Today’s post continues a series in which educators share their biggest challenges and how they’re meeting them.
Assets, Not Deficits
Michael D. Steele, Ed.D., is a professor and chairperson of the Department of Educational Studies in Teachers College at Ball State University. He is a past president of the Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators, current director-at-large of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, and editor of the journal Mathematics Teacher Educator:
Joleigh Honey is an author of Open Up Resources High School Math and a consultant for the Launch Years Initiative through the Charles A. Dana Center. She is the immediate past-president of the Association of State Supervisors of Mathematics:
A persistent and intractable challenge for mathematics teachers is the focus of our educational systems on what students don’t know. From testing to course offerings to tutoring supports, our system compels teachers to fix student mistakes and misconceptions and to initiate learning from a space assuming students lack knowledge. With a systemic focus on deficits, students can lack the confidence to meaningfully engage, and teachers have to work hard to focus on the assets in students’ mathematical thinking.
A shift toward asset-based perspectives means starting with what’s already there or what is known instead of focusing on what’s missing or what is not known. To start with what’s there, we must first learn to hear the reasoning and sense-making of the person or people we are communicating with.
We ask questions or implement a task using asset-based approaches that recognize all students bring prior experiences, strengths, talents, and resources to their learning and can contribute meaningfully in an authentic learning environment. Student thinking is central and valued in an asset-based math classroom.
Asset-based learning environments feature students and teachers using language that draws on mathematical strengths and teachers using routines designed for students to leverage those strengths and build meaningfully on them. In asset-based classrooms, the teacher provides student choices and facilitates discussions that amplify the ideas and strategies of student thinking, then aligns and builds those ideas toward the lesson’s content goals and learning progressions.
Teachers can take immediate steps toward more asset-based perspectives. Teachers can identify and leverage student strengths and provide students with opportunities to share what they know about a new mathematical topic rather than starting with procedures and definitions. Discourse-based strategies like turn-and-talk and think-pair-share give students time to share their ideas and test them with one another before offering them to the whole class.
Teachers can also deepen class discussions by “slowing down” the discourse and giving students time to deliberate and consider ideas. This cultivates a community of learning versus classrooms that focus on quick responses, which often unintentionally positions a few students who come up with responses the quickest to dominate classroom discussions.
Teachers can also use planning frameworks that encourage thinking about how students will approach a math task and building on it to leverage strengths rather than showing students an example problem and having them parrot back the same procedure that was modeled.
Tools like the NCTM Effective Mathematics Teaching Practices and books like 5 Practices for Orchestrating Productive Discussions can help teachers think about how to leverage student assets instead of focusing more on students avoiding mistakes and errors. At a system level, we also encourage teachers to initiate discussions about how students gain access to meaningful math learning experiences. For example, is course placement in high school math focused on deficits or assets?
The deficit to asset-based perspectives continuum shows up in many aspects of our system. The language we use, the routines we implement, and the structures of our system all impact our profession and how students learn. Reflecting on our practice and considering ways to move further along the asset-based continuum is rewarding for teachers and has positive outcomes for the students we serve.
Teacher Workload
Serena Pariser has been in education for 16 years. Serena is the author of Real Talk About Time Management and Five to Thrive: Answers to Your Biggest Questions about Creating a Dynamic Classroom:
In today’s classrooms, there are a few common challenges teachers experience. The good news is that there are solutions to solve them. Let’s take a minute and explore a few very common solutions as well as some of the best solutions that have worked over and over again.
1. Student Disrespect
As an overarching trend, we do see student disrespect a bit more today than in yesterday’s classroom. Oftentimes, a trend in disrespect at a school is the product of a larger systematic issue. The bottom line is that the students often will go as far with disrespect as they are allowed at that school or district. What is a solution that works for student disrespect? It’s very helpful for administration to look at the bigger picture. They should work to establish systems to create an environment that supports teachers with handling student disrespect.
2. Teachers’ Ever-Growing Workload
A second overarching trend we are seeing in education today is teachers being asked to do more with the same resources, time, and often pay. Yes, there is more that needs to be done in education, but the issue is that when we overextend our teachers, the good ones often leave the classroom. Something needs to change. A solution that works is administration being open to hearing teachers say no in a polite and respectful way. One of the ways this could sound like is: “I understand you need a teacher volunteer to judge the science fair on Thursday, but my plate is really full right now, and unfortunately, I cannot. I hope you understand.”
3. Student Boredom
A third trend we are seeing in education is students growing bored quicker. Why is this? Students are watching more content online that, frankly, just moves faster than we do. It’s common to have students wanting to multitask while they work or keep their minds as stimulated as possible. But, in reality, most of us don’t move as fast as social media or change topics to keep interest as often.
