Teaching Styles

[Miles]

No: HPFGUIDX 148026

richter_kuymal wrote:
> Possibly he would have addressed "differences" or "creativity" in
> NEWT Potions, but there really isn't anything to indicate that.  He
> certainly isn't doing that in NEWT DADA either.

Miles:
We do have an indication: Snape only lets students with an "Outstanding" OWL
into his NEWT classes. This seems to be extraordinary, we know from
Flitwick, McGonagall and Slughorn that they think an "E" is sufficient.
Snape's standards leads to very, very small NEWT classes - we see Slughorn's
class with only ten students, so Snape would have just four or five.
Assuming that Snape does not want few students because he is a lazy teacher,
the only other reason is that he teaches his students very advanced potions
and potion theory. Additionally, we know that Snape loves his subject - so
he will at least bear to work with the small number of students that really
begin to understand potion making.

richter_kuymal wrote:
> Snape may be DDM! but I don't think this extends to a willingness to
> truly encourage brilliance in his students and IMO this is not a
> teacher I would ever want to have or inflict on students.

Miles:
I disagree. Though, his standards are extremely high. So, a student has to
be *really* brilliant to make someone like Snape interested in him or her.
But (speculation) if he would find a student who shares his love and
ambition for potion making, well, I guess he would like to teach and to
learn at the same time.

> Gerry
> To me, it seems obvious that the problem is with the pupil. With
> Neville.

festuco wrote:
> If that were the case, he would have difficulties in all his classes.
> Yet he is fine with charms and is outstanding in herbology, not
> exaclty a tame subject. And even with transformation he does not go to
> pieces

Miles:
Neville is a bad student in either Transformation and Charms. He cannot join
NEWT class in Transformation, and his performance in Charms - just have a
look at canon:
"Neville's aim was so poor that he kept accidentally sending much heavier
things flying across the room - Professor Flitwick, for instance." (GoF 26,
quote from the Lexicon)
His performance in DADA was poor at the beginning of the DA lessons as well,
but he then (and not before!) began to improve.
Neville gains self-confidence in the course of the series, but in his first
years he is described as clumsy in every single class with the only
exception of Herbology.

Miles