Becoming an Outstanding Primary School Teacher

Russell Grigg

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9781317644149
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

What is meant by outstanding teaching?
What makes the best teachers stand out from the rest?
How can I develop my own practice to become an outstanding teacher myself?

Whether you are training to become a primary school teacher or you are newly qualified and striving to improve your practice, this fully updated second edition of Becoming an Outstanding Primary School Teacher will support, inform and inspire you on your quest for excellence. Throughout, Russell Grigg draws on theory, research and case studies of real classroom practice to discuss what it takes to become an outstanding primary teacher today.

This bestselling guide has been comprehensively revised to reflect the latest changes to the curriculum, including the National Curriculum in England for 2014 and Scotland's Building Curriculum for Excellence. It has also widened its scope to appeal to trainee and serving teachers, reflecting the new Teachers' Standards.

Key topics include:

• defining and measuring outstanding teaching;

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• understanding the theory, nature and scope of the curriculum;

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• developing thinking skills in the classroom;

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• understanding and meeting individual learning needs;

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• using ICT to improve pedagogy;

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• behaviour management;

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• monitoring, assessment, recording and reporting.

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Becoming an Outstanding Primary Teacher will appeal to undergraduate and postgraduate students, including those on school-based programmes such as Teach First, as well as more experienced teachers seeking inspiration.

CHAPTER

1
	How do we define and measure outstanding teaching?

Chapter objectives

By the end of this chapter you should be able to:

Explain why teaching is important.

Describe how teaching quality is measured and perceived by different stakeholders.

Summarize the main findings from research into high quality teaching.

Evidence is clear that outstanding teachers at all phases can have a profound positive impact on pupils’ performance, which in turn leads to better outcomes in further education, pay, well-being, and for society at large.

(House of Commons Education Committee, 2012: paragraph 41)

The importance of teaching

There are around 239,000 teachers in the UK’s public sector primary schools (Bolton, 2012). Each of these teachers has the potential to make a significant impact on the life prospects of the 5 million or so primary children in their care. The evidence is clear. American research, which tracked 2.5 million students over 20 years, shows that children are more likely to attend college, earn more, live in comfortable surroundings and save more for retirement if they are taught by great teachers (Chetty et al., 2012). One study shows that if two 8-year-olds are given different teachers – one a high performer (from the top 20 per cent) and one a low performer (from the bottom 20 per cent) – their performance diverges by 53 percentile points within three years (McKinsey, 2007). In secondary schools, the difference in a pupil’s achievement between a high-performing teacher and a low-performing one could be more than three GCSE grades (Slater et al., 2009).

Imagine the impact if a child has a series of good or poor teachers. American research shows that an individual pupil taught for three consecutive years by a teacher in the top 10 per cent of performance can make as much as two years more progress than a pupil taught for the same period by a teacher in the bottom 10 per cent (Sanders and Rivers, 1996). When children are taught by a series of mediocre or poor teachers, then the difficulties are compounded and it may not be possible for children to catch up. In particular, teachers can exert a powerful influence on the lives of children from disadvantaged backgrounds. A report on behalf of the Sutton Trust (2011) suggests that over a school year, disadvantaged pupils gain 1.5 years’ worth of learning with good teachers, compared with 0.5 years with underperforming teachers. In other words, for these pupils the difference between a good and a poor teacher is the equivalent of a whole year’s learning. High-quality teaching matters because it is recognized as the most important school-based factor in increasing students’ achievement (Darling-Hammond, 2000).

Given the global financial problems of recent years, purely from an economic viewpoint teachers are important. There are strong arguments to improve the quality of teaching through strategic professional development and robust performance management. Good teachers increase the likelihood of pupils leaving school well qualified and ready to take up relevant employment or further education. Moreover, educational standards determine the wealth of nations. Economic growth is rooted in what happens in the classrooms around the UK. Professor Hanushek, a leading academic at Stanford University, has calculated the huge savings to economies if school authorities were bold enough to sack poor teachers and reward those who perform well (Hanushek, 2010a, 2010b; OECD, 2011). He has reached similar conclusions in studying the UK’s educational performance, as measured by the Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa) tests. According to Hanushek, if British children were educated to Canadian standards this would effectively mean that an average worker would receive 17 per cent more pay because the economy would be more productive (Nelson, 2013). He argues that schools would benefit by deploying their best teachers in the largest classes, where their impact will be at its greatest. Michael Wilshaw, head of OFSTED, describes the state of education in England as a tale of two nations: ‘Children from similar backgrounds with similar abilities, but who happen to be born in different regions and attend different schools and colleges, can end up with widely different prospects because of the variable quality of their education’ (Michael Wilshaw, OFSTED, 2013: 8). This quote appears within a section of the Annual Inspector’s report for 2012–13 entitled ‘a battle against mediocrity’. However, as will be discussed later, measuring the quality of teaching by a narrow set of educational outcomes is problematic on reliability grounds alone.

The importance of teaching goes beyond how well pupils do in tests and examinations. Teachers and schools have a key role to play in contributing to a just and tolerant society. Outstanding teachers continually work towards social justice by creating equal opportunities for pupils from all backgrounds. They recognize that their social obligation is to support all pupils in achieving their aspirations, rather than assuming that disadvantaged pupils do not expect much of themselves (Menzies, 2013). Above all they are driven by a moral purpose to make a positive difference to children’s lives. Each year around 600,000 students pass through state schools. Of these, around 80,000 are eligible for free school meals. In 2010, just 40 out of 80,000 made it to Oxford or Cambridge. Few can disagree that more children from poorest families need the opportunity to make it into the leading universities and best jobs.

Schools are often regarded as among the frontline services that respond to wide-ranging social issues (Crowther et al., 2003; Home Office, 2003). Chapter 3 discusses further the changing role of teachers as schools seek to make their facilities and expertise available to otherwise resource-poor communities. This presents significant challenges for teachers as they are sometimes perceived as social workers and the cure-all for problems such as child obesity, drug abuse and teenage pregnancy (Judd, 1994; Lipsett, 2008). However, outstanding teachers know the importance of schools working closely with parents and others in building vibrant communities and breaking down barriers:

Where we’ve taken parents on trips with us, some of the parents have gone into churches for the first time ever. And they’re amazed at how lovely they are, and how peaceful. And that a church can be such a calm, religious place. Because they’ve never been in, they didn’t know anything about it. And they just love it and will then come back and talk about it and spread their awareness.

(Rowe et al., 2011: 18)

Teachers are important because they are cultural gatekeepers. They can literally open doors for pupils to enjoy their local and national heritage, for instance through visits to museums, galleries and libraries. Michael Gove, the former Education Secretary, said that teachers have a duty through the National Curriculum to ‘introduce pupils to the best that has been thought and said’ (DfE, 2013b: 5). Here, Gove is invoking the words of Matthew Arnold, the nineteenth-century writer and school inspector, who wanted schools to provide ‘the best that has been thought and said in the world’. The global perspective is important. The best teachers recognize that in an increasingly diverse society, it is essential for pupils to understand how people are interconnected through trade, communication and cultural activities such as the Olympic Games.

Since schools began, one of their priorities has been to teach children to read and enjoy books. Sir Richard Steel (1672–1729), co-founder of The Spectator magazine, said that ‘reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body’. Reading not only enables people to go about their everyday business, but also is essential for personal development. Good readers learn to appreciate the views of others, while enlarging their own identities. They question, reflect, rethink, believe, hope, trust and experience the full range of emotions. Just imagine not being able to read effectively. This is the reality facing around one in five adults in the UK who, despite attending school for ten or so years, are said to be functionally illiterate. This means that they cannot read food labels in a supermarket or complete a job application. Illiteracy is a worldwide crisis.

The American businessman and former teacher, John Corcoran, describes the shame, loneliness and fear he experienced before learning to read. He cheated his way through college and taught in a high school for 17 years before learning to read. He would carry books around to create the illusion of literacy. He compensated for his inability to read by asking students to read aloud, holding discussions and using standardized tests with hole-punched answer keys. He did not learn to read until he was nearly 50 and now presides over the John Corcoran Foundation, a non-profit organization committed to eradicating illiteracy (www.johncorcoranfoundation.org). The cost of illiteracy is around £81 billion a year (Cree et al., 2012). There are clear links between illiteracy and poor health, crime and unemployment. Put simply, good readers make good citizens. Teachers then have a social responsibility to model what good readers do and inspire children to love reading.

Defining the best

While there is widespread agreement over the importance of teaching, how to describe and measure the most effective practice is less clear. Terms include ‘quality teaching’ (Stones, 1992), ‘expert teaching’ (Turner-Bisset, 2001), ‘master teachers’ (Mayo, 2002), ‘distinguished teachers’ (Danielson, 2013), ‘high quality teachers’ (McLaughlin and Burnaford, 2007), ‘veteran teachers’ (Shulman, 1987), and ‘excellent and outsta...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• 1 How do we define and measure outstanding teaching?
• 2 Know thyself
• 3 Professional values in action
• 4 Passionate and creative teachers: developing pupils’ thinking skills
• 5 Professional knowledge and understanding: theory, nature and scope of the curriculum
• 6 Contemporary issues and best practice in English, mathematics and science
• 7 Developing an effective digital pedagogy
• 8 The broader curriculum: exploring the humanities and arts
• 9 Planning and preparation
• 10 Promoting inclusive practice: meeting the needs of learners
• 11 Language, literacy and communication skills
• 12 Behaviour management
• 13 The art of juggling: monitoring, assessment, recording and reporting
• 14 Continually learning: teachers as researchers
• Index