An open letter to a young teacher who has only taught online courses and is now getting ready to teach a "face-to-face" class at the university level.

Betsy, I understand that you will be privileged to have the opportunity to teach in a “live” classroom this fall, face to face with students! What a treat for your students to have someone with your expertise and knowledge as their teacher. And what a treat for you to be able to meet with and to interact with real students!

Teaching is like any other skill: no one expects you to be perfect, practice makes you better, and when you fall - stand back up, brush off your knees, and keep going! Keeping a smile on your face and an honest sense of humor helps, too. I have put down a few thoughts about foundations of effective teaching. Teaching is a skill and an art. There is lots to it. I am hoping that as you read over what I have written here, that you might “pick up a pearl” and get a new idea or have a fresh thought that might help you in some small way. I would LOVE to answer any questions that you might have at any time (now or while you are teaching the class), and I have many good ideas about how to answer any questions or problems that you might run into. Effective teaching is my passion. Please feel free to use me as a resource for anything at all. I wish you well on this new adventure! - Kathy Granas kathy.granas@gmail.com 

A BEGINNER’S GUIDE TO “FACE TO FACE” TEACHING

"Face-to-face" is the key difference between online teaching and live, classroom teaching. Embrace the opportunity to be physically present with the learners. This provides a chance to build relationship, trust, engagement, enthusiasm, motivation, and learning interest that is powerful and definitely enhances both the learning for the students and the teaching for you.

When teaching in the online classroom, the “culture” of your classroom has been established by the structure of the online website. In setting up the website, the university has set forth the guidelines, rules, procedures, atmosphere, and learning routine for the learning experience, both for the teacher and for the students. In the face-to-face classroom, there is more flexibility in establishing the “culture” of your classroom. And YOU, as the teacher, are responsible for creating much of this. 

First, make sure that you have received any and all training and expectations from the university for your face-to-face classroom. This may include procedures such as taking attendance, dealing with tardies or students who leave class before the designated ending time, breaks allowed during the class time, and possibly behavior allowed during class.

General things to think about and plan for as you look ahead to teaching in the face-to-face classroom for the first time:

You are actually going to be managing a classroom, not simply dispensing knowledge. You should evaluate the physical, psychological and professional environment in which you will be teaching and review your own attitudes and expectations for effective classroom management. A well-managed classroom environment is important to facilitating the learning process. Effective classroom management helps create an environment in which learning can take place.

Experiences - 
 Think about your prior teaching experiences, your previous student population in terms of socio-economic statute, achievement level, and discipline.

Management stye - 
 Think about which best characterizes your management style -
   authoritative - teacher in charge and accountable for class behavior
   permissive - students given opportunities for self-determination to develop social skills
   tentative - not quite sure which is “best” process, a little concerned about which way to go
   collaborative - students and teacher equally responsible for setting standards of behavior                        
   spontaneous - things will go well if you leave students along and handle problems as they arise
   eclectic - use a little of this and a little of that in a timely fashion  
   dependent - will handle behavior problems the same way they were handled when you went to
    school or follow the lead of the teacher next door  

Your style characteristics -
 Think about your temperament (easy-going, sense of humor, down to business, nervous)
 Think about your reaction to noise levels
 Think about your style of communication with and among students
 Think about your style of record-keeping
 Think about your housekeeping habits (“neatnik” or loosely organized)

Regarding student assignments - 
 Think about how you will handle grading, does neatness count?, late assignments?, extra credit?

Regarding attendance -
 Think about yourself - what if you are absent? late? have a personal conflict affecting your attendance? need a substitute?
 Think about your students - what if they are late or absent or need to leave early?

Regarding your relationship with your peers - 
 Do you have a fellow teacher to whom you can go for advice?
 Do you feel free to ask for help from other peers?

Regarding your relationship with administration -
 Do you feel that your administrator is a supportive resource?
 Have you received help or advice regarding ways of managing your classroom?
 What are your feeling about your autonomy as a decision-maker?
 What are university policies on discipline? (If you don’t know, find out.)

Regarding the culture of your classroom -
 What are your expectations for your classroom as a learning environment?
 Will you be lecturing most of the time? Will students work together in small groups at times?
 Will you be using an overhead projector with a laptop? Will you be using a dry erase board?
 Will you be using chart paper?
 How will you arrange the furniture in your classroom to support your learning activities?
 Will students be allowed to use laptops, iPads, iPhones during class?
 Will they be allowed to take/make phone calls, emails, and/or text during class?
 How will you determine the pacing and agenda of your class?
 How will the syllabus be shared with students?
 How will you determine the timing for each class (presentation time, discussion time, question/answer time, student group work time, breaks, going over assignments, etc.)?
 When you plan, you might wish to have several versions for each class - a shorter agenda in case the discussion goes longer, for example, and you run out of time for what you had planned; a longer agenda in case the discussion goes shorter and you have extra time!
 How will you actively keep track of how well the students are keeping up with you and with the content they are being presented with?
How will you hold them accountable for their learning?
 How will you gather feedback during and at the end of each class so that you know what you might do to adjust the pacing and agenda of your class to better meet the learning needs of your students?

Thinking through ahead of time about your personal style and thinking through ahead of time about how you plan to manage your classroom are important because you want to make sure that you provide for:
 •your students’ sense of fairness and well-being,
 •a positive learning environment, and
 •assurance that the university rules and policies will be followed.
The more that you can communicate your style and your expectations to your students, the better able they will be to understand and meet your expectations. 

Students need:
 •a sense that they are making progress with their learning
 •a sense that they have some control
 •a sense that what they are learning is related to them and to their interests.

A teacher can meet these needs by providing
 •structure - consistent rules and procedures with consequences for inappropriate behavior
           - an organized and prepared environment for learning, student engagement, and accountability   •involvement - multi-way relationships (teacher/students, teacher/student, student/student)
                      - multi-way feedback and assessment (everyone knowing how things are progressing) •autonomy (student control) - learning about and respecting who your learners are, why they are          taking the course, what their strengths and experiences are
  - some student choice about how to demonstrate their learning and how to participate in the learning

It helps to build trust with the learners. This can be done by providing a sense of safety, comfort, and purpose for your students. Purpose, practice, and emotion lead to long-term learning and retention.

