Same Math Course - Different Teachers & Different Difficulties

Same Math Course - Different Teachers & Different Difficulties

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Hi there. In this short education blog post I want to raise awareness of the existence of different teachers with different difficulties in the same math course. This is something that is happening with one of the high school students I work with in the private educational services sector.

 

Not All Teachers Are On The Same Page

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From what I know and have heard teachers in a subject department follow guidelines and teaching practices set by the department head. Math teachers are led by the department head teacher or associate at a high school. In theory the math teachers should follow similar teaching practices in terms of what is being taught and what is being tested. The thing is that one teacher, some teachers or all teachers may not agree with the plans and guidelines from the department head. Teachers may do things differently.

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Teachers May Have Egos & Their Own Way Of Doing Things

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Teachers are human too. They may have egos and their own ways of doing things when it comes to teaching mathematics. When it comes to math notation and symbols some math teachers prefer no brackets when it comes to something like sin x while others do like brackets for trigonometric functions such as cos(x). Some math teachers can present the same material in different ways. One teacher may teach more on a whiteboard or chalkboard while a different teacher may teach with modern technology.

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Different Expectations & Difficulties In Same Course

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In theory tests between teachers in different sections should be around the same difficulty. There are cases where there can be a rogue teacher in a department which makes a course more difficult or even easier than it should be. I had one recent example where I tutoring a Grade 12 Data Management (Intro statistics) student. Her teacher made this course very similar to Advanced Placement Statistics. This is because this teacher taught both Gr12 Data Management and AP Statistics at the high school level. The teacher was not able to dial down the difficulty of the regular course. The student's course material and tests were tougher than the average Grade 12 Data Management course (in my opinion and limited sample size).

Different teachers in the same school could change the difficulty of a course without the student's knowledge. If a student is taking a course for the first time the student would not really have information about the difficulty of the same course from previous students, students from other schools and such. The student could easily think that a course that is harder than normal would be just the nature of the course. It also applies to courses that are made easier than normal.

At the high school level difficulties of a course can vary between schools. It is not just comparing IB schools vs non-IB schools. It is more of comparing different non-IB schools. There are regular non-IB high schools that have math courses that are pretty close to Advanced Placement math courses and IB math courses in terms of rigour, concepts covered and difficulty. Admission officers at universities in Canada are likely aware of this I think. School difficulty would be a factor in the selection process for universities. This is something I would like to bring up for awareness but more details on this is a different topic.

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Thank you for reading.