Page 314 - Beyond Methods

302 Monitoring teaching acts
quality of the school system would be his first consideration for deciding on an apartment. S14 asks, without any emphasis on any of the words, “Why school system?” The teacher thought that S14 was actually addressing S13, asking him in effect why the school system was his first consideration. That’s why she reinforced the question to S13: “Yah, why did you choose that?” And S13 replies suitably. He has schoolchildren (turn 55). Now S14 says: “I don’t understand school system.” The teacher tries to explain: “He has children that live with him at home. So, that’s the most important to him.” But, S14 is not giving up. “I am confused,” he says. The teacher, clearly irritated, says sternly, “All right, all right. You’re confused. Let’s get unconfused. His children go to school, so he wants to live near a school . . . OK?” By that time, S14 lost all inter- est and that’s why, when the teacher asked him for his most impor- tant consideration for renting an apartment, he nonchalantly re- sponds, “Close to work,” even though he doesn’t have any part-time work, something that his friend S15 (turn 61) gleefully points out.
In class, the observer did not have a clue what was happening. But she teased it out after talking to the teacher and S14, who in- cidentally is one of the brighter students in class. Here’s the de- constructed version: Go back to turn 53. S14 asks: “Why school system?” That was not a question addressed to S13, as the teacher concluded. Rather, that was a question addressed to the teacher herself. S14 wanted to know why the word system is used in rela- tion to school. He wanted to know why it is called a school system, even though he did not use this emphasis. Now, the teacher, know- ing fully well that S14 is a bright student, thought that he was just being mischievous as usual. She didn’t think that he really was con- fused. That’s why she got irritated and said, “Get unconfused.”
Later, when the student told her that he didn’t really understand the phrase “school system,” she was very apologetic. She explained that the word system is used to refer to a cluster of schools man- aged and run by a central authority within a county, all having a common curriculum. The teacher and the observer thought that this segment was a very good example of a combination of mismatches: cognitive mismatch because the student didn’t know the concept of a school system, linguistic mismatch because he didn’t understand the particular use of the word system in this context, instructional mis- match because the teacher failed to diagnose the problem and pro- vide proper guidance. This segment also illustrates missed chances