Betsy, I used to have a big sign on the wall in my classroom that said:
You are welcome here. 
I love teaching. 
This is a mistake-making place. 
There is a teacher in every student. 
When you think about developing a culture for your classroom, that sign is a good starting place!

Questioning Students for Academic Purposes

Recently, there seems to be a lot of talk about questioning students and the role it plays in quality instruction. Questioning techniques, such as calling on students randomly, are being hailed as excellent ways to improve student achievement. As a science teacher, I think the variety and complexity of questions that I ask in my classroom ultimately determine how well my students understand the curriculum. As in all aspects of instruction, questioning plays an important role in guiding student thinking and making them accountable for the curriculum. As researchers sing the praises of randomly asking questions, and the impact it has on student achievement, I would like to discuss some other methods of questioning teachers might explore in the classroom.

If we look beyond the foundational reasons we ask questions described above, we see a new purpose or role for questioning in classroom instruction. Group work and the push for students to learn how to collaborate and work together may require new ways of questioning students. The demand for more critical thinking by students also requires that we expand the kinds of questions we ask and the amount of time we afford students to think about the answers. Perhaps the best way to explore the role of questioning is to look at why we question students in the first place. Often teachers ask questions as part of their instruction without really asking themselves a simple question: What is the purpose of asking this question? By exploring the purpose of questioning we might gain some insight into the important role of questioning in student learning

. When we look at academic questioning, we can broadly put all questions into three groups based on the purpose and complexity.

Accountability and Diagnostic Questions - Who Did the Homework?

When you ask teachers why they question students most of the time you will get a fairly simple answer: Questioning and the subsequent answers provides the teacher with feedback on how well the class is getting the lesson. If the teacher asks individuals the questions, it also creates accountability and provides some measure of how well the student understands the content of a lesson. This type of question is recognized as a crucial component of effective instruction. The seminal research on interactive direct instruction clearly indicates the importance of questioning during instruction and its impact on student achievement. When a teacher asks questions during instruction they gain valuable information about how well the students are understanding the content which in turn can be used to adjust the pace and complexity of the content delivery.

We can broadly categorize these questions as accountability and diagnostic. They provide the teacher with feedback as well as engage the class. Asking students randomly is by far the preferred method of questioning for two important reasons. First, all students must listen and follow along with the teacher so they are trying to answer all the questions. Second, the teacher gets a random cross section of the class, giving her an indication of the range of understanding among the students. These types of questions are often very content specific and knowledge level types of questions. They have convergent specific answers and require less wait time than other types of questions. Questioning for the purpose of accountability and feedback is a crucial aspect of quality instruction and assessment. And when people talk about questioning in the classroom this is by far the most common reason most teachers ask questions. If we look at other purposes for asking questions, the complexity and method of questioning will change to suit the particular purpose.

Reflective Questions – Describe the steps you followed to do the homework?

Asking questions to promote student reflection is a key aspect of developing metacognitive skills in students. These kinds of questions are a crucial aspect of formative assessment and help students learn to monitor their own learning. Reflective questions require more wait time so students can look at the information they have to generate answers. These types of questions can be answered by all students in the class and often involve collaborating with other students. Research has demonstrated the value of reflection in memory and learning. Teaching students to reflect and to refine the information they learn is a huge step in developing what might be referred to as ownership of learning. When we look at the purposes for asking reflective questions it is clear that these types of questions play a crucial role in learning.

Formative assessment has been recognized as a key factor in effective classroom instruction. The work of Popham and others has clearly shown the importance of formative assessment in learning. Questioning, imbedded in quality curriculum delivery, is crucial to understanding. Students must be challenged to think about what they are learning and share their comprehension and ideas with others. Reflective questions help students see holes they have in their learning, as well helping them see the level of understanding in the class as a whole. For example, I could be having students draw a pot of boiling water to illustrate fundamental concepts in thermal energy transfer. I ask students to compare their drawing with a group of four. Each person checks their drawing to see if it is as complete and neat as all the others in the group. These kinds of questions allow students to reflect and refine their understanding. They also learn to be more honest about their personal abilities and needs. Formative assessment questions ultimately develop metacognitive skills and ultimately teach the students how to regulate their own learning.

Reflective questions can also be used to help students think about their thinking. We can ask questions like: Why did you select those materials for your solar oven? How did you decide what to do first when you started construction? These kinds of questions help students think about problem solving and the processes they use to make decisions. Affording time for students to reflect teaches them the value of processing information and thinking about options and choices. Research has demonstrated the value of having students explain the steps they follow to answer a question or problem. Articulation questions require much more wait time than questions that demand a simple answer. These questions also provide valuable information about thinking and creativity.

Higher–level Thinking Questions – Does homework really support student learning?

Schools across the country have adopted rigorous new standards that demand students demonstrate critical thinking skills and problem solving abilities. This kind of thinking creates a new purpose for questioning students. Questions that demand prior knowledge and analysis of information are fundamentally different than short answer accountably questions. When students are challenged to think it requires more wait time. Since these questions often require creativity and background knowledge, it is helpful to have students in groups so they can collaborate and share information. In science, I spend time teaching students the kinds of questions we ask and the different ways to structure the answers. A short list of higher-level thinking questions we use in teaching include: Application of knowledge, Compare and contrast, Thinking questions, ​​Ordering evidence, Inferring from an argument, Data, ​​​Predicting, ​Cause and ​​effect, and Generating models.

When students are challenged with these kinds of questions it helps to put students in small groups. The background knowledge and skills needed to answer these kinds of questions requires more than one person. Additionally, there is courage in numbers. Many students do not have the academic efficacy to take on complex questions themselves, yet when grouped with other students they will try more difficult tasks. There are so many benefits to having students work collaboratively to generate answers, perhaps the most important is listening and learning to use information from other people.

Aside from the academic reasons for questioning students, there are a variety of other skills that students develop when they work together. By organizing the classroom into small groups, teachers can help students think together and share information. Important skills such as collaboration, communication, and critical thinking can all be developed by having students work together to answer questions. In science we play a question game called “Geek Pictionary”. Students work in pairs with white boards. I pose a question and they must draw the answer on the white board. When they are done the groups grade each others’ drawings and provide feedback. This interaction promotes collaboration as students share ideas and ways to communicate information. When we ask students to work in groups they develop a variety of social skills as well as learning content and thinking strategies from each other.

