Find out what your students will learn

I wonder how many head teachers reflect on their students how to learn. The idea of conducting a needs analysis to find out what students want to learn is nothing new, but I'm not sure we are fairly if used to try to find out their preferred learning styles. I mention this because it strikes me that so many teachers come from the same mold, with many qualified through training based on progressive Western views of educational practice. Usually these teachers want a lot of classroom activity, student participation and have a view of the teacher as facilitator rather than teacher. On the other hand, the students probably feel comfortable if the style of teaching is consistent with what they used to.

I remember my surprise when teaching a group of 30 students in a French university only to discover that they are not expected to be involved in activities necessary to actually speak.

They were used for passive receptacles of information they would behave and then work on the use of reading and writing as the means of learning. Of course I wanted to change that, but I realized that I can only change to be implemented by finding what they expect, what they wanted to bargain with them and possibly better ways of effective language learning.

It seems to me that we regularly surveys students must perform to find out their views on how they think the classroom should be managed, what types of materials to be used and how they should be used, how the work should be organized, which activities should be done in the classroom, the teacher how to communicate with students. The collected information can be useful to teachers whose ideas may be quite different. Once they know the preferences of students they will be able to more clearly which aspects of their teaching style and the right to modify aspects match as gradual as not to introduce to prevent students.