Effective Teaching

A Practical Guide to Improving Your Teaching

Elizabeth Perrott

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9781317870340
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

This book is a practical guide designed for teachers and trainee teachers to help them improve their teaching skills. It presents a concise and readable introduction to the basic techniques and procedures required in the classroom together with practical exercises designed to develop skills.

Chapter 1

Effective teaching

What is effective teaching?

Some educators claim that good teaching cannot be defined because the criteria differ for every instructional situation and every teacher. They conceive good teaching as being so complex and creative that it defies analysis. There can be no doubt that teaching is a complex task, yet educators usually find it relatively easy to list the characteristics of a good teacher. Although they may differ about the relative importance of these characteristics, rarely do they disagree on the characteristics to be included in such a list.

You might like to make your own list of characteristics to compare with the lists of criteria produced by educational researchers as a result of extensive studies of what teachers do in the classroom.

Observable indicators of effective teaching

Ryan’s factors (Table 1.1)

Ryan (1960) and his colleagues conducted a programme of observational studies to identify factors associated with effective teaching. Three main factors emerged from this work. The positive and negative poles of these factors are defined by:

1. Warm and understanding versus cold and aloof.

2. Organized and businesslike versus unplanned and slipshod.

3. Stimulating and imaginative versus dull and routine.

Teachers rated nearer the positive poles of each factor are considered more ‘effective’ than teachers rated nearer the negative poles.

Flanders’ indicators (Table 1.1)

Another set of research studies on teacher effectiveness was carried out by Flanders (1970) and his associates. Flanders’ studies observe two contrasting styles of teaching: direct and indirect. Direct teaching is characterized by teacher reliance on lecture, criticism, justification of authority and the giving of directions. Indirect teaching is characterized by teacher reliance on asking questions, accepting pupils’ feelings, acknowledging pupils’ ideas and giving praise and encouragement. A substantial number of studies have found that pupils of ‘indirect’ teachers learn more and have better attitudes toward learning than pupils of ‘direct’ teachers. But Flanders suggests that both direct and indirect behaviours are necessary in good teaching, e.g. a teacher can promote learning by a direct teaching strategy such as lecture – explanation to clarify a difficult topic, but the lecture – explanation can be made more indirect by the occasional asking of questions to determine whether pupils understand the presentation.

Rosenshine and Furst’s correlates (Table 1.1)

Other researchers have studied teacher characteristics other than direct and indirect teaching. The usual design of these studies is to observe various aspects of teachers’ classroom behaviour, and in addition to test the pupils of these teachers at intervals during the school year. Standardized achievement tests are frequently used for this purpose. Pupils’ scores before and after a period of instruction (e.g. beginning and end of a school year) are compared to obtain a measure of ‘achievement gain’. Finally the data are analysed to determine which teacher behaviour is associated with pupil achievement gains.

Rosenshine and Furst (1973) have written a useful review of these research studies and have identified five teacher characteristics consistently associated with gains in pupils’ achievement. The first two characteristics are teacher enthusiasm and businesslike orientation, characteristics also identified in Ryan’s research. The third characteristic is teacher clarity. Researchers have measured clarity – or lack of it – in various ways, for example: the amount of time the teacher uses to answer pupils’ questions requesting clarification of what the teacher has said; the frequency with which pupils respond to teacher’s questions without the teacher having to intersperse additional information or questions; the avoidance of vague words (e.g. some, many, of course) in the teacher’s exposition. The fourth Rosenshine and Furst characteristic is variety in teaching. This characteristic can be estimated by counting the number of different instructional materials, tests and teaching devices used by the teacher. Another indication is the extent to which the teacher varies the cognitive level of classroom discourse. The fifth characteristic is the extent to which the teacher provides opportunities for pupils to learn the curriculum content covered in the achievement tests, or the teacher’s ability and preference for classroom activities focused on the kinds of cognitive learning usually measured in achievement tests.