The role of questioning in education appears to be evolving with the demands of new standards and higher academic expectations. 20 years ago we were satisfied to have students recite lower-level facts to us as evidence of learning. Today, the kinds of questions students are challenged to answer requires more thinking and processing. The wait time and method of asking questions needs to reflect the complexity of these kinds of questions and answers. The important role questioning plays in teaching and learning is even more important in the complex world of today’s classrooms.

It is important to note that I have only discussed questions related to academic growth and content knowledge acquisition. Teachers ask questions for a variety of social and personal reasons that have more to do with building a positive classroom climate than teaching curriculum. Do not think that these questions are any less important in creating an environment where learning.

Football and teaching??

So I am just thinking, John says that some of his 8th grade science students this fall seem to have lower than usual basic math skills. And I have been talking with a middle school in Loveland that is concerned because their scores on the Tera Nova show that their 8th grade math students are weak in their basic math computation skills, fraction computation, and decimal computation. Yet, John wants to move students with their science concepts and the Loveland math teacher knows it is important to involve students in critical thinking, application, and analysis.

I am wondering if we can liken this scenario to a high school football coach with a new group of players. Surely, from year to year the quality of the football skills that the team has vary. And yet the coach needs to put on their best results-driven showing each Friday night. The coaching staff needs to balance time spent on skill drills with time sent on game planning, plays, and strategy. John knows that it is important to maintain a sense of momentum with his science students in regard to science learning while trying to offer more opportunities and focus on needed math skills. The Loveland teacher cannot focus only on strengthening computational skills but must continue to connect and involve computation with math analysis and understanding.

Somehow a "less is more" solution is needed here because class time and football practice time are not expandable. And yet remediation takes more time. It seems to me that more resources are needed. I would wonder if possibly a good place to begin is communication with the student (or the football player). Instead of "doing to" the student or player, it might be beneficial for the teacher/coach to communicate one-on-one with the student/player and share the data, the motivation, the confidence, and the overall plan that includes and is dependent upon the remediation. To broaden the possible resources perhaps parent(s) and peers could be involved.

The remediation plan can focus on providing extra time and practice on skill improvement. This can take place in addition to football practice and classroom time. During this time, the student/player spends focused time on monitored practice with skills either alone or with a coach/teacher or with a peer or parent. Careful guidance and monitoring can insure that this time is efficiently, productively, and correctly used to improve weak skills. Feedback regarding skill improvement and next steps is important along the way. During football practice/class time more advanced concepts and performance can be addressed, knowing that the improvement taking place with the remediation practice will continue to improve performance in the classroom and on the field.

The point is that the player/student knows that there is important purpose for the remediation plan and there is a team of people supporting continuous improvement. Stepping back, this thinking can be extended to every player/student in that players/students with strong basic skills can similarly develop in advanced areas and seek additional challenge.

This leads to a more clear definition of what a coach and teacher do. They support the individual growth of each of their individual players/students. And through communication and individualization, everyone involved is motivated to continue to strengthen and develop. A good coach or teacher has experience in knowing the best development plan for each student/player at each developmental stage. I guess this is why the better football teams have lots of assistant coaches. I guess this is why the better teachers could use some assistant teachers... And why does Finland have the top academic test scores in the world? Their classrooms are filled with assistant teachers. Interesting.

The Creative Profession

What other professions are as creative as teaching? In the advertisement section of today's newspaper is a Back to School ad from a crafts store offering artist gallery wrapped canvas "buy one, get one for 1 cent". That is a good deal that a teacher can make use of because that is all we do as teachers. We don't hesitate to roll out a fresh piece of canvas constantly as we prepare, erase, edit, and hone our planning ideas. A teacher has the privileged opportunity to choose from endless options how to offer the curriculum for students.

From choosing the quantity of content to present in a lesson, to selecting the approach that will be used to "hook" the students into becoming engaged with the content, to deciding how students will bring forth prior knowledge they have about the content, to wondering about how the students will interact with the skills and knowledge involved with the content, to offering application opportunities for the students to experience their new abilities, the choices go on and on. Teachers also craft how they will motivate the student learning. This decision is influenced by the rapport and relationship the teacher has with the students as the school year evolves. The teacher is continuously diagnosing everything possible about each of the students in planning how best to connect the new content with the nature and interests of the students.

There is another level of creative planning that is taking place at the same time but on another plane of thinking. That would be the decisions the teacher is making about the style of his/her own personality that the teacher will use to share himself/herself with the students. A caring teacher will pay attention to their role and manner of being that they will use with the students during the lesson. It is not just about the content, the lesson plan, and the students. It is about the role and style of the teacher during the lesson, too. The personal attitude that the teacher has during the lesson will influence the learning by the students. One habit I developed when teaching middle school mathematics was to say out loud to the students before teaching a new skill, "oh, I love teaching this skill to students for the first time!" Not only did saying this out loud intrigue and grab the students' interest, but it always revved me up, too. And, honestly, I meant it when I said it.

When the teacher consciously thinks about and plans for the excitement and intensity that he/she will bring to the lesson, not only will it become a part of the lesson, it will be positive and purposeful. And isn't that what a professional does? The professional actor or athlete does not only plan for their script or their physical movements, but the part of their planning that makes the difference is their own motivation and energy level they plan to bring to their performance. Just like the master teacher.

The New, True 3 R's in Education: Preparing to Start a New School Year

The key to maximizing a learning experience? Relationship, relationship, relationship. Ask someone to describe a successful learning experience in their past. Watch them hesitate and then smile. Watch the comfort and enjoyment they show as they proceed to confidently tell you what they learned, how they learned, how they felt during and about the experience, and how positive they are about the people involved in the learning experience including themselves! Watch the joy they exhibit as they relive the experience and the way the memories of it make them feel. See the energy flow as they share with you the details of their challenge and success with learning.

The memorable learning experiences we have usually involve an accomplishment that was significant and required focus and effort often involving new knowledge and new skills. In describing our successful learning experience we often share about relationships. In some stories it will be about the relationship that we developed with a teacher, coach or guide. Because we trusted the teacher at some point in the experience, we were able to overcome or overproduce in reaching our goal. In some stories, it will be about the relationship that we developed with other participants. We certainly remember whom we were with when we summited the 14,000+ foot mountain peak! In some stories it will be about the relationship that we had with ourself. We pushed ourself further than we thought possible or we proved to ourself that we could or we pursued inspiration and achieved.

