QUALITY TEACHING/LEARNING

1. QUALITY TEACHING/LEARNING Phil Draper, HAT, Coonabarabran High School

2. Attributes Key attributes and features of quality teaching include: • A proactive effort by teachers to change or modify current teaching practice – question how relevant or interesting is what is currently being presented or how it is being presented. • Active participation of the teacher eg. in planning/teaching strategies • Ongoing questioning of the way students are working • A high degree of student engagement and motivation • The presence of good learning behaviours in the classroom Name three changes or innovations you have introduced this year into the classroom.

3. Research Research strongly supports: • That the major in-school influence on student achievement is the quality of the classroom teacher. • That expert teachers differ from experienced teachers, particularly in the degree of challenges they present to their students, and in the depth of understanding their students attain. Students taught by expert teachers exhibit an understanding of the concepts targeted in instruction. • That teacher quality varies considerably within schools and across schools.

4. Exemplary Teachers Exemplary teachers possess and manifest the following attributes: • A high level of knowledge, imagination, passion, and belief in, and for, their field. • An overriding commitment to, and high aspirations for, their students’ learning. • A rich repertoire of skills, methods and approaches on which they are able to draw, to provide the right mix for the specific needs of individual students. • A detailed understanding of the context in which they are working; of the specific expectations of the community; and of the needs of the cohort of students for whom they are responsible. • A capacity to respond appropriately to students, individually and collectively, and to the context, through their teaching practice. • A refusal to let anything get in the way of their own or their students’ learning, and what they perceive as needing to be addressed. • A capacity to engender a high level of respect and even affection from their students and colleagues - a by product of their hard work and professionalism. • A great capacity for engagement in professional learning through self-initiated involvement in various combinations of professional development activities, some provided by the employing authority; others sought out by the individual. • A great capacity to contribute to the professional learning of others, and a willingness to do so. • Moral leadership and professionalism, in that they exemplify high values and qualities and seek to encourage these in others. Dinhan – 2002

5. Limiting Factors Factors hindering quality teaching: • Low expectations of certain students and groups held by some teachers • Varying quality of the induction and support for beginning teachers • The isolation of the classroom – lack of opportunity for teachers to observe and be observed: for teachers to learn from each other: lack of structured feedback on performance and lack of frameworks and a language to analyse and discuss teaching practice. • The variable level of educational leadership in schools Other contributing factors include: • The quality of those entering teacher training • Students who disengage; students who disrupt learning and teaching • Conditions of work • Community’s perception of teachers that results in dissatisfaction • The ‘overcrowded’ curriculum.

6. EFFECTIVE TEACHING PEDAGOGY Quality teaching involves the implementation of classroom practices that: Engage and challenge students to develop deep knowledge and understanding Sustain student interest and learning Engage and challenge students to develop appropriate learning skills Nurture, develop and extend relationships (student-teacher and student-student)

7. Effective Teachers: Intellectual Challenge Classroom practices must (intellectually) engage and challenge students to construct deep knowledge and understanding. • Higher order thinking • Substantive Conversation • Create activities that give all students opportunities to engage in higher order thinking • Provide the tools and support to allow students to solve complex problems, hypothesise, synthesise and arrive at conclusions • Facilitate considerable student-teacher and student-student interactions around topics and concepts that build on ideas and promotes collective understanding • Share intellectual control with students

8. Intellectual Challenge (cont.)Classroom practices must intellectually engage and challenge students to construct deep knowledge and understanding. • Knowledge Management • Explicitly teach students to critique problematic knowledge in a sustained way. • Facilitate learning that expects sustained reading and research, significant performance and exhibitions • Allow students some autonomy in their learning.

9. Effective Teachers: EngagementClassroom practices must sustain student interest in learning. • Relevance • Implement a problem based curriculum where students work with real, practical or hypothetical situations • Build on students’ knowledge and understanding • Articulate a clear purpose for learning • Make clear outcomes for all lessons and activities

10. Engagement (cont.)Classroom practices must sustain student interest in learning. • Recognition of Difference • High Expectations • Student Centred Learning • Acknowledge and give status to the cultural background of students within the classroom • Use topics and problems based on the context of the students’ world • Expect high standards from their students and clearly articulate the criteria for these standards • Enable students to explore possibilities and engage in an ongoing discovery process • Create student centred learning environments • Allow students’ choices to determine directions within a framework

11. Effective Teachers: Learning SkillsClassroom practices must engage and challenge students to develop appropriate learning skills. • Learning to Learn • Model good learning • Explicitly teach learning and thinking skills • Encourage students to question • Encourage self and peer appraisal and feedback • Cater for a diversity of learning styles within their classrooms

12. Learning Skills (cont.)Classroom practices must engage and challenge students to develop appropriate learning skills. • Communication Skills • Expect and encourage students to communicate their ideas clearly using appropriate technology, literacy and numeracy skills • Model and expect students to vary their presentations to suit varying audiences including groups of students and adults • Explicitly and systematically teach literacy and numeracy • Place emphasis on the literacy and numeracy components of the task they set students • Explicitly teach writing through scanning, summarizing, sorting, planning and drafting and publishing of work.

13. Learning Skills (cont.)Classroom practices must engage and challenge students to develop appropriate learning skills. • Independent Interdependent Learning • ICT Skills • Encourage and give students the skills to be independent learners • Use technology to learn about current research in their discipline and apply it to their teaching • Interact with their students electronically when appropriate • Utilize technology wherever the opportunity to use it appropriately arises.

14. Effective Teachers: Relationships Classroom practices should inform, nurture, develop and extend relationships. • Support and affirmation • Teamwork • Welcome contributions and support risk taking within a framework • Provide guidance and encouragement • Set high expectations for performance • Develop students’ abilities to be effective team members by explicitly teaching the necessary skills

15. Relationships (cont.) Classroom practices should inform, nurture, develop and extend relationships. • Recognition • Self Regulation • Use their knowledge of students’ backgrounds to enhance the learning experience • Give regular feedback on performance relative to the criteria and outcomes • Negotiate and define acceptable behaviour • Clearly explain the consequences of unacceptable behaviour • Use non-confrontational strategies to deal with problems

16. Current Support Documents – Quality Teaching • Quality Teaching in NSW Public Schools – A Classroom Practice Guide • Use of the guide • Quality Teaching model • Purpose • Elements/Observation Sheets Handouts • Professional Teaching Standards - NSWIT