As we come to the end of my first year as an elementary English teacher, I thought it'd be the perfect time to talk about the differences I've experienced in elementary and university education.
Let me tell you all about it!
Disclaimer: This is just my experience, so it's very likely that you had / will have a different experience to mine. I would love to hear your experiences in the comments below!
I feel there are 2 main differences between university teaching and elementary teaching; one being Teacher Duties and the other being Student Expectations.
Teacher Duties
I've found that duties of teachers in university is very different from elementary.
When I was working as a t.a. for a first year German language class in university, I remember doing minimal grading. We graded on a 0-100% scale, but where I am now, we grade on a 1-3 scale (very European, but 3 is the highest).
The grading we do is also instant in a class. As soon as a student in finished a book, we grade it. In university, grading always happened after class. This is possible where I'm teaching since the class sizes are a maximum of 3 students per teacher.
That is also another difference! Teacher's are only ever teaching 3 students at a time, and these students are mixed grades. I can have one student in kindergarten, one in grade 3 and one in grade 6 in a single class.
In my university classes however, I had 50 German language students spread across 2 classes, and about 25 students in my ESL class. These classes also tended to be mixed grade; mostly first years, some second and third years, and the odd fourth year.
I find the smaller class sizes is quite common in private education for K-12, whereas in university, especially in first year classes, there can be upwards of 200 students in a class. As you get further up in degrees though - 3rd and 4th year students - the class sizes get smaller.
The curriculum is a difference too. As a t.a for my German class, I was given an outline for the entire semester, detailing what to teach and when. For my ESL class, it was a bit more flexible. I was told when a topic was being taught, chose what topic I wanted to teach, then made a lesson plan, handed it in for approval, practiced, and then taught it.
Where I am now, each student comes with their own specialized curriculum. Before students are enrolled, they go through an academic and cognitive assessment. This identifies their academic strengths and weakness, as well as how they learn and any learning obstacles. After this, their specific curriculum is built.
Some students are more focused on writing, some reading, some math, some French, etc. Students who are under grade level start on lower level booklets and work up to being at grade level. Some students are enriched and work on booklets above their grade level. It's a big mix of students.
I never need to make lesson plans as it's all pre-built for us. I do however, make a few small things outside of their curriculum that aid in my students' learning, but more on that later.
In university teaching, educators often know nothing about their students when they first meet them. We don't know how they learn best, where they struggle, where they succeed. There's much more of a disconnect in university teaching in this regard.
I've had a few professors who've had us fill out a get-to-know-me sheet at the beginning of the year, but that's not too common.
Lesson plans aren't the only thing I'm not expected to do. In my t.a positions, I also never took notes.
Where I teach now, I write notes for each student, each class. Some students are on a Monday-Wednesday cycle, and some are on a Tuesday-Thursday cycle. Each time they attend, I take notes.
These notes are typically about their progress academically, any notable behaviours, if they need more resources, and so on. We don't do report cards, so there is no end of the year progress write up to do, just daily notes.
As well, I also don't handle anything to do with parent interaction such as parent-teacher meetings, scheduling, etc. Even though I am their child's teacher, this is not apart of my responsibilities. Instead, we have education directors who work directly with the parents.
They handle parent concerns, changes in their child's curriculum, parent feedback if there is any, and so much more. Sometimes, as teachers, we are asked about a student's progress prior to a meeting, but that is often found in the notes we write anyway.
Interacting with parents is also something I never did in university teaching. University students are adults, so there is no reason to communicate with their parents. These students are in charge of their own schooling.
As I was saying earlier though, I have a few things I've built for my students that are outside of their curriculum. I do this to accommodate for their specific learning needs.
This is a big difference I've found in elementary teaching. There's a lot more accommodating to students specific needs than in university teaching.
Where I am now, teacher's often chat amongst themselves about students and brainstorm ways to better help a student learn. This can be building reward systems for motivation, behaviour management tips, classroom dynamic advice, etc.
I've built sticker reward systems where students complete 'x' number of pages then they get a sticker. This one works great with kindergartens as they need something more instant.
With my older students however, I've built behaviour rewards systems. In these, we write 4-6 expectations together (not distracting themselves or the other students, doing quality work and not rushing through it, etc.) and if they do at least half in a class, they get 1 sticker. After they get 8 stickers total, they can cash it in for a prize - in this case, a gel pen.
These are things I have never seen in a university setting. A professor may agree to extend a deadline for a good reason, and test taking times can be different for students with an I.E.P, but I haven't seen much accommodating beyond that.
Since university students are deemed adults, I've found there is a much more hands-off approach than in K-12 education. As I said before, these students are the ones in charge of their own learning. They are expected to manage their academics themselves and professors are expected to portray learning in an authentic, real-world manner.
This leads into my next and final point. By far the biggest difference for me has been the parenting aspect.
