in my home country she scoffed (she's known for being a bit of a bitch anyway) and said "well, we pronounce it like this in this country". I told him it's nothing to get worked up over but don't pronounce it like they are.

This is an interesting side-debate about accepted anglicisations.

For example, it's accepted that we anglicise the pronunciation of foreign place names when speaking English. We pronounce Paris "Parriss" not "Paree". I'm not saying it's good we do that, I have no opinion about it.

I think you're right to tell your son it's nothing to get worked up over. There's no one correct answer to that particular one, he could have the exact same disagreement in the future with a university professor so it's not a case of his teacher being ignorant or bigoted.

He is 15 and getting upset over this?

Jesus wept, I thought you were talking about a 5/6 year old

When did the OP mention her son got ‘upset’.

She is, rightly, concerned that her son is being taught incorrect information.

What happens to the rest of the class who don’t have parents checking their kid’s notes? Of course the teacher should be made aware that she is giving out wrong information!