There are no more important aspects of a teacher's classroom to prepare for at the start of a new school year or to look towards during the school year when a teacher feels a tension in her classroom than those of relationships. 

Teacher to Student:

Students intuitively sense the attitude and energy a teacher has for them. Students will reflect that attitude and energy back to the teacher in return. If the teacher is positive, prepared, present, and polite, the students are most likely to respond to that modeling. Students can detect honesty and integrity and are eager to find those qualities in a teacher. They are hoping as they enter the classroom that their teacher will be patient, kind, and a worthy guide. Students want to be successful with new and challenging learning experiences. They will respond to trust and to worthy and appropriate challenge when they are provided with structure, autonomy, and interconnectedness.

Student to Student:

For some students, learning is seen as direct engagement between student and the teacher or the student and the curriculum. For many students, learning is expedited when they can learn with and from other students. In a classroom where the structure assures students of academic, social, and emotional safety during all risk-taking events, students benefit from learning from each other, from reflecting on their understanding and progress as compared with others, and from becoming teachers themselves as they help others with the new learning experiences, knowledge, and skills.

Student to Self:

Motivation, responsibility, accountability, sense of progress, momentum, discipline towards learning new knowledge and skills - there are many aspects impacting learning that are directly influenced by the student's personal sense, expectations, and habits as a learner and as a person. All of these are variables that can be influenced during the school year by the teacher, by other students, by the expectations of the classroom, and/or by the maturity and development of the student himself.

Relationships are definitely important factors that impact student achievement that are worthy of the teacher's conscious consideration and planning. Developing supportive conditions for positive relationships does not come at the expense of rigor and high expectations for learning. Relationships provide an important and essential foundation for the learning that will occur. The attention the teacher gives to the importance of relationships will influence and go hand in hand with the structure the teacher creates regarding classroom management rules and procedures and the amount and qualities of the autonomy that will be offered to students. Structure, involvement within relationships, and autonomy are the three legs of the stool that will optimize the chance that this year will be one of those successful learning experiences that the student will recall when in the future they are asked to describe a successful learning experience they have had.

Developing Reflection and Efficacy in All Teachers

Teacher Orientation That Makes a Difference

In a nation facing a surge of new teachers, we face a serious question: What teacher orientation promotes teacher learning? No teacher comes to the classroom totally prepared to be an effective instructor and manager of students. Research clearly shows us that teaching and learning are far more complex than ever thought. So the question remains: How do we ensure that all students get the best teachers?

To answer this question, we must examine ways to help both beginning and experienced teachers to become motivated educators who aspire to perpetual growth. Becoming an effective educator involves combining natural talents with an attitude that is receptive to new ideas and a willingness to grow – this is what educators bring to the classroom. The essential ingredient that teachers need from others is professional development that can promote teacher learning in all teachers and can help continual growth be a state of mind for all educators.

We encourage students to become life-long learners; we must encourage teachers to do so as well. And we need to ensure that they have the professional development they need.

How does the right professional development make a difference? Let’s look at some examples.

Joseph had been a 2nd-grade teacher for 25 years in the Los Angeles public school system. He had very little interactions with other teachers or other adults outside of his classroom. He had no sense of his strengths as a teacher. He was getting “burned out” with teaching by his own admission. Joseph then attended a summer institute that focused on effective teaching research and strategies. At the summer institute he was helped to reflect upon his practice in light of the research. He was inspired by the realization that his practice in many ways matched best practice as described by the research. That successful reflection brought about motivation, confidence, a sense of efficacy, and a new desire to invest more energy and effort into not only continuing his teaching but to look more at new ways to grow professionally as a teacher. The flame that was burning out was rekindled, brighter than ever.

Nancy had been an elementary teacher and then a middle school language arts teacher in a Denver suburb. She had always lacked confidence in her teaching and looked at herself as less than others in the profession. She decided to go through the process of applying for National Board certification. That process, offered by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, took Nancy step-by-step through a reflective writing experience that invited her to compare her practice to the standards set by the NBPTS. Through that intensive reflection experience, Nancy saw herself measure up to many of the aspects of the National Board standards. She also saw where and how she could improve her practice to better meet those standards. At the end of the application process, her confidence and motivation were high. The following year she tried new strategies in her teaching with a sense of efficacy supported by constant reflection throughout the process. Her love for her teaching and the enjoyment it brought her increased immensely.

Research tells us that when teachers feel efficacious and that feeling is grounded in solid practice, students succeed (Datnow & Castellano, 2000; Hord, 1997; McLaughlin & Talbert, 1993; Rosenholtz, 1989). Under the circumstances, the urgency for quality professional development to build this efficacy is profound.

Building Efficacy for Teaching and Learning: Roles for Reflection and Application

A retired army colonel was asked how efficacy is built within a new soldier. He replied that a confident sense of preparedness and readiness to tackle new challenges is developed through extensive and supported training provided by a worthy guide. The new soldier shares with his trainer a sense of value for the training and understands its purpose. There is no difference between this very human experience and that of an educator developing professional mastery in the struggle to meet student needs.

The type of orientation that promotes teacher learning involves two primary features: 1) teaching and supporting teacher reflection, and 2) helping teachers build efficacy through recognition of successful experiences. Reflection is an essential practice in effective teachers as they constantly review the effectiveness of their teaching in an effort to identify what works and what should be changed. Efficacy is developed over time as a teacher experiences success in the profession and develops into a competent classroom leader.

Teachers develop a sense of efficacy when, first, they are provided with opportunities to reflect upon their strengths as set by a standard and are supported through experiences of training that help them to develop new and useful skills. Second, when teachers are supported by a knowledgeable guide who is seen as worthy, in a setting that holds high expectations, opportunity, and choice, then all teachers can become more successful as educators. One thing to remember during this process: professional growth in teaching involves personal growth as well. Personal growth requires individual efficacy, motivation, and optimism, all of which are developed through systematic, purposeful reflection. Timely and honest feedback effectively delivered to teachers in an ongoing manner by the worthy guide is critical. The effective administrator or staff development facilitator will have many of the attributes of a good coach and will help all teachers develop their ability to objectively review their instructional and other classroom practices. The third ingredient for success in the process is adequate time. Effective professional development also provides time for teachers to plan and to use new ideas while also providing time for purposeful reflections on the impact of using those new ideas.