As I keep saying, in university, students are typically 17 and up. In this age range, students are deemed adults who are capable of taking care of themselves, and are responsible for their own behaviours as well as academics.
However, in elementary this is obviously not the case. These students are anywhere from 4 - 18, and the students I teach are usually between 4 - 12, with a few outliers.
These students are often still learning the basics of things such as classroom dynamics, the role of a teacher, how to respect authority, school expectations, social conduct within a school setting, and so on.
This is where the parenting aspect comes into play. With the kindergarteners, they are still learning not to pick their nose, how to hold a pencil, not to yell or hit, how to share, how to do things on their own, etc. This is all on top of their academics such as letter names and sounds, numbers, learning to read, etc.
With the older students, they are often learning how far they can push boundaries with authority figures to see how much they can get away with, believe they know everything already, so they don't need to learn anything else, and so much more. There's a lot of push back I find.
Each comes with it's own challenges, challenges that I have not come across in university teaching. I find in university, teachers aren't expected to parent their students, which is often where the rude awakening comes from for many students.
Personally, I've never really been someone who has wanted to have their own kids, so the parenting aspect was an interesting obstacle to maneuver. I do find that I enjoy teaching that doesn't involve parenting more, so university teaching definitely suits me better.
That said though, I don't dislike elementary teaching. I've learned a lot about learning styles and teaching strategies, built more tools for my teacher toolkit, made great connections, and so much more.
Long story long, what I found is that teachers' duties in elementary v.s university teaching is drastically different. There is far less teacher involvement in the things outside of academics in university than there is in elementary education. It's been interesting to experience.
Student Expectations
As I just discussed, students in university need far less parenting, if any, than elementary aged students. This definitely has to do with the expectations placed on these students based on a variety of variables such as age, grade, academic ability, disabilities, etc.
Because these variables differ a lot, the expectations for university and elementary school students are very different. No surprise there.
One of the biggest difference I find has to do with participation and engagement in the lesson.
The younger students are much more likely to, not only engage in class, with me, what they're learning, and each other, but also that they seem to ask more questions, they are more interested, more curious, etc.
In university teaching however, classrooms are much more silent, especially in first year courses.
There is a clear fear of asking a question during a lecture as no one wants to appear less intelligent or less capable than their peers. It's been my experience that whether university students understand the class content or not, they stay silent. As a result, for educators, it's not always clear if there is some confusion.
With my TESOL university students, I remember simply asking them to give me a thumbs up or thumbs down if they understood or not. I thought this would help them feel more comfortable engaging and participating as it took away the fear of speaking in their second language.
My students however, just stared at me blankly. I know this was not because they didn't understand my English. It was only after I asked if we all had thumbs and if they could show me their thumbs that they would respond.
With university students, it can be really difficult to get them to engage or give any feedback on their level of understanding during lecture, due to the fear of making a mistake or appearing incompetent.
I find some university students would rather come up after class, or come to office hours, so that they can get clarification in a one-on-one setting. I know some will ask their friends for help, but some students quite literally do nothing.
Getting them to express whether they understand or not and what it is they understand or not can feel like a impossible task at times. This is rarely an issue with elementary school students. I find they are very vocal about their dislike of a subject, if it confuses them, if they're good at something, etc.
Group work is also impacted by this difference. Elementary students may get more off topic than university students, but they do actually work together and ask each other for help. In the contrary, I have seen many university students continue to work independently in group work, or let one student does all the work then divide up how they present their work.
This is a big challenge in a language class as we need our students to use the language with each other in order to practice. It's why many universities have mandatory tutorial/conversation class alongside the language lectures.
Having experienced this unwillingness to participate and engage with my own university students, I now get why professors give participation a grade percentage on their syllabi.
To any students reading this though, when educators say"If you have the question, someone else likely has the same question, so please don't be afraid to ask it", it really is true.
Even if someone else doesn't have that question, they will very likely still benefit from the answer in some way. So please, ask your questions. Teachers love questions and when students engage with lessons.
Another difference I've found has to do with the strategies used to motivate students.
My K-12 students enjoy colouring, competition, stickers, stationary, etc. as ways to motivate them through their work. With university students however, motivation tactics have to be different since they need to be age appropriate.
I'm sure university students would enjoy colouring, but not if a teacher says "If you finish your 10 page essay, you can colour". It just doesn't have the same effect as with elementary aged students. I find, it's often easier to motivate younger students as a result.
That said though, one strategy I find that works for both university and elementary students is food. Everyone likes a sweet treat. I remember, during one of my TESOL observations, one professor motivated his students with chocolate. They all seemed quite happy with the treat.
I would advise though, to be mindful of dietary restrictions (allergies, religious reasons, medications, etc.) if you do use this strategy.
I also found that breaks work for both groups as well. University students and elementary students both enjoy having small moments where they aren't doing school work. With my younger students we may do 2-3 minute breaks where they can colour, play a game, build a tower out of blocks, etc.