Table 1.1 Observable indicators of effective classroom teaching

Ryan’s factors
1.	Teacher is warm and understanding versus cold and aloof
2.	Teacher is organized and businesslike versus unplanned and slipshod
3.	Teacher is stimulating and imaginative versus dull and routine
Flanders indicators of indirect teaching style
1.	Teacher asks questions
2.	Teacher accepts pupils’ feelings
3.	Teacher acknowledges pupils’ ideas
4.	Teacher praises and encourages pupils
Rosenshine and Furst’s correlates
1.	Teacher is enthusiastic
2.	Teacher is businesslike and task oriented
3.	Teacher is clear when presenting instructional content
4.	Teacher uses a variety of instructional materials and procedures
5.	Teacher provides opportunities for pupils to learn the instructional content

In recent years researchers have made a concerted effort to identify teaching behaviour that facilitates pupils’ learning in specific curriculum areas. Much of this research has focused on reading and mathematics instruction at the primary school level (Bennet 1976).

A large-scale research study conducted in the US by Berliner and Tickenoff (1976), in which modules on the teaching of reading and mathematics at both primary and secondary level were prepared by the researchers and in which teacher effectiveness was measured in terms of pupils’ gains on standardized achievement tests, identified twenty-one teachers’ behaviours between effective and less effective teachers. However, these lists were found to be surprisingly consistent with the findings of Ryan (1960), Flanders (1970) and Rosenshine (1971).

Observation of the pupils

Observation of the teacher’s pupils is also a method of perceiving quality of teaching. Observable indications of effective teaching indicated by pupils’ behaviour are given in Table 1.2.

Table 1.2 Observable indications of effective teaching: pupils’ behaviour and performance

1.	Pupils show knowledge and understanding, skills and attitudes intended by the curriculum as measured by performance on tests
2.	Pupils exhibit independent behaviour in learning curriculum content
3.	Pupils exhibit behaviour which indicates a positive attitude towards teacher and peers
4.	Pupils exhibit behaviour which indicates a positive attitude towards the curriculum and the school
5.	Pupils exhibit behaviour which indicates a positive attitude towards themselves as learners
6.	Pupils do not exhibit behaviour problems in class
7.	Pupils seem actively engaged in learning academically relevant material while the class is in session

Rosenshine and Berliner (1978) in a review of recent research on teaching, have concluded that this last indicator, which they describe as academic engaged time, is an important factor in school achievement. By academic engaged time, Rosenshine and Berliner mean the amount of time the pupil spends on reading, writing or other activities which involve the pupil in learning academically relevant material. In other words, the more time, the more achievement. Time spent on other activities was negatively associated with the pupil’s achievement. In Chapter 8 the ‘at task’ technique is described, the use of which can give a good observational measure of this important factor in the pupil’s learning.

Observational studies of teaching suggest that the effective teacher is one who is able to demonstrate the ability to bring about intended learning goals, the two critical dimensions of effective teaching being intent and achievement. Without intent, the pupil’s achievements become random and accidental rather than controlled and predictable. However, intent is not enough by itself. Without achievement of his intended learning goals, the teacher cannot truly be called effective. In order to be effective in bringing about intended learning outcomes B. O. Smith (1969) has suggested that a teacher should be prepared in four areas of knowledge:

1. Command of theoretical knowledge about learning and human behaviour.

2. Display of attitudes that foster learning and genuine human relationships.

3. Command of knowledge in the subject-matter to be taught.

4. Control of technical skills of teaching that facilitate pupils’ learning.

The teacher as decision-maker

Although these four areas of teacher competence are the basic components of many well-designed teacher education programmes, they do not provide guidelines on what a teacher actually does when teaching.

Suppose you are a secondary school teacher engaged in a general studies course with sixteen-year-old pupils in which one of the topics is energy and society.

1. First you have to decide what you want your pupils to know about energy and society. For instance, you will probably want them to be able to consider existing resources, the possibility of new sources, energy use, safety and environmental impact and the conservation of energy resources.

2. Then you will have to decide what you will accept as evidence of your pupils’ learning. Will they have to make a written or oral presentation? Will you require them to analyse a hypothetical or existing situation or will you require them to complete a test?

3. Planning a strategy designed to obtain the desired pupil learning is the next decision. Will you require some reading? Will you give an introductory talk? Will you show a film or other audio-visual materials? Will you arrange a visit outside the school? Will you arrange for a class discussion? How much time will you allot to the teaching of this topic?

4. As the work progresses you will have to d...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Chapter 1: Effective teaching
• Chapter 2: Planning
• Chapter 3: Lesson presentation skills
• Chapter 4: Questions
• Chapter 5: Using questions in classroom discussion
• Chapter 6: Affective communication in the classroom
• Chapter 7: Class organization
• Chapter 8: Techniques for the recording of classroom teaching events
• References
• Index