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What makes a teacher effective?

For this presentation, we're going to start

with a very bold slide titled:

"Who Dares to Teach?" It is what teachers know,

do and care. Now I'm going to pick up on those three:

about teacher's content knowledge; teacher's pedagogical knowledge

in terms of what they do; and the

care, in terms of compassion, about

which is very powerful in this learning equation.

Think about how you

bring those three things together in your class.

In terms of what you know, in terms of your content, the pedagogy

and your own compassion and caring for the learners in your class.

Now, we've added eight characteristics of an effective teacher.

I'd like you to think about how

you demonstrate those characteristics in your class.

And how, in some cases, you may do certain characteristics really well;

some characteristics not so well, you're not so

sure about, and some characteristics you're not there yet;

I'm going to pick up on two of these characteristics.

Doesn't mean that those two are really more important than the other six,

but it's just a way of how you could think about the characteristics in your own way.

Let's pick up on, "an effective teacher is welcoming".

Did you create a classroom environment that is inclusive?

Are you able to be warm and welcoming

to your learners? So, that they feel when they

enter your class, they are going to be affirmed, validated, and that you're

going to reinforce positive thoughts and learning in a space that they all

feel included, and that learning can happen.

Or is your class one where you are intimidating,

and fearful, and feared by the learners, where they feel that

they should be scared, and tense, and anxious in the classroom.

So, perhaps this is one of the characteristics you could look at.

Let's look at the next slide and say, "is open

to learning as a teacher". Are you open to learning?

Or do you see yourself as knowing everything,

and that there's nothing to learning or to growing?

For instance, sometimes when your learners ask you a question, do

you feel that you have to have an answer to every question?

Or is it quite okay to say, "I'm not sure about that right now", or "I

haven't thought about that."

Or perhaps you can even throw that back at them and say "Why don't you find out about

this and come tomorrow and share what you've found out

with the rest of the class and with me?"

So, you also position yourself not only as the teacher but also as the learner.

Your learners also to see you as somebody that is committed.

to life-long learning yourself. So what do effective teachers do?

Within their classroom, effective teachers create learning

environments which foster pupil progress.

So who are my students? That's a question we all need to know.

Not only do we have to ask our self "Who are we in this teaching process?"

But critical to an effective classroom is, "Who are my students?"

And so we added a finer strategy for findng out.

I believe to start off with the survey asking them about their lives.

When I used to teach at a school, one of the things I always used to

start my lesson with, or my first

lesson with students, is "Tell me something about yourself",

or I phrase it, "What should I know about you?"

And I also ask them, "How do you want to learn?"

And the learners often come up with some interesting things:

"I want my classes to be exciting."

"I want to do things in my class."

So, I have an idea of how, or what percentage of my class wants to be

taught with very active methodologies, like dramas and art-based methodologies

And sometimes learners would say "Use music."

And I know that that's what my learners are expecting from me, because that's how

they want to learn.

So it's not only about how I want to teach, but

listening and paying attention to my learners and what they also want

and how they also want to learn.

Of course, you will also test their knowledge about the world

around them, then I often will give them a quiz, and

say, let me look at, or let me see or establish what

do my learners really know about what is going on around them?

That will also give me an idea of where to pitch my lessons. At which

point or what are some of the things I could include in my lessons?

Perhaps there may also be a last minute quiz that

my learners know very little about what's going on around them.

So, one of the things I might want to do is include aspects that I really

do believe that they need to know about. "Teaching for learning".

"If students don't learn the way we teach

them, let's teach them the way they learn."

Isn't that powerful?

The learning pyramid.

Now, we've presented you with a pyramid,

a model, to look at the rentention rates of learners using various methodologies.

At the apex of the pyramid, it says that when one

uses lectures, the retention rate is 5%. What do you think about that?

As you go to the base of the pyramid, you see when more social learning,

or collective learning is happening, the retention rates are much higher.

What do you think about that?

What does your experience in using various methodologies,

tell you about how your learners learn? What excites them?

What inspires them? What enables them to participate?

"Helping students to learn how to think".

And here we've put together mental processes we use

to do things such as, "to think about thinking".

"To draw on a range of intelligences".

For instance to draw on intelligence such as tactile or

visual intelligences rather than just talking to learners.

But also, from that survey we just spoke about in the previous

slide, are about trying to establish what are

the intelligences that young people want to utilise,

but also might give you an idea of what to use in the classroom.

Of course using brainstorming questions,

but also organizing information is critical.

For instance, think about the tests and examinations that you do and use, how

useful and important it is to organise information in a way that helps students

to think, or learn how to think.

We have listed six characteristics of an effective school.

I'd like you to look at those six characteristics and think about your school.

What are the ways in which your school responds to these characteristics?

Would you classify your school as an effective school?

What are the ways your school do not comply with these characteristics,

and why is that so?

Perhaps there are some characteristics that apply

to your school, and others that do not.

Maybe there are some characteristics that you think

also should contribute to making a school an effective school.

What are those? And why don't you go about listing those?

Some things to do next:

maybe you could start with discussing with your colleagues, how

they build relationships or get to know their learners better.

Perhaps they may have some ideas that could really help you

to think about developing or enhancing your relationship with your learners.

Think of a class in which you were most successful.

That you were inspired.

That you were excited to teach.

What did you do in that class? What was different?

Why did the learners respond? Why did you think that it was a successful lesson?

Read some of the articles that are in the

extended reading list. And lastly why don't you make

your own list of what an effective school is, but more

important - what is an effective classroom.

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Lecture 1.2

Foundations of Teaching for Learning: Being a Teacher

Meet the Instructors