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.

@Agapornis

Ah! Just seen you did it on purpose. I'll get back in my box.

I genuinely believe that MN attracts an above average number of teachers who flock to threads in defence of each other, whether warranted or not. It’s a pack mentality.

Don't worry you're the second person who knows their taxonomy :) it was an example that could explain why the teacher might think a millipede isn't an insecty arthropod and therefore perhaps is a vertebrate.

I'm still keen to know what insect or arthropods it was, OP!

@Agapornis thanks! I'm curious too about the original mistake.

I genuinely believe that MN attracts an above average number of teachers who flock to threads in defence of each other, whether warranted or not. It’s a pack mentality.

You can 'genuinely believe' what you like. Personally I only defend teachers on MN whom I think deserve defending. It just so happens that's most of them. Why? Because lots of people (on MN and elsewhere) talk an absolute pile of ignorant, dimwitted bollocks about education, teaching and teachers. For some reason they think they are qualified to do so because they've been to school, or because they have a child who goes to school. It's not 'pack mentality'. It's experience and actual knowledge of the education system.

AllProperTeaIsTheft

Shouting and trying to shut down people’s opinions as stupid won’t work here. You’re not in the classroom now.

Shouting and trying to shut down people’s opinions as stupid won’t work here. You’re not in the classroom now.

I have no need to shout here or in my classroom, actually. I see you are continuing to spout ignorant stereotypes about teachers though. Pointing out that certain opinions are ignorant or incorrect is not 'shutting them down'. Feel free to continue to express those opinions. They say a lot more about you than they do about teachers.

Whatever you say dear.

Whatever you say dear.

Well yes, exactly. Whatever I say about teaching is much more likely to be accurate than what you say, unless you work in schools. Whatever job you do, I seriously doubt you'd just nod and think my opinion was totally valid if I spouted a load of unfounded bile about the people who do that job. Yet somehow that's exactly what people expect teachers to do, rather than defend themselves or each other. Otherwise it's a 'pack mentality' .

You're not wrong to bring it up, because others in the class won't all have the benefit of knowledgeable and involved parents - if no-one tells her she's getting stuff wrong, she'll carry on making mistakes that might be the difference between pass and fail for a borderline student. You can be kind about it, but it does need to be said.

Sorry not read the full thread, but you wouldn't believe the number of mistakes in school textbooks, so I wouldn't automatically assume the teacher is wrong (although this may depend on the subject). When I find an inconsistency, I try to find at least 2 or 3 sources to check the facts, but teachers do not always have time for this.

*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*

This. The situation really is dire. Very few children in the state sector currently will have qualified teachers for every subject with a degree in that subject. The parents usually aren't aware of this of course... the school will hardly advertise that fact!

Not all teachers work full time. I work 2 days so you might find me commenting on fb on a school day during school hours. Oh and also some teachers will comment during school holidays. Some might also comment during the school day when they are in but they might be on a break!!

You do realise that not all teachers work full time don’t you? I only teach 2 days a week now, I’ve been on MN most of the day today - it’s my guilty pleasure 😂

Why would being an academy change it? Most schools are now part of academy chains. Anyway, you do need a degree (at least 50% relevant) to the subject you intend to teach to get onto a PGCE. This was the case when I trained but God knows what it is now. They may accept anyone with a heartbeat just to get them through! The recruitment and retention crisis has meant qualified (sometimes not even qualified!) teachers are now being drafted into subjects they have no background in.

I therefore wouldn’t be surprised if this teacher was not a specialist.

I’d say more that there is a disproportionate amount of posts aimed at teachers/schools. If you worked as a dentist and someone posted about dentistry then you’d be inclined to comment, it’s no different.

Teacher after teacher taking over the thread as usual.

It is hardly peculiar that on a website called Mumsnet aimed at parents, that we like to discuss teachers and schools without having every thread taken over by defensive teachers.

What a delight you are.

But you don't need a teaching qualification such as a pgce to teach in an academy.

I wouldn't say anything, maybe your ds was mistaken. My dd3 is in year 11 and must have the worst computer science teacher in the world! And he has a PhD in computer science! He marked one of her questions wrong as she did not use the method in the example but it was a suggested method so you could use another. He also got some pretty basic maths wrong and dd3 pointed it out but he was very insistent. I don't know the foggiest about computer science but thankfully my sil teaches it at Cambridge so he has helped her.

A few years ago when dd3 was in primary year 3 I actually took her worksheet and with a red pen corrected all the grammar, punctuation (teacher used to put an apostrophe when writing a plural eg bag's) and spelling mistakes. I then put it in an envelope addressed to the headteacher - I never heard anything back and obviously dd was mortified. In my defence it was my 50th birthday.
It's a very long time since I was at school but seriously 'The boy past the park'.

A teacher's role isn't to be merely a fountain of facts - just like an English teacher isn't just a walking dictionary - a teacher's role is to teach kids how to learn their subject. This can include finding out information for themselves, constructing meaning, making conclusions. Op's son can do all these things and has demonstrated that in his recent fact checking experience. Good work, op's son.

(Although I do prioritise my own subject knowledge because I love my subject, but I have the luxury of teaching a shortage one so I don't have to teach something I don't know. If I had to teach a subject I'm not specialist in, I'd be doing it as above)

OP Have you checked the GCSE syllabus for the Exam board your DS is studying? You may be an expert in your field, but your DS needs to be answering exam questions the way the exam board wants them to be answered. Check mark schemes too.

As a PP said, things taught at GCSE level, especially in the sciences, are sometimes not strictly correct.

My DD did A level Biology and spent a lot of time complaining that tuff she had struggles to learn for 3 years was now wrong at A level!

You are itching to correct this appears to be more important to you than anything, you are way over the top and if my parent was this intense I would tell them I would stop studying till you calmed down

Take a step back

What was the exact teaching point? Without knowing that it's not possible to judge if your concern is truly valid or in perspective or not. In all subjects material is simplified at many stages so that a general point can be taught - you are often trying to build a framework of understanding - start with some foundational ideas and refine it later to include other and more complicated aspects - so what sort of thing is your complaint about exactly? Is it a factual or unequivocal point or to do with generalisation and exceptions?