Reflection should not only be taught, but also modeled in the delivery of professional development.  In fact, reflection should be modeled and taught as part of every teacher’s professional growth. A simple model that promotes reflection is one that is used in the Educational Research and Dissemination (ER&D) Program developed by the American Federation of Teachers. ER&D trainers use a three-step process to promote reflection through the research.

Step 1: How is this idea different than what I do now?  How much do I know about this topic or idea?  What would / could be the benefits of implementing this change?

Step 2: What do I need to do to implement this idea?  How will I determine if it has positively impacted student achievement?

Step 3: After trying the new idea, reflect upon the impact.  Is it worth doing again?  How can I change the idea to make it more effective?

A simple scaffold to promote reflection, like the one above, offers a process to promote reflection.  If reflection is systematically taught and modeled, teachers can develop this most important disposition in teaching.

An important consideration in developing an orientation that promotes teacher learning involves the research on human needs by Connell and Wellborn (1991).  They suggest that engagement is optimized when the following three human needs are met: 1) competence, 2) relatedness to others, and 3) autonomy.  Supporting these basic needs can lead to the development of efficacy within teachers.

Competence. In teaching, the ability to manage a classroom and to help students learn requires a variety of skills. Professional development in the early part of a teacher’s career should focus on developing strong classroom management skills and on developing the art of planning successful learning activities. Competent teachers acquire these skills over time as they are exposed to new strategies in both formal and informal ways. As they learn about and try new strategies, they gain valuable experiences.

As a teacher’s competence grows, perspective is gained which leads to increased efficacy and allows for purposeful and powerful reflection. This cycle of reflecting upon growth leading to new learning develops the life-long learning cycle that can be modeled for students.

Relatedness to others. This is an area of professional development that has received attention in recent years.  The idea of teachers meeting to talk about best practices in what Dufour & Eaker (1998) call “professional learning communities” is an example of professional development that supports the needs of teachers. This social interaction provides an opportunity for teachers to reflect upon and share managerial and instructional strategies and develops the collective efficacy of the staff. Conversations are focused on specific issues that teachers face within their school as they develop a sense of community and support. The collective exchange of ideas results in better solutions to the challenges of teaching and learning than can be achieved individually.

Autonomy. What we need to develop in teachers is their autonomy as professionals.  We need to help teachers discover how to be their own professional development coach, how to apply what they learn in their classroom, and how to continually reflect to promote ongoing growth. Professional development needs to develop the teacher's ability to choose what ideas fit his or her own style of teaching.  Additionally, teachers need to develop ways to become discriminating consumers of professional development offerings.

Teachers should be supported in learning how to use reflective practices so that they can become their own autonomous professional development coach. When we can identify ways to promote autonomous, self-directed, reflective teachers, we can start to improve professional development in education as a whole.  What are the characteristics of experienced teachers who continue to grow throughout their career? As we identify the qualities that promote reflection and professional growth we can develop programs that help teachers become their own coach.

Teachers, as with all individuals, have protective egos that act as a barrier to change. At the outset of problem-solving activities, teachers must have the confidence to evaluate new ideas and assess whether the innovation will be useful in their practice. The professional developer as a worthy guide can be effective by identifying that a new change is already in a teacher’s understanding. Through surfacing prior knowledge and frame of reference for a teacher, through listening to and understanding a teacher’s prior experience, and by personally relating to and listening to a teacher’s sharing of what they need to grow, the professional developer can begin to know the teacher as a person and then can help them to grow.

When professional development is delivered with high expectations, through a positive relationship, and supportively respects a teacher’s view of herself, then growth potential exists. In such a positive, trusting environment, the professional development coach might use phrases like the following to promote teacher growth:

“I believe you can.” “Don’t be afraid to fail.” “Your job is safe.” “Believe change has value.” “Take small steps.” “This will be better and easier for you and your students.” “You have the time this will take.” “Try this out, it is cool.” “You are great. Take a chance.” “Make this change in a way that works for you.”

Bringing it all together

When a professional development experience meets the human needs of autonomy, relatedness to others, and competence, a relationship of trust has the opportunity to occur if it appears that the guide is worthy and that the training has value. Scaffolds and models must be provided so that effective training can take place. Opportunities and supports for articulation, reflection, and exploration must then occur so that efficacy is developed and a sense of success can take place. This framework for building efficacy through reflection supported by a worthy guide will provide for motivation and optimism leading to further professional growth.

References:

Connell, J.P., Wellborn, J.G. (1991). Competence, autonomy, and relatedness: A motivational analysis of self-system processes. In M.R. Gunnar & L.A. Sroufe (Eds.), Self processes in development: Minnesota Symposium on Child Psychology (Vol. 23, pp. 43-77). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

Datnow, A., & Castellano, M. (2000). Teachers’ responses to Success for All: How beliefs, experiences, and adaptations shape implementation. American Educational Research Journal, 37(3), 775-779.

Dufour, R., & Eaker, R. (1998). Professional learning communities: Best practices for enhancing student achievement. Bloomington, IN: National Educational Service.

Hord, S. (1997). Professional learning communities: Communities of continuous inquiry and development. Austin, TX: Southwest Educational Development Laboratory.

McLaughlin, M.W., & Talbert, J. (1993). Contexts that matter for teaching and learning. Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University, Center for Research on the Context of Secondary School Teaching.

Rosenholtz, S. (1989). Teacher’s workplace: The social organization of schools. New York, NY: Longman.

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Looking Beyond Our Present System of Teacher Evaluation

In the business of public education we are obsessed with the process of teacher evaluation.  We spend hours of work trying to create the perfect tool that will allow administrators to evaluate teachers fairly with some degree of integrity while at the same time providing support and input to help teachers grow.  Despite this effort, however, we still seem to struggle with getting rid of the bad teachers in the profession and rewarding the good ones.  Most of the systems we develop to evaluate teachers are too cumbersome and administrators lack the time they need to visit classrooms on a regular basis.  Additionally, most evaluation tools seem to be somewhat “event-based” meaning the teacher’s evaluation is based on some sort of administrator's planned visit to the class.  The teacher then prepares a super lesson and the administrator bases the evaluation from a limited amount of observational evidence.   The evaluation process does not respond as teachers progress in their career and gain more skills.  If you ask most good teachers, the evaluation process is often just a paper game that goes in a file.

