In these days of common core and standardized assessment, to read the news, it seems the secret to real classroom effectiveness still seems as elusive as ever. Professionals and armchair educators alike believe they can offer the formula to improve student engagement and performance.

 

Yet, even amidst these pundits, in an age of advanced technology and innovation, so much still depends on individual teachers and their ability to help students grow. Student achievement absolutely hinges on teacher excellence. But can we quantify or describe what exactly makes a great teacher great?

 

One of the most helpful guides I have encountered on this subject is a book called What the Best College Teachers Do by Ken Bain (Harvard University Press). Despite being published a decade ago and focusing on college educators, the conclusions drawn in the book continue to speak loudly to me as an independent school administrator. Bain looked into the practices of dozens of teaching faculty in numerous colleges and universities, analyzing their practice and course materials, conducting interviews of them as well as of their students, and observing these teachers in their classrooms and lecture halls.

 

His thorough research centered on six broad questions about their practice:

1. What do the best teachers know and understand? (relates to their subject mastery and ability to convey that content knowledge effectively to students)

2. How do they prepare to teach? (developing a “rich line of inquiry” to create a lesson plan)

3. What do they expect of their students? (not just about “piling on” work but fostering “the kind of thinking and acting expected for life”)

4. What do they do when they teach? (“challenging yet supportive” classrooms in which collaboration is a key component)

5. How do they treat students? (key characteristics: trust, openness, “simple decency”)

6. How do they check their progress and evaluate their efforts? (getting direct feedback from students and colleagues) (Bain, pp. 16-20)

 

Bain’s research leads him to conclude that the best teachers also see themselves as learners; they have what is now commonly called a “growth mindset” and continually seek ways to improve their teaching effectiveness. The best teachers are adaptive and flexible, willing to try new approaches when old models don’t work — even if those models have worked for them in the past. They don’t say “what’s wrong with these kids?” when students don’t get something; they say, “What can I do better to reach more students more successfully?”

 

Fast forward: In a recent New Yorker article called “Better All the Time,” writer James Surowiecki investigated the trends in many fields by which performance has increased steadily, especially in the areas of athletic performance and manufacturing productivity. Better technology, more specialized plans to meet specific needs and goals, and greater pressure to succeed at a high level have all contributed to a “performance revolution.” So why, Surowiecki asks, hasn’t education improved along the same trajectory? As with any complex question, there are several contributing factors, but ultimately the primary culprit may be teacher training, which, Surowiecki maintains, is not taken seriously enough in this country.

 

Indeed, compared to Japan and Canada, or to Finland— recently touted in several places as having the best public education model in the world—the United States does not spend nearly as much time training or developing teachers. In the end, “We do little to help ordinary teachers become good and good teachers become great.”

 

Educational reform often focuses on student assessment and outcomes, as if telling teachers to do better is enough; but how can schools help make their teachers better?

 

Obviously, at Colorado Academy, I would argue we DO in fact have great teachers, primarily because all our teachers are encouraged to have a growth mindset about their practice. It’s not enough to say “I’ve done pretty well for awhile, so I’ll keep doing what I have been doing.” On the contrary, our teachers constantly strive

for ways to improve, and those of us tasked as administrators help support and direct them in that process. These teachers seek out mentoring from other teachers and administrators, invite observation and engage in discussion of teaching practice.

 

I see this when I visit classes, as I do regularly throughout the year, and when I talk directly to students about their classroom experiences. We are also fortunate to have a substantial professional development budget to support teacher growth and initiative. Thanks to the generosity of donors who have earmarked financial gifts to the school to support teachers, we have a professional development budget that is the envy of most schools. One area we continue to want to increase, both formally and informally, is generating specific student feedback, whether through course evaluation forms, or other feedback loops. Colleges and universities have done this for years. (Bain points out both the strengths and shortcomings of such evaluations; he believes they can be part of a successful formula so long as the evaluation instruments ask the right questions and encourage the students to look beyond surface criteria in their assessment of teacher/professor effectiveness.)

 

Time and again I hear anecdotal evidence and see quantitative measures like student test performance or other product-based demonstrations of students’ subject mastery that indicate that our teachers are reaching students and helping them truly learn. Our teachers connect with students and care about their growth.

 

They look for ways to stretch a student’s mind (or body in the case of our great coaches) and to help a student feel better about him- or herself as a learner.

 

In the end, what makes a great school and allows for students to receive a first-rate education still relies on the positive teacher-student relationships that are fostered and forged.