As a university student, I've had a professor who have broken up 3 hour lectures half way through with a 15 minute break. Students would leave to get food, chat with friends, be on their phones, etc.
Beyond that however, I'm not sure how else you could motivate university students. Prizes I don't believe have much effect. Perhaps a bump in their grade? That seems to matter a whole lot more to them than elementary students.
On the topic of motivation, I've also found that it is oftentimes much easier to tell if elementary school students have lost focus during a lesson, than with university students.
With the younger students, they tend to move around, stare off into space, get up, doodle on their pages, etc. These are all very obvious signs that a student has lost focus or is no longer actively paying attention in class.
With university students, it's not always so easy to tell given that none of those behaviours are social appropriate at their ages, and they aren't likely to tell you either.
University students have the option to write their notes on paper or on their laptops, and 90%, if not more, choose the laptop option.
When on laptops, students can very easily get off topic. As a student, I remember a couple professors at the beginning of the term mentioning how typing is not ideal for note taking and why. Essentially, that it hinders attention and focus.
Only some professors would discuss this however, and it was only once at the beginning of the term. From there, they would leave students to make their own decisions going forward, which makes sense given that they are adults students.
In elementary teaching however, I've found teachers have much more responsibility in re-focusing their student and keeping them on task.
There's a lot more reminders and strategizing ways to keep their attention. I've called students' name to get their attention, told them the expectations of class time (how it's not time for socializing), had them repeat to me what I have just said, discussed the importance of actively listening, and so much more.
When I'm working with another student, I sometimes lightly tap on the table or on the page their working on to re-focus them when I can't necessarily speak to them directly.
This is never something I did as a t.a or have seen professors do much of. The odd "No talking while I'm talk please" but not much beyond that. A lot of that has to do with how different classroom dynamics are in these two education fields.
In university, there doesn't appear to be an expectation for teachers to manage behaviour nearly as much. Students at this level are expected to be able to regulate themselves and manage their own academic careers.
It sounds so obvious now that I'm typing it out. Of course children and adult students would have different behavioural expectations in a classroom, but the extent to which was a surprise to me. Going from having only taught university students, to teaching students just starting their journey with school or those half way through was a stark difference for me.
I didn't realize at the time how different it would be. Something I really enjoy about university teaching is that it centers around the content of a lesson and less so the management side.
In elementary teaching however, it's a mix of the two where, in my experience, it often leans more towards management than content. It seems to be less focused on what they are learning, and moreso making sure they are learning it.
Yes, they need to learn the difference between proper and common nouns, but if they aren't paying attention or are unfocused, they won't learn it not matter how many times you teach it. Instead, the teacher's focus shifts to classroom management .
In university, if a student doesn't pay attention to the lesson, isn't taking notes, is unfocused, etc. it's not the professor's fault necessarily. If they don't learn anything and get poor grades, the blame isn't always on the professor.
In elementary teaching however, if a student is unfocused and learns nothing, it is absolutely the teacher's fault for not managing behaviour better. For not creating an environment that fosters learning in a way that keeps students engaged with the material. It's a lot of pressure on teachers and much less on the students themselves.
I think, especially with the older students (perhaps grade 6 and up), there should be more accountability for their actions. An understanding of how their behaviours effect their lives the lives of those around them (i.e distracting other students because they don't want to work). But, perhaps this is my university teaching experience colouring my views?
Anyway, this leads into my next and final point on student expectations. Content, and how different it really is.
Once you get to university, all the things you were expected to learn in elementary and secondary school as considered common knowledge now. There is very little if any wiggle room for gaps.
I remember lessons on pronouns and how they change verb conjugations, and there have absolutely been students, myself included, who were unsure what pronouns were. We knew what they were and how to use them in our native languages, but didn't know what they were called.
This type of lingo is what is consider basic knowledge in a university setting, but it is also often where many students get stuck and lost within lessons. It makes me wonder if there should be more review of the basics in university then?
That said however, I have made lessons plans that started by discussing what pronouns are, then goes into the grammar side of things and have been told by professors that it was too much 'teacher talk'. That it needed to be cut down.
I think I understand more now why they say your grades will take a sharp decline in your first year of university. You are not only learning, likely, all new things, but are also adjusting to just how different the learning environment and expectations are now that you're an adult student.
To sum up this longer than usual article, this year of elementary teaching has taught me how different the field is in the different sectors of education. In my experience, elementary teachers have a lot of responsibilities and expectations that university educators do not. Instead, a lot of responsibilities and expectations seem to fall on the students in university.
That's not to say one side has it harder than another, but simply that each side has it's challenges as well as pros and cons. I'm grateful to have this opportunity to learn as much as I have and continue to do so.
It has been interesting getting to experience the beginning half of a students learning journey.
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