     Now we have a new law in our state that boldly says that teachers will be evaluated on their ability to create student growth during the year.  Those smart politicians at the capitol decided that if we mandate by law that teachers create growth in their students then it would somehow occur.  There is a little problem, however. We don’t really know what student growth is and we lack the resources and training to measure it with any degree of reliability or validity.  Perhaps these same politicians should invent a magic wand of value-added assessment that would measure how much growth each student makes and then we can finally find out who are the good and bad teachers.  But there is still one big question: What is student growth?  Obviously, the politicians have a simple answer: data from standardized tests.  As I thought about what I do to cause students to grow during the school year, the question got delightfully more complex.  Student growth is certainly more than test scores or even knowledge of science.

So what is student growth? We all know what the politicians think it is and how it’s measured, but do the teachers agree?  When you ask teachers about student growth you get some very interesting answers, and ironically, very few mention standardized test scores.  When you talk to teachers, who create student growth on a daily basis, you quickly realize that students grow in many ways.  In our society we are obsessed with measuring cognitive ability and subsequently assign great value to test scores.  But in schools, where learning is occurring, people seem to value many other aspects of student growth that can’t be assessed on a state test.  Teachers know that there are a whole lot of things going on at school that support student academic growth that just can’t be measured.  You will often hear stories of emotional or social growth that occurs during the course of the day.  When I hear my teaching teammates talk about students succeeding and growing, they are always referring to specific things the student did, not some abstract measure on a state test given once a year.

I’ve studied teacher evaluation for almost 15 years and one of the most troubling trends is the new focus on test scores.  Because we gathered the data in statewide tests we feel compelled to use the data for teacher evaluation regardless of whether it’s fair or valid.  This use of test scores to evaluate teachers is so ridiculous to anyone who knows the profession, yet that is exactly what the politicians do in many states.  They pass laws that mandate student growth, yet few politicians know how we are going to measure this outside of the once-a-year test.  So I decided to sit down with some other teachers and try to figure out what is student growth, or at least expand our understanding of all the ways students grow during the school year.  I thought it might be useful to go past the present systems of teacher evaluation, which essentially measure what I call minimum proficiency (doing the simple stuff like taking attendance and showing up for meetings), and find out what good teachers do to create student growth.  Most systems for evaluating teachers are only useful in the first five years of a career, when teachers are growing most rapidly.  After that time teacher evaluation becomes somewhat of a waste of time for both administrators and teachers.  Good teachers go well beyond the current evaluation expectations and do all sorts of things that contribute to student growth.  If we could identify some of these things we might find out a little more about good teaching and how hard it really is, as well as start to expand our understanding of student growth. 

  When you look at schools and teachers, one thing jumps out at you right away.  There are teachers who hold a growth mindset throughout their career, and there are teachers who work hard for the first few years and then coast the rest of their career.  Both teachers receive the same rating and pay in most systems of teacher evaluation, however the teacher with the growth mindset is almost always more effective over the course of their career.  They are constantly seeking to improve for the sake of doing the job better.  They study the craft of teaching and cognitive science in an effort to better serve the students they teach.  They lead by providing professional development that is grounded in the research and validated with their experience. The basic flaw in teacher evaluation is its focus on adequacy rather than excellence. There are lots of reasons our present system fails to identify excellence, not the least of which is the fact many administrators who evaluate the teachers are not particularly skilled classroom instructors.  Additionally, you can’t force people into a growth mindset as this is an intrinsic motivation in good teachers.  You can’t mandate that teachers put in extra effort and long hours, but that is what every good teacher I know does on a daily basis.  So the bottom line is most good teachers go well beyond what they are contracted to do for no other reason then they love children and teaching and feel a responsibility to continue to improve at their craft.

Because good teachers do different things to be good, it is difficult in a standardized evaluation system to capture what makes great teaching.  Most systems focus on overt teacher behaviors but fail to measure much of what actually teaches children.  Because the evaluation system is really designed to identify common attributes of successful teachers, the system is ultimately more useful to emerging teachers. The individual talents, interests, and passion a teacher brings to the classroom are often crucial to the achievement of students, yet we fail to measure these important aspects of our teachers.   

There is an important thread that seems to be present in the fabric of all good teachers.  Good teachers all have a desire to constantly improve. Carol Dweck describes it as the “growth mindset”, this belief that one can improve with hard work and practice. The efficacy and courage to try new ideas is based on this “can do” attitude.  The funny thing is, most teachers who have this growth mindset improve without even knowing it.  They seem to be motivated by forces greater than money and certainly validate the work of Daniel Pink in his book, "Drive".  They never seem to be done with planning or creating new ideas.  They have a great desire to work hours of overtime for free, with no greater reward than the students in their classroom learning.  Good teachers are intrinsically driven.  From a financial sense school districts should not even worry about rewarding excellence in the classroom as these teachers will improve and perform beyond their contract obligations regardless of the pay or working conditions.

Five New Criteria for Evaluating Teachers The following work might just be called five things good teachers do on a regular basis.  It might even be useful in identifying or measuring teacher excellence, but the main purpose is to expand our understanding of student growth.  These are five things teachers do to achieve exceptional growth and that should get the attention of a lot of people given that all public school teachers are now mandated to create student growth.       

  The five teacher qualities include: 1) Inspiration, 2) Social Context in Classrooms, 3) Relationships among students, parents, and colleagues, 4) Applications of Cognitive Science, 5) Creativity / Innovation. Each of these five teacher qualities will be presented with some elaboration to help define the quality through specific examples.  It is important to note that these five categories are not the only things good teachers do.  If you examine each of them you will clearly see that they are directly linked to student achievement and growth.  When you ask good teachers how they get students to learn, more often than not they start the answer with positive relationships and modeling hard work.  The research is quite clear on the role student perceptions about their teacher's competence plays in their ultimate effort and engagement in the class.  A teacher evaluation system that focuses on these qualities can guide all teachers to grow in these areas and will ultimately lead to greater student growth and achievement.

Inspiration    

Great teachers inspire students to work hard and learn.  They seem to create a sense of purpose in the classroom through positive modeling and personal success.  Inspiring kids is talked about as a central theme and purpose of education, yet teacher evaluation does not recognize this important aspect of our job. We inspire kids in a variety of ways, often times without even knowing it.  

