teacher quality

FOCUS ON TEACHING OR LEARNING … the top three indicators of student mastry

When I went to college to become a teacher the program was largely about learning to teach.  How many seasoned educators can relate to the following story:

A few years ago, my principal called me into his office and explained that too many students were failing my language arts class. I deflected his comments as no fault of my own.“They’re not putting in the effort it takes to master the content.”

How many of us have had similar conversations and responded  the same way?  Saying things like they aren’t  trying …  are lazy … don’t have the basic skills … didn’t meet deadlines … need to learn responsibility.  There is often truth to these statements. But I have come to believe that great teachers accept responsibility for motivating their students. The most effective educators establish an environment where kids not only want to succeed but feel that they can. They focus on learning, rather than focusing on teaching.

Research indicated that the top three factors related to student learning are 1) the quality of the teacher, 2) effective instructional practices, and 3) student engagement.

Read More…

Teachers’ Pedagogical Knowledge, Students’ Perceptions, and Teachers’ Perceptions

Teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge.

In the second year of the project (2010-2011), participating teachers took assessments to measure their ability to choose appropriate strategies and to recognize and diagnose common student errors.

Classroom pedagogy (instructional practices) is one of the most important yet least understood factors in student achievement. This study sought to demystify effective teaching practices and provide insights into teacher evaluation and professional development.  Dr. Robert Marzano has identified nine teaching strategies that have the highest impact on student learning:

1. Identifying similarities and differences                     
2. Summarizing and note taking
3. Reinforcing effort and providing recognition
4. Homework and practice
5. Nonlinguistic representations
6. Cooperative learning
7. Setting objectives and providing feedback
8. Generating and testing hypotheses
9. Cues, questions, and advance organizers:

 

Student perceptions of the classroom instructional environment.

All students in participating teachers’ classrooms completed surveys about their experience in the classroom and their teachers’ ability to engage them in the course material. Recent education research has begun to explore whether students’ perceptions of the teaching they experience help in predicting how much those students learn.

Read More…
 Scroll to top