I often felt this way and most of the teachers I had in high school were probably some of the few who agreed with this train of thought, although it might've been allowed through a directive from the higher ups. But much of the study was independent unless you wanted to participate in the group discussions which was the default option. But we had many kids who would practically never go to class and just do sacs and get 80%+ and the teachers would allow it. if you didnt go to class and got less than 70% regularly there was a problem. By year 11 and 12 people generally know how they study best and should be allowed to do it. I hated classed where alot of the teaching happened through group discussion facilitated by the teacher. I rather come up with my own ideas and then later on ask the teacher/my tutor if theyre good. I dont need to hear my mate craig trying to explain to us how david maloufs writing reminds him of his grandpa for 10 minutes when I could be working. and even on the flip side of that when you hear a really bright kids contributions in a class I often got little out of it because i either saw things really differently (especially in vce english) or I might not understand the content deeply enough to appreciate the contribution at all (particularly in sciences). I think everyone learns things their own way and at their own pace and learning things the teachers way at the classes pace definitely doesnt work for everyone. If i wasn't allowed to go off and study by myself during economics I would've done way worse because the words the teachers used to describe ideas seemed counterintuitive to the theory being explained (even after understanding it and full marking the sac) but often the wording of textbooks would help me reach an epiphany in trying to understand a complex topic.
to explain how this worked in a more functional way, take vce english for example. We would all go to class, get the roll ticked and the teacher would tell us any updates on the timeline of incoming sacs/assessment/policy on essay marking and what the "class" would be learning today. Often I would say a third to a quarter of the class wouldn't even turn up for the roll. Then after these announcements for the first 15 minutes or so, half of the class there that day would go off on their own to independently study and the other half who feel that group learning/teaching learning helps them would stay. Throughout the second half of the class the teacher would visit most of the groups that had broken off to offer any assistance needed/check up on things and move on. I found it great. the worst classes of my life were ones where another teacher had to teach our class and would make us have discussions about things. I dont give a shit what bob in the second row thinks the best structure for a fucking text response essay is, I just want the teacher to tell me and explain it. or if its english where you have to come up with your own ideas, let me come up with my own damn ideas that I will understand and put effort in to writing about. It worked fine for my class who was the best performing class by far in our english cohort. Even the teacher said that although they don't really like teaching to an empty class it was the best for the students so it was okay. Plus we would all be extra nice to her for allowing us to do this. Of course this wouldn't be popular at many schools as there would be behavioural issues at hand but at my school they really weren't an issue + people just wouldn't go to class if they would be forced to participate in group shit or would go to class and just sleep in it if they knew it would be unproductive. All of the kids who got >98 atar's in my year would break off on their own regularly in classes and were probably in the middle band of school attendance, missing far more days than the average student at the average school (often in the day before or 2 days before a big sac), but not the the extent of the top 25%ile of absenteeism. We had a few kids who essentially never came to school, and when the school had to say to them "look mate you just gotta get your name ticked off a few times" would get their name ticked off at the start of class and leave immediately to go study in the library or just hang out with people. Pretty much all of the people who were that extreme got over 90 but I dont think any got over 98.
I think a part of an above reply , this one:
The reason teachers want you to participate is often because you are doing well, and therefore would like you to help the class idea pool.
Is very very true. If you have some ripper ideas it would probably be better for the class to share it with them and help everyone out, and many times teachers wouldn't let kids go off on their own in english until they shared a bit in an initial class discussion.
but like i said, what happened at my school and what works for me might not work for everyone. I am just really glad I was able to do vce with teachers who (mostly) allowed everyone to do what made them their best
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