In one session, there was an example of how a unit standard restricted the direction of the teaching/learning. In this session, the (Chinese) learner was completing a unit standard requiring the comparison of communication barriers between two cultures. The teacher had suggested that he compare Chinese and Pasifika people, but the discussion centred mainly on differences between Chinese and Pakeha, because the learner found this comparison more useful. After a while however, the teacher pointed out that the unit standard had stipulated a Chinese/Pasifika comparison:
| T: | So I think if we write that one down there, it might not be completely accurate as far as I don’t know that we’ve sort of got things mixed up a little bit there. |
So she brought the discussion back to the latter, even though the learner clearly preferred to discuss the Chinese/Pakeha comparison and he found it difficult to identify Pasifika-related issues:
| T: | Got hard, hasn’t it to come up with … | |
| L: | Mmm. | |
| T: | Especially ‘cause I can’t help you that much, you’re the only person that’s chosen Samoan, ‘cause the others have chosen either Chinese or … | |
| L: | I can’t do Chinese [both laugh]. |
Another constraint mentioned by several teachers was the need to be proficient in a broad range of subject areas that were on the fringe of, or beyond, their personal interests or expertise.
I enjoy it, but sometimes it’s a challenge, all the different things that they are doing and when it’s sort of beyond my knowledge base I can find that difficult - you know, like physics and things like that. When someone’s doing that - the man that works with people in physics, he’s here on a Thursday afternoon and a Friday morning, so sometimes I have to wait, till he gets here ‘cause I’m not a fifth form science teacher you know.
Or, in other cases, teachers felt restricted by their knowledge of some literacy, numeracy and language components (usually maths).
[A teacher reflecting on a session] It was metres cubed, to convert into litres and I wanted to find her a rule for that, ‘cause off the top of my head, I don’t know that, because maths certainly is not my strong point.
It should be noted however, that the teachers observed (especially those teaching in workplaces) also demonstrated impressive specialist knowledge necessary in order to teach contextualised or authentic literacy, numeracy and language (e.g. from intricate details of manufacturing processes through to detailed knowledge of learners’ families and their interests).
One British study (Brooks, 1998) reported having additional teacher help as one of three factors in effective literacy programmes. We observed three situations where there was more than one teacher involved in the teaching. The first was a workplace programme where, following the no-show of an individual learner due to work demands, the two teachers decided to organise a small group session where all three learners had ESOL needs. Because the content (team-building) was relatively unfamiliar to both teachers, they decided to teach the session jointly.