1) Work ethic - Good teachers work longer hours and more productively than other teachers.  They are at work early, they stay late, and they are grading on the weekends.  Students know which teachers spend more time working at the profession because their classroom demonstrates it.  Good teachers don’t complain about the extra time they spend on work, they just do it because they know it is necessary to do the job right.

2) Good teachers have a high degree of self-efficacy. This is closely linked to their growth mindset and the desire to create meaningful and engaging lessons.  This “can do” attitude is infectious and students develop their own efficacy by the positive modeling of the teacher.

3) Good teachers inspire students through healthy meaningful relationships.  They model getting along with other people and show students the virtues and values of developing good relationships at home and at school.

4) Good teachers inspire students with their dedication to the profession.  They model interest in the profession by studying the research and constantly trying new ideas to strengthen their teaching.  Good teachers are interested in their professional development and incorporate new ideas into practice. Students see an adult enjoying work, and that inspires them to see their career as more than a job.

5) Good teachers love what they do and inspire students to value learning and knowing the content of the subjects they teach.  They go well beyond reading the book and watching films. They model their passion for learning by studying their subject and continuing to grow throughout their career.

6) Teachers inspire students through their personal accomplishments.  Good teachers inspire students with volunteer work, their athletic ability, musical ability or other non-school skills.  It’s our duty to model outside interests and healthy hobbies.  Kids look up to teachers who model outside interests and accomplishments.

Positive Social climate

The age of cognitive accountability and value-added education has turned its back on perhaps the most foundational of all teaching skills: the relationship with the student.  In our lust for measuring academic ability and demonstrated skills we have often turned students into numbered widgets.  The best teachers still know the power of relationships and understand that this aspect of teaching is crucial to student growth.  The best teachers use their classroom to teach social as well as academic lessons and they consistently model positive interactions with both students and adults. So much emphasis has been put on test scores and academic achievement that many teachers see these as the entire measure of their efforts. The best teachers know that students are more productive and can potentially learn much more in a classroom that provides a positive social atmosphere.  

  1) Social Learning Structures is a fancy term I use for how well the teacher is using cooperative small group learning strategies.  We know the power of students working together in well-planned lessons. The best teachers tap into the social learning system. A successful group learning activity depends on planning and innovation coupled with solid rules and procedures that are overtly taught to the students.  Good teachers employ a variety of strategies to help students work together in class.

2) Good teachers create an atmosphere where all people in the room feel safe and valued. Time is taken to teach students how to interact in a positive and productive manor. Perhaps most important is the teacher modeling respectful and positive interactions with everyone in the room.

3) If a teacher does the two things above well the result is a positive social climate.  Some classrooms have a certain comfort with students working together.  The students know their roles and they see the power of sharing ideas and working collaboratively. The teacher has created a classroom where positive interactions and planned social learning combine to create an atmosphere of productivity.

4) Inclusion of all students and providing fair access to learning is mandated in all contracts.  Some teachers do a much better job than others, however, in meeting the needs of all students.  The skilled teacher goes beyond modifying and accommodating work to provide an equitable social atmosphere where students of all abilities work together and respect each other’s strengths and weaknesses.  Building an inclusive social environment is crucial to providing fair access to education, yet few classrooms are really inclusive.

5) The last aspect of social atmosphere is the look of the room.  Some teachers spend a huge amount of time setting up their room to inspire students.  They post student work, have topical displays, and provide interesting thought-provoking demonstrations.  Some rooms have blank walls with a few Garfield posters saying: “do your best”. Enough said. The physical environment should inspire students and spark their interest in the subjects you teach.    

  Relationships with Colleagues/Students/Parents  

  The ability of good teachers to build and maintain positive relationships with both students and colleagues is an important aspect of a healthy school. Yet many teachers do not feel obligated to even be nice to their students.  Ironically, if you study the teaching contract, nowhere does it state that the teacher should build positive relationships with the students.  And some teachers base their classroom management style on purposefully not establishing positive relationships with students for fear of losing control. These teachers break no rules and their classroom is more often than not “under control”.  Good teachers know that positive relationships are essential to both the social atmosphere of the classroom as well as the engagement of students in the learning.                  

1) The best teachers strive to build positive relations with three groups of people in the school community.  First, and most important is the students.  The second group is parents, and they can be your biggest asset or worst enemy depending on the relationship you build. The last group is the adults you work with in the building.  Anyone who has worked in a school knows it’s kind of like a big family.  This creates unique challenges in the work place, as teachers must often work with people who they don’t necessarily respect professionally.  The best teachers are positive yet honest and work to get along with all adults as best as possible.  The research is clear on this aspect of the school community.  When the staff has positive relationships the students see appropriate models for behavior and ultimately achieve more growth.

2) Communication with parents is something that is mandated in most teaching contracts and almost all schools have policies regarding when to contact parents when students have academic or social problems.  The best teachers use communication in a more positive, proactive way.  Weekly newsletters and positive messages home about students can serve to open communication lines with parents.  Websites with homework and upcoming due dates can keep parents, students, and the teacher on the same page in regard to expectations.  There are a variety of ways to use technology to share information about students, both academic and behavioral with parents.  Additionally, positive information about school helps parents feel more comfortable with the teacher and therefore more likely to communicate concerns directly with the teacher rather than involving administrators.

3) Certainly one of the most challenging aspects of teaching is the need to be “on” all the time.  The best teachers are consistent in their behavior and treatment of both students and adults.  This is particularly important with students as they depend on teachers to be consistently caring and supportive.  Inconsistent behavior scares students and disrupts the social safety the teacher strives to create in a classroom.  Moody teachers are hard to work with and students tend to not trust them.  The importance of consistency in student relationships cannot be understated.

4) Modeling positive relationships is more powerful than talking about them.  Students see the adults in the building as role models for their behavior.  If the adults in the school strive to get along and model positive relationships the students will follow.  Additionally, research shows that schools in which adults have positive relationships also have higher academic achievement.

5) Good teachers take care to create an equitable and fair environment. It is challenging to treat 150 children equitably all the time.  Important to note, however, that students see this as one of the most important attributes of a good teacher. 

6) The best teachers are perceived by students as caring about their success in school.  Students work harder if they believe the teacher cares.

