By Brad Choyt for the Valley News (Published in print: Tuesday, January 5, 2016)
Throughout the school year, educators continually watch their students adapt to evolving social environments and new sets of materials. Each day provides precious opportunities to ask not just about what students are learning but how they are being taught. One of our fundamental questions is, “What are the essential habits of effective teachers and how do we encourage them to strengthen their practice with students no matter the subject they teach or their level of experience?”
Teachers, parents, students and administrators can all tell you that there is no single optimal approach for each student, classroom, or discipline. At its best, teaching is a co-created act that responds and adapts to particular environments, cues from students and an acute awareness of their different needs. Nonetheless, most will agree that inspiring teaching shares common qualities and these practices can be identified and cultivated to enhance what and how much students learn. And this dynamic approach helps students love to learn.
From my perspective, powerful teachers possess an intrinsic motivation to see each student succeed, and they link this motivation to their own definition of professional success. In an article titled Exemplary Teacher Voices on Their Own Development, Richard Allington, Rachael Gabriel and Jeni Peiria Day described particularly effective teachers as “child watchers.” This description suggests that teachers are keenly attuned to what students are thinking and learning, and within that awareness foster healthy dynamics to maximize retention of new material.
To sustain this work, the authors note, teachers need access to effective professional development and to maintain a strong network of peers and collegial relationships. In short, educators need colleagues and mentors to talk to about what’s happening in their classrooms and how their students can thrive.
These writers also observe that teachers flourish when they have a degree of autonomy from the administration. These practices combine to provide “room for teachers to innovate context-specific solutions that match the individual needs of their students.”
Great teachers also know precisely what they want to accomplish and effectively convey what is required to succeed in their classroom. And when students do not achieve at expected levels, they help to create a clear road map for future learning. In doing so, these teachers are able to foster a culture of improvement and when needed, help develop opportunities for students to get it right over time even when they require several attempts.
What this means, pragmatically, is that teachers need to assess student learning and outcomes often and to use what they learn from these assessments — quizzes, tests, writing assignments, exhibitions, debates and discussions — to tweak their lessons in response to what they learn. If they do, their students are more likely to succeed. This approach not only requires greater flexibility, but also more time and effort as teachers depart from established lesson plans in favor of this multi-faceted, lively and flexible approach.
Finally, great teachers ask great questions. “Do you want to learn the key to discovering the next cure for cancer?” might spark a discussion about the way cells mutate. “Is the American Revolution still going on today?” might be the provocative beginning a unit on civil rights. These kinds of generative questions build excitement and heighten motivation to learn new content in ways that matter deeply to students. And this approach helps students pose their own set of meaningful questions, making school matter more to them.
All of these strategies lead to high expectations in the classroom and create a school culture that is based on positive and respectful relationships with both peers and adults. Yes, it’s a lot of work and great teachers engage in it with gusto. But this is effort with real-life, real-time consequence. Every teacher knows that he or she is helping to shape the mindset and the talents of young people who will soon be shaping the world around us.
Brad Choyt is head of school at Crossroads Academy in Lyme.
