While being sat in your lessons, hearing your teachers feel passionate about the subject they teach, you may wonder what it is that inclined them to teach at this level, rather than GCSE or primary, well I conducted some interviews to help find out this cause.
The main difference between A level and GCSE is the level of difficulty that comes alongside it. They demand a lot more of your time and focus, to ensure you have a high level of understanding in your chosen subjects, as well as being able to do wider research and apply your knowledge.
Despite this, teaching GCSE is far from easy, just because A-levels are harder. They require handling a far bigger age range, as well as bigger classes. On top of this, the age range can mean that a majority of students are highly immature, so disruptions to class can be much higher and harder to control.
This means there are many factors to deciding which is harder to teach. It is all down to the size and disruption levels of the class, as well as the teacher’s preference.
Knowing this, it must be harder to teach students at A level, rather than any other age group, so why do teachers do it? Or more specifically, why have King Ed’s teachers chosen to do it?
Teacher Interviews
I asked my teachers why they chose to teach A level, and here were the answers:
Martyn Deacon, one of my English teachers described teaching at A level as being “more interesting” than at GCSE, due to the “grown up environment” which he teaches in and that he can “learn alongside us” as we develop points in the books we study.
Georgia Preston-Sell, my media teacher said her love for teaching A level media is due to the “depth and the challenge” that comes hand-in-hand with teaching A level. She believes that as a result, we can “explore things more thoroughly” when we look at them.