What or who influences a student´s perception towards a subject?

 

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     The role of teachers involves more than just coming to a classroom or starting a video conference and teach information to the learners in order for them pass the course. While teachers create evaluations, develop their lesson plannings (adapting them for the different groups and taking into account the students´ necessities), and look for activities or ways for them to be interested in the subject, we as educators must be aware of the power we have to influence our pupils to love or hate our class, but it depends on how well or not we know them, how useful they perceive the activities in everyday situations, but also their families are part of this core of great impact. I will use a Costa Rican short film production made in 1970 and related to education, to exemplify what I say.

     At the beginning of the movie we see "Lito", a low-socioeconomic school student struggling with his family to survive another day who also had a mid-time job. His brother, friends, and boss were constantly criticizing him to leave school because it was a waste of time, this led to a poor academic performance and a barely done and greasy homework that his teacher was upset with.

The role of a teacher in students’ lives.

     As I mentioned, teachers have the power to influence student´s desire to study or not. In the movie, the teacher thought that Lito was a bad student that did not care about education, but she did not know all the struggle he and his family were going through until she started to visit his community and see the context involving his life. Almost at the end of the movie we see that the teacher began to change her way of teaching and cared about her students, starting with Lito.

     We teachers, cannot pretend that every student is going to have a "normal" life and just be worried about school because they are young or they will have no dissability or learning issues, we must know their context, what motivation they have or not, what concerns them, how their families and friends support them, and last but not least, what can we do for them to keep studying and find a reason to attend classes and motivate them to keep going.

The role of assessment in everyday situations in class.

     There was a moment in the movie where the teacher tells the priest she was talking to, that she did not know why the students of this region do not understand what she teaches, and then she compares them with other students that did understood. It is until the priest makes her reflect upon her way of teaching that she adapted her methods to a different context, when her pupils started to understand.

     It is imperative for us to adapt to our students contexts and necessities, and teach in a way they can easily understand the information and find it useful for their lives. We cannot even apply the same lesson planning or activities to the groups of the same school or high school because every student is unique in that sense.

The role of family in students’ lives.

     During the movie, Lito´s friends and his brother were constantly mocking at him and saying that education is a waste of time and it has no purpose for people like them, only his older sister and mother seemed to be support him, and maybe that is the reason for Lito to still going to school.

     Imagine if everyone surrounding Lito convinced him that school is a waste of time and money, he may believe so and just desert school to dedicate his full time to work and economically support his family. Maybe we might forget that every student is a different family with their own problems and beliefs, and that not always they are supported by their families, so we teachers are responsible to know their families as well, and find a way to work together, so that the student perceives he or she is supported to keep going.

Link to the short film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3t9vTMaRQE&t=47s