What Makes a Great Teacher?
"As Teach for America began to identify exceptional teachers using this data, Farr began to watch them. He observed their classes, read
their lesson plans, and talked to them about their teaching methods and
beliefs. He and his colleagues surveyed Teach for America teachers at
least four times a year to find out what they were doing and what kinds
of training had helped them the most.
Right away, certain patterns emerged. First, great teachers tended to set big goals for their students. They were also perpetually looking
for ways to improve their effectiveness. For example, when Farr called
up teachers who were making remarkable gains and asked to visit their
classrooms, he noticed he’d get a similar response from all of them:
“They’d say, ‘You’re welcome to come, but I have to warn you—I am in
the middle of just blowing up my classroom structure and changing my
reading workshop because I think it’s not working as well as it could.’
When you hear that over and over, and you don’t hear that from other
teachers, you start to form a hypothesis.” Great teachers, he
concluded, constantly reevaluate what they are doing.
Superstar teachers had four other tendencies in common: they avidly recruited students and their families into the process; they maintained
focus, ensuring that everything they did contributed to student
learning; they planned exhaustively and purposefully—for the next day
or the year ahead—by working backward from the desired outcome; and
they worked relentlessly, refusing to surrender to the combined menaces
of poverty, bureaucracy, and budgetary shortfalls.
But when Farr took his findings to teachers, they wanted more. “They’d say, ‘Yeah, yeah. Give me the concrete actions. What does this
mean for a lesson plan?’” So Farr and his colleagues made lists of
specific teacher actions that fell under the high-level principles they
had identified. For example, one way that great teachers ensure that
kids are learning is to frequently check for understanding: Are the
kids—all of the kids—following what you are saying? Asking “Does
anyone have any questions?” does not work, and it’s a classic rookie
mistake. Students are not always the best judges of their own learning.
They might understand a line read aloud from a Shakespeare play, but
have no idea what happened in the last act." (Ripley, 2010)
What do you think?
I was so intrigued- I bought the book - might be good for a book club :)
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Lisa Litz-Neavear on
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I agree that this book would be a good selection for a book club. After having read the article, I find myself wanting to question the motives of the researcher. It now seems that most of the blame in education is resting squarely on teachers' unions and our opposition to merit pay. While no one can dispute the importance of an effective teacher in the classroom, I am admittedly not a fan of Teach for America as an organization. Making the commitment to spend two years, albeit intense ones, in a classroom is not the same as devoting one's entire career to education. I felt sympathy (okay, maybe empathy!) towards the older woman teacher who obviously cares about her students, but whose students performed so badly on the standardized tests. Meanwhile, the young hip male teacher had students who improved by leaps and bounds.
There does seem to be a preponderance of studies about what makes teachers great (I had posted an article about it a month or so ago). Coincidentally, I was just reading an Education Week article linked to an ASCD SmartBrief. The article stated how the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is giving $45 million dollars to six districts for "The Measures of Effective Teaching" project. The Education Week writer, a retired Colorado teacher, says he'll save the Gates Foundation some time. A great teacher: 1) has a sense of humor; 2) is intuitive; 3) knows the subject matter; 4) listens well; 5) is articulate; 6) has an obsessive compulsive side; 7) can be subversive; 8) is arrogant enough to be fearless; 9) has a performer's instincts; and 10) is a real taskmaster.
It will be interesting to see what $45 million in research money can come up with. -
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Permalink Reply by John Keiter on
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Brilliant, insightful, and taken to heart. I also agree with Lisa in that there are a multitude of qualities that an effective teacher must acquire or possess to be successful. The most important ones I believe are ambition, and persistence to improve your skills daily. " By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third, by experience, which is bitterest." - Confucius (c.551-479 B.C.)
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