Weak Self-assessment of Performance
Vignette #27
Context
I am a language teacher and I am a class teacher, i.e. I am responsible for all matters concerning the supervision of a class (apart from subject teaching, I am also responsible for internal class communication such as class speaker elections, parents' evening, contact person for problems between pupils and problems with other subject teachers, etc.). I am also responsible for pupils who have difficulties finding their way around in class and in the class community.
In this case, we are dealing with a pupil in 7th grade (12 years old) who is one of the weakest pupils in the class. There are several reasons for this. His concentration span is very short. He is distracted very easily. He is quickly overtaxed and only performs his tasks very superficially and rudimentarily. He is conspicuous in his social behaviour because he can hardly empathize with others. He's having trouble saying clearly what he wants to say. His contributions in class are long, but for classmates they are hard to understand in terms of content and language.
He occasionally shows that he understands content well and that he can sometimes complete tasks very quickly and neatly in his own proper way. Surprisingly detailed and abstract, he can analyse situations concerning him on demand, even if one does not always agree with his analysis. His classmates accept him as he is, which means they do not annoy or insult him. Except for very few classmates they do not want anything to do with him.
But for me as a teacher the main problem is that he judges himself quite differently. Self-perception and external perception do not coincide here at all. He thinks he's a good student. The teachers are often responsible for his bad grades. His outsider role is not as clear to him as it should be. His parents assess his situation similarly and accuse the school of lacking empathy and support.
Dilemma
I want to report back to the student how I perceive him and to integrate him into the class. But I don't know where to start when and with which measure. Whenever I take care of the problem, I have the impression that this does not help.
Choices
- Common planning of learning goals including a short feedback of his working behaviour. (tool 29)
- Consider the student's way of working when setting the task. (Interview pupils, tool 13)
- Cooperation between pupils. (tool 12)
- Regular, short parent discussions, and/or clear feedback on tightly defined situations to the parents (detailed but not too extensive feedback). (tool 8)
- Agree on uniform regulations with colleagues. (tool 32)