Session 1: The Teachers We Want; The Teachers We Need

Presenter:
Mary Burns, Education Development Center (USA)

"Good Teachers Matter"

This phrase is used so often that it's almost a cliché. Yet high quality teachers are the single most important factor in a child’s education.

--Measures of teacher preparation and certification are by far the strongest correlates of student achievement in reading and mathematics.
--Research (Hanushek, 1992) estimates that the difference between having a good teacher and a bad teacher can exceed one grade level in annual achievement growth.
--Sanders (1998) and Sanders and Rivers (1996) state that lower achieving students are the most likely to benefit from increases in teacher effectiveness.

“Good Teachers Matter” in Industrialized Countries:



And good teachers REALLY matter in non-industrialized countries:


We all agree that good teaching matters. And we all use terms like “good” teachers and “high quality” instruction so often but without specifying what this means exactly. So...what exactly is a "good" teacher?

Well, as it turns out, we actually do know what makes a good teacher and though there may be more qualities than those listed here, there are generally 5 "ingredients" that continually span research on good teaching (Darling-Hammond & Bransford, 2009; OECD, 2009):

1. Content Knowledge:
--Students’ achievement is significantly related to whether teachers are fully prepared in the field in which they teach.
--Strong subject matter knowledge (research demonstrates that amount of college coursework math and science teachers had taken in their content areas and in subject-matter methods was positively related to student achievement gains).
--Teachers’ courses in content area and scores on subject matter tests correlate strongly with student achievement—former (content) show more frequent positive effects than latter (test scores)

2. Structured Instructional Approach:
A more direct, structured approach to teaching or a constructivist approach are central to educational discourse. Research (OECD, 2009) suggests that these different teaching styles be adopted as the teaching context (phase of presentation of the subject matter, type of students, etc.) requires. Evidence weighs in favor of constructivism--students do better when teachers organize hands-on learning and emphasize higher-order thinking

3.Pedagogical Content Knowledge:
Teachers’ preparation in content and pedagogy are associated with teaching practices, which in turn influence achievement

--Teacher integrates knowledge of the subject matter and knowing how to teach it.
--Teaching specific topics or skills by making clear the context in the broader fundamental structure of a field of knowledge.

4. Knowledge about how students learn and how knowledge is constructed:
--Teachers with good understanding of child development and learning—more likely to be effective in classroom.
--Teachers who have had coursework in learning and development are more likely to stay in teaching.
--Research on a set of very successful teacher education programs has noted that many of them have particularly strong coursework on child and adolescent development tightly linked to clinical observation and analysis of learning within school and out-of-school environments.



5. Efficacy:
--Teachers’ beliefs that they can be successful and that students can be successful.
--Teachers who have this are better able to motivate students because they believe they can teach the student what he/she needs to know and student can also learn what needs to be learned.
Teachers' level of caring and respect for students and provision of a safe learning environment
--Most studies have found a positive relationship between teachers’ beliefs about their efficacy and student achievements in core academic outcomes. The concept underlines the importance of motivation in teachers’ work.

To design good PD, we need to come to consensus on the qualities and characteristics of good teaching so we can design teacher education systems that address these 5 areas. Our PD activities, regardless of the approach they take, need to address these 5 areas.