SHOULD STUDENTS BE TAUGHT SEPARATELY?

Some people argue teaching children of different abilities together benefits all of them. Others believe that intelligent children should be taught separately and given special treatment. Discuss both views and give your own opinion.

There is little room for doubt that teaching children separately depending on their abilities is one of the most charged issue in education. To make it clearer, there are still a good few people who choose to be all for such a view, while others oppose it. From my perspective, however, each opinion has its own positive and negative impacts on children’s learning.

There can be many benefits when a gifted student is provided an opportunity to study with other talented kids, but the following two prove to be quite common. The most obvious advantage lies in the fact that it can satisfy his or her thirst for knowledge as there can be more time for teachers to include more difficult lessons and exercises. It goes without saying that an average student is likely to be slower at picking up lessons in class than an above average one. In this case, this teaching method can be good for both groups of students since teachers can design different lesson plans catering for their special needs. Another assertion is the competition among gifted students that can make them put more effort into learning to prove that they are still the best, which amounts to the development of their full potential.

Despite the benefits mentioned above, there are several drawbacks that people, especially educators, should take them into consideration before implementing this method. First objection is that it can cause discrimination among students. In particular, an average student may think that they have low intelligence, which probably leads to stress and depression. One further mere fact can be teachers’ attitude towards children. Most of the teachers, obviously, find it not interesting to work with a class full of dull pupils when comparing to a gifted class, and in turn, they can treat their students with different behaviors.

On balance, as discussed earlier, there are not only pluses but also minuses when basing on children’s abilities to teach them separately. However, I strongly believe that the pros can outweigh the cons in most cases, so this practice should be widely encouraged.