Teachers are used to being faced with trends in pedagogy. One theory waits to be replaced by another, each time with a sense that we have been here before. We could have been forgiven for wondering if the "definitive" guide would ever emerge. With the release of What Makes Great Teaching? Review of the underpinning research, have we found the answer?
Great teaching – the research
This review of research is published by Durham University, The Sutton Trust and CEM. It sets out to answer the questions:
- What makes great teaching?
- What kinds of frameworks or tools could help us to capture it?
- How could this promote better learning?
The success of the Education Endowment Foundation Teaching and Learning Toolkit was evidence of our enthusiasm for finding solutions and What Makes Great Teaching? looks set to take its position alongside it.
Although the report advises caution, there are some clear winners and losers among its findings. Content knowledge and quality of instruction both come out with strong evidence of a positive impact on student outcomes. Grouping students by ability, the use of a preferred learning style and being active rather than listening passively, do not.
Overall, the general flavour is one of a more traditional approach to teaching and there must be muted applause from the Department for Education (DfE). Less welcomed by the traditionalists will be the lack of support for setting. This finding of the report should not come as a surprise. The Teaching and Learning Toolkit had already clearly indicated that the benefits of setting are limited or non-existent for most students.
That teachers are confident in their subject knowledge is a basic principle. However, behind most of the winners there are caveats. For example, subject knowledge is important but so is understanding how students think about the content and being able to identify misconceptions. Factors less likely to be covered in your first degree.
It is important to remember that this is a review of what is already available and not new research in itself. The authors have trawled the libraries to bring together a dossier of evidence from different sources that invites debate and dialogue. A debate that has its foundations in the classroom.
Great teaching – the practice
Great teaching already exists in our schools. Schools are being told daily by inspectors that their teaching is outstanding. For example, Coldfall Primary School in north London has had the quality of its teaching graded as outstanding for its last two inspections. Headteacher, Evelyn Davies, considers that the culture of learning that is set in the school is a key factor in this judgement.
Ms Davies emphasises the importance of recruiting the right people: "We only appoint people who see teaching as a vocation, not just a job. It's all about the quality of relationships, knowing each child really well and ensuring each child is effectively supported in lessons."
Springhead Primary School in East Yorkshire was also judged outstanding at their last Ofsted inspection. Headteacher Carolyn Jones is keen to emphasise the importance of staff enthusiasm and the sharing of good practice throughout the school: "We have an approach in the school known as WAYDAI," Ms Jones explained. "It stands for What are you doing about it? It evolved in-house to challenge subconscious acceptance of underperformance."
Many factors identified in What Makes Great Teaching? are those that schools are already promoting. "Our teaching and learning policy identifies key aspects of practice which are essential," Ms Davies continued. "These include good questioning, the importance of teacher modelling in all parts of the lesson, and ensuring all children are challenged and engaged."
At Springfield, Ms Jones highlights the importance of high expectations and encouragement with "thoughtful risk-taking" being seen as a sign that children are challenging themselves.
"We believe that to expect a great deal of children is to pay them a compliment," said Ms Jones.
"No-one ever regrets their achievements. We don't underestimate even our weakest children and when underachievers start to catch up we move the 'finishing line' further away."
These aspects of good teaching are not delivered in isolation, they represent a whole-school approach shared and developed between staff.
Evaluating the practice
What Makes Great Teaching? doesn't confine itself to what great teaching is, but also considers how it might be evaluated and disseminated. The report emphasises that a range of strategies must be used when it comes to evaluating teaching quality if we are to get a more accurate picture.
Classroom observations, value-added measures and student ratings are all recognised as valuable methods of evaluating teaching. However, they each have their limitations and a model which draws on them all will provide the best indicator.
Less secure are the unsupported judgements of the headteacher, teacher self-reports, and portfolios and analysis of classroom artefacts such as scrutiny of lesson plans and teacher assignments.
Ms Jones feels that sharing data with class teachers is particularly important as an aid to identifying what's working in the classroom: "Our School Improvement Partner talks to the entire staff and governors through key data sources such as RAISEonline and the dashboards in a twilight training session."
As a result, Ms Jones has noticed that the staff themselves are coming out with the key questions – such as, "If the boys in that class are doing so well, why aren't the girls?". Taking this information with them, the progress meetings are then used as a coaching session during which teachers and teaching assistants can be given ideas of how to help and improve their practice.
"The progress meetings double as very specific, point of need staff training," continued Ms Jones. "It is a significant investment of time but it does have a visible impact back in class."
Out with the old, in with the new?
What Makes Great Teaching? challenges teachers and their leaders to reflect hard on some of the assumptions that have been made in the past. Practitioners must be central to this process. The report even suggests a system of crowd-sourced assessments that are peer-reviewed by teachers. School-based support systems could well be the way forward, provided they are injected with external expertise at intervals.
The study does not advocate a revolution in teaching approaches. It does not provide definitive answers and we must avoid the danger of falling on some of its tentative conclusions and giving them greater weight than they are due.
The strategies identified as "ineffective practices" in the report have been labelled as such because there is "no evidence" that they work. This does not necessarily mean that aspects of