What is a solution? It’s more important than ever that we directly connect as much of what we are teaching to the real world that is fast-paced, dynamic, every changing, and can hold student interest. This could look like problem or project-based learning.
Differentiate Instruction
Malkia Williams is a district multilingual coach in the Aldine Independent school district in Texas:
Educators in all grade levels encounter numerous obstacles in the classroom today. In order to provide the most effective learning environments, teachers must be well-versed in teaching pedagogy and classroom instructional strategies. Depending on the grade level, this process can become more complex as the number of learners increases.
Because each class is different, teachers may need to respond accordingly based on class size, the subject content, and individual academic needs. As a result, new and seasoned teachers must be aware of their professional development needs and their classroom needs.
To begin, teachers are under pressure to comply with curriculum needs in a specific period of time. Novice and sometimes seasoned teachers encounter a problem since they must grasp the level of knowledge and breadth of coverage for content topics. This degree of competence needs collaboration with instructional leaders and partner teachers to determine the most effective instructional practices for maximizing instructional time.
Prioritizing essential ideas and abilities, implementing varied learning approaches, and utilizing technology to efficiently deliver content can all help to make the best use of instructional time. This challenge further supports the idea of implementing individualized teacher professional development requirements based on their level of knowledge and self-efficacy.
Another significant challenge in the classroom is addressing the varied needs of academically and culturally diverse students. Teachers must understand their students’ needs and how to differentiate instruction to meet them. Their students may require different levels of learning scaffolds and time to demonstrate comprehension of complex content topics.
This could involve creating different assessments, implementing different scaffolded activities, and forming flexible groupings for increased student engagement and interaction. Furthermore, instructional delivery and materials must be culturally and personally relevant to the students. It is important for teachers to be aware of culturally appropriate examples, analogies, and contexts in their teachings in order to make learning more meaningful and relatable to all learners.
To summarize, the challenges that teachers face in the classroom are many and varied; therefore, we must take a proactive approach that focuses on the key issues that hinder student growth. Leaders must create action plans that address teachers’ needs for in-depth knowledge of core subjects, effective instruction for academically and culturally diverse students, and personalized teacher professional development.
By focusing on their teachers’ needs, leaders can create a sustainable framework that promotes a supportive learning environment and continuous improvement of teaching practices for both novice and seasoned educators. This approach will allow teachers to effectively respond to classroom challenges while also creating an equitable, rigorous, and engaging learning environment for all students.
Relevance
Stephen Katzel is the author of Win Your First Year of Teaching Middle School: Strategies and Tools for Success and Win Your First Year in Teacher Leadership A Toolkit for Team Leaders and Department Chairs:
A common challenge classroom teachers face is making classroom content relevant and engaging to students. Regardless of the subject matter, many students struggle to engage with lessons at school. Many students are capable learners but feel bored, unchallenged, or both when in class due to a variety of reasons.
With the rise of social media, artificial intelligence, and changing curricula, students increasingly ask the question, “Why do we have to learn this?” Teachers being able to answer the “why” will increase student engagement and buy-in for the academic content being taught and allow for teachers to successfully frame their lessons to increase student buy-in and achievement.
Making classroom content engaging for all learners is a task that teachers face each day in their planning and implementation of lessons. While some of the curriculum may seem dry and impossible to make engaging, there are ways that teachers can spruce up a topic.
In a lesson that has a lot of reading materials, teachers can shift the lesson with a skill-based approach to increase student engagement and relevance. For example, as a former history teacher, I had many lessons which required me to go over a primary or secondary source of a historical event or figure. To make the lesson more engaging, I ensured I framed the lesson and taught a skill for students to learn while completing the reading.
A lesson that comes to mind was on the War of 1812. In having students analyze a primary source, I asked them to formulate a claim about the text and cite two pieces of evidence to support the claim. As an 8th grade teacher, I framed the lesson with getting students ready for Advanced Placement classes in high school by practicing making a claim from a historical document and using textual evidence to support.
Thanks to Michael, Joleigh, Serena, Malkia, and Stephen for contributing their thoughts!
Today’s post answered this question:
In your experience, what are the most common challenges teachers experience in the classroom, and what do you think are the best solutions to them?
In Part One, Penny Kittle, Chandra Shaw, and Patriann Smith contributed their responses.
Consider contributing a question to be answered in a future post. You can send one to me at lferlazzo@epe.org. When you send it in, let me know if I can use your real name if it’s selected or if you’d prefer remaining anonymous and have a pseudonym in mind.
You can also contact me on X at @Larryferlazzo or on Bluesky at @larryferlazzo.bsky.social .
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