Elementary teaching is more sensitive and tasking when compared with higher levels.

Elementary teaching is more difficult than advanced stages to undergraduate.

Students are prepared for the following stages of education

Teaching primary school is more difficult compared to university ... This is my view.

Elementary teaching is more sensitive and tasking when compared with higher levels.

Elementary teaching is more difficult for me

It depends on what you are teaching and your own personal pedagogical identity (or androgogy if you align with Knowles vision of adult learners) I would suggest. Someone who is trained and experienced as an elementary school teacher may struggle teaching undergraduates - the reverse also applies.

I had the "humble" experience of teaching at schools & at universities. My school teaching duties extended from elementary 4th grade upward to the highest secondary level while my university teaching duties included first year to fourth year levels.

I enjoyed school teaching very much & I found it easy to manage since at that time (1975-1978), teachers were allowed to use punishment & reward in order to have a disciplined educational environment & the teachers were respected by the society.

When I went to university teaching (especially in my last university) starting from 1984, the job was easy initially due to the high quality of the students then. As time passed on, the quality of students declined & teaching became more tough starting from around the year 2000. At this age of advances in information technology, students became more distracted & less ready for continuous hard studying. A teacher, who gives a single difficult question in an exam, is considered as a sinner ! Students, of today, like to get the highest possible marks while doing minimum efforts & by any means "including cheating". University life is becoming uncomfortable unless the teacher adopts the slogan of "Who Cares ?" but an old teacher, like me, considers this slogan as destructive and amounts to betrayal of duty.

Hassan Kamil Ressn Thanks for asking this interesting question!

I taught to elementary and undergraduate students. The main difference I witnessed through my tenure is when I teach elementary I need to simplify the concept more than that of undergraduate teaching.

In both cases, its a transformation of knowledge but the biggest difference is understanding level of students and that's the reason we need to decide how to simplify the concept and making learning easier and fun.

To conclude, teaching to elementary was more difficult for me than undergraduate students.

Teaching at the elementary level is more 'responsible' task, because it creates an important background to the students. Lack of high-quality teaching at this level will show up in the future in their minds. Second, teaching at the elementary level is usually, more 'boring' for the lecturer/teacher. At the advanced level a teacher can already communicate with students almost with colleagues, while the elementary undergrads are like 'green beans' who only able to listen carefully, but not communicate freely with a lecturer, without mutual response. So, based on this, I believe that psychologically, the elementary level is more demanding for the teacher/lecturer. However, teaching at the high level require more professional knowledge from the lecturer and transferring specific knowledge/skills/info to the students.

All kinds of teaching and all levels of education has its' challenges. Personally, I find elementary schools more challenging as there is greater level of responsibility concerning childrens' health, safety and well being apart from teaching. At least this is the case within the context of education where I work.

From my point of view the elementary teaching is harder and more sensitive.

I see teaching in the elementary stages more difficult than teaching advanced university stages .because the child has no previous experience or few, everything is strange to him .at this stage is planting the basic rules of learing

Adding to my previous answer:

If comparison is to be made between teaching first year students of a university & fourth year students then I found the freshman students easier to handle than the senior students in general & for many years.

Both levels are distracted currently by IT tools but the younger students can be shaped by what the instructor deems necessary, proper, and useful.An experienced teacher will put an effort in laying the foundations but this endeavor is a worthy cause which deserves to be shouldered as duty & responsibility.

You may teach senior students whose background has been installed incorrectly by new university teachers. This will cause enormous trouble since every now & then, you have to go back to the basics in order to repair the damage. Add to it, the older students are expected to be more "professional" in cheating during exams so the teacher may become exhausted upon invigilating them. Many of them will not listen to preaches about honesty & they will try hard to get high marks by any means according to the erroneous motto of "The End Justifies the Means"!

For me as an educationist, I believe the hardest nuts to crack are the novices. That is when you are teaching at the elementary stages- K-12. When you go higher, it is cooler at the top. Meaning that you are now dealing with students who already have some background idea of what they want to learn.

I teach undergraduate and graduate engineering courses. I also direct a large K-12 outreach initiative that provides me opportunity to teach elementary/middle/high school students. I can unequivocally say teaching young students require far more skills than just knowing the subject matter. I have nothing but admiration for the these teachers. Arguments such as elementary school teachers can't teach college is meaningless. Of course, they can't. An elementary school teacher can't teach an engineering design class or differential equation. The challenge what it takes them to prepare. College professors can easily get away with minimal work and poor teaching (I am not saying they do that) but it is lot harder for elementary school teachers. Also personal connection, with the students, paying attention to individual needs, getting to know their personal life, and dealing with parents in addition to teaching language/math/science/arts are all part of being being an elementary school teacher. Compare this with college professors who teach just one or two courses a year. I like this funny video. Take it easy, professors.

https://abcnews.go.com/Lifestyle/video/moms-hilarious-school-supply-rant-thanking-kids-teacher-49466453

Elementary teaching is hard but heart full experience and need more psychological inputs in the teaching learning environment