  Application of Cognitive Science  

It always surprises me how ignorant many teachers are of how the brain works.  One would think that teachers would study the process of learning and try to use this information for the benefit of students.  But this is not the case.  Many teachers can recite brain research but when you go in their classroom you see a most “unfriendly” place for learning.  In recent years our understanding of how students learn has grown exponentially.  The best teachers have been following these developments and incorporating them into their instructional practices.  There is a good reason that psychologists recently changed the name of cognitive theory to cognitive science.  The best teachers understand and employ the ideas of cognitive science to create a more effective learning environment.

Important to note in the title of this section I added in the word application.  Lots of people go to in-service days and read books on cognition, but the best teachers actually take the theory and put it to work in their classroom.      

Assessment Literacy

There is a big push in education to promote higher-level thinking and complex reasoning.  If you study documents like the 21st Century Skills they simply skip the foundational skills that students need to practice and master and jump right into abstract higher-level learning. The good teacher knows what their students can do and provides the proper background knowledge prior to doing higher-level thinking.  We talk about developing well-rounded, critical thinking global citizens, but our standards reduce school to emphasizing memorization and “drill and kill”.  Good teachers have the creativity to build authentic higher-level thinking assignments that are of appropriate difficultly.

Good teachers design their own tests. The questions match the content taught, and there are a variety of different kinds of questions.  Good teachers spend time reading students work.  They also take time to design creative authentic assessment tasks that challenge students to think and create and demonstrate their learning in a variety of ways. Collectively, the assigned assessments clearly demonstrate student growth and mastery of the curriculum.  Good teachers also understand the value of formative assessment, and it is built into their lesson design. 

Good teachers understand that reflection is an integral part of learning. They debrief lessons with the students and take time at the end of a unit to summarize how the learning fits into the bigger picture.  Good teachers have students reflect about their effort and social contributions as well as their academic achievement.

Good teachers understand that the key to student learning is engagement. They design classes that are cognitively friendly and promote student interest by using:

•Variety and Pacing

•Choice

•Thinking time

•Social interaction

•Challenging questions

•Learning relevant to students’ lives

•Connections to students’ prior knowledge   

All of these promote student engagement in the lesson.

Good teachers consistently employ procedures that promote productivity. The students know what they need to do.  Good teachers plan lessons so the different parts of the lesson complement each other.  They are structured and organized in a way to promote student autonomy while maintaining productivity.

Good teachers create their own learning experiences. They take the assigned standards and curricular topics and create fun learning experiences for students.  They don’t teach by having students silently read. They interact with students and create an interactive classroom environment.

Creativity and Innovation

The last aspect of good teaching can’t be taught, but it does improve with experience.  Creativity is hard to define, but most people agree it’s one of those hard to measure attributes of great teachers.  All teachers take ideas from other teachers and tweak them to fit their style.  But some teachers go beyond and create authentic complex tasks that inspire students.  They create games and projects that motivate students to learn in fun ways.

We can also broaden our view of creativity to outside the classroom. Many teachers are leaders in their building by coming up with creative solutions to challenges within their school.  Some teachers create professional development or offer their insights beyond the scope of the district.   No teacher evaluation system can ever mandate creativity, but some teachers have it and use it to become better at the craft of teaching.

If you have managed to stay with me through all this discourse, I would like to return to the central question: What is student growth?  By examining what good teachers do I think we can see that students grow in various ways.  Social growth and the development of personal efficacy are not measured on the state test. Yet developing these personal traits is ultimately more important in adult life than academic ability.  If we are going to evaluate teachers on their ability to create growth through the year, we need to measure more than academic growth.  Additionally, we will need to measure how teachers create growth in new and creative ways.  The state test is not going to give us any insight into which teachers are creating student growth so we will need to invent some new assessment tools for teacher evaluation.

The five teacher qualities described above all seem to promote student growth in different ways.  Since the state test is only going to give us insight into academic skills and knowledge, how will we measure all the other student growth?  To get an understanding of how much a teacher inspires a student or creates social growth we are going to need to talk to the students and to take a fresh look at teacher evaluation.  I propose a three- step process:

1) Classroom Observation and Professional Dialogue Each teacher would have 10-12 hours of classroom observation followed with reflection time.  The evaluator needs to be skilled enough to provide insight and recognize complex lessons.  The mentor/evaluator would need to follow the class for several sessions to see how a unit of study develops.  This person would also need to be uniquely qualified to comment on various kinds of student growth occurring within the classroom.

2) Classroom Assessments of Academic Growth Teachers must validate their own worth by developing valid and reliable measures of academic student growth.  If we are going to be evaluated on how much student growth we create, I think we better get to work developing ways to measure growth at the classroom level.  No state test is going to be able to capture student growth as well as a teacher-designed local assessment.  As a profession our assessment literacy is quite low.  Most teachers do not know much about designing assessments so this will be professional development need.

3) Customer Survey  We need to start asking students and parents how did the teacher impact student growth?  Teacher evaluation fails to collect some of the most important data.  Many teachers don’t value what the students say, while others simply lack the courage to find out.  In either case we are missing a key piece of information in measuring how teachers create growth.  Students have unique insight into the role their teacher played in helping them grow - we just need to figure out how to ask. 

If you want to start evaluating teachers better you will need to spend money.  Identifying what great teachers do is very difficult.  The fact of the matter is that some teachers are more developed in these five areas than others.  Some teachers are funny and the kids love them.  Some teachers know their content better than others.  The problem with teacher evaluation is we don’t consider these unique attributes because they are not standardized.  If you remember a great teacher in your life, I bet you remember them for a reason related to their personality.  The bottom line is that teachers bring many talents to class everyday, and our present evaluation system does not capture many of them. 

The politicians have it right, student growth is what teachers should focus on.  The only problem is that their definition of student growth (test scores) is somewhat anemic.  If you want to find the good teachers in the profession, find the ones creating growth.  Remember that the data downtown will not be of much use to you in your search. If you want to see student growth you better come out to the classroom and see what goes on. You will see teachers who build positive relationships and inspire their students.  You will see teachers that value social as well as academic learning.  You will see professionals who are dedicated to the art and science of education.  It isn’t easy to measure what teachers do to create growth because it’s often individualized for a particular student.  Efforts to “standardize” excellence in any system of teacher evaluation will ultimately fail because the ways teachers create student growth is as different as the kids they teach.