Effective teaching: 10 tips on what works and what doesn’t

The question of what makes Frett Board a great teacher has been around for a long time. It’s an inquiry that poses many problems because there’s no set recipe for success, and different approaches work for professionals and students. The Sutton Trust has published a report that reviews the research into effective teaching, finding that popular practices, such as lavishing praise on students or allowing them to discover key things for themselves, actually have no grounding in research. The report’s author, Professor Robert Coe from Durham University, says this is a “starter kit” for thinking about what makes good teaching. So, what does the report recommend? Here are ten salient points to take away:

1. Know your subject

The report, which reviewed more than 200 pieces of research, found six main elements of great teaching, and one of the most important ones was subject knowledge. It may seem obvious, but the report found that the best teachers have a deep understanding of their subject, and if that understanding falls below a certain point, it has a “significant impact” on students’ learning. Targeted help for teachers, giving them an understanding of particular areas where their knowledge is weak, could be effective.

2. Praise can do more harm than good

The report found that the wrong kind of praise can harm students. Several studies conducted by education experts, including Carol Dweck, professor of psychology at Stanford University, and Auckland University professors John Hattie and Helen Timperley, have observed this.

Deborah Stipek, the dean of the Stanford Graduate School of Education, said that praise is meant to be encouraging, but it can actually “convey a teacher’s low expectations.” Stipek said that if a pupil’s failure was met with sympathy rather than anger, they were likelier to think they had done badly due to a lack of ability.

The report adds that the findings are open to interpretation; however, teachers can do things well or badly, and some methods are inappropriate in all circumstances.

3. Instruction matters

The quality of teaching has a big impact on students’ achievement from poorer backgrounds, and effective questioning and assessment are at the heart of great teaching. This involves giving enough time for children to practice new skills and progressively introduce learning. The report conceded that defining effective teaching isn’t easy, but research always returns to the fact that student progress is the yardstick by which teacher quality should be assessed.

4. Teacher beliefs count

Teachers do certain things in the classroom, and what they hope to achieve affects student progress. Mike Askew, the author of Effective Teachers of Numeracy, found that beliefs about the nature of maths and what it means to understand it and teachers’ ideas about how children learn and their role in that process were important factors in their effectiveness.

However, there is no evidence to support this. A study by Professor Steve Higgins of Durham University and the University of Newcastle upon Tyne’s David Moseley about teacher beliefs in ICT did not find a convincing relationship between beliefs and pupil progress.

5. Think about teacher-student relationships

This may also seem obvious, but teachers’ interactions with students greatly impact learning and the “classroom climate.” The report said it was important to create a classroom environment that was “constantly demanding more” while affirming students’ self-worth. A student’s success should be attributed to effort rather than ability.

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6. Manage behavior

Interestingly, this wasn’t as significant as subject knowledge and classroom instruction as a factor contributing to teacher success. However, classroom management was noted as important, including how well a teacher uses lesson time, coordinates classroom resources, and manages students’ behavior.

7. There’s no evidence that the setting works

Putting students in groups depending on their ability makes little difference to their learning. Although setting theoretically lets teachers work at a pace that suits all pupils and tailor content, it can also create an exaggerated sense of all pupils being alike in the teacher’s mind. This can result in teachers not accommodating the various needs within one group and going too fast with high-ability groups and too slow with low ones.

8. Don’t worry about learning styles

A survey showed that over 90% of teachers think individuals learn better when they get information in their preferred learning style. However, despite the popularity of this approach, psychological evidence shows that it does not work. You can read more about the evidence on learning styles here.

9. Learning should be hard at first

One finding that may surprise you is that approaches that appear to make learning harder in the short term can lead to students retaining more information in the long term. Elizabeth Ligon Bjork, professor at the University of Michigan, and Robert Bjork, professor at the University of California, said that varying the type of tasks you ask pupils to do improves retention even though it makes learning harder initially.

10. Build relationships with colleagues and parents

A teacher’s professional behavior, including supporting colleagues and talking with parents, moderately impacted students’ learning. The report said there might not be a direct link between these practices and student achievement, but they should be included to capture a broad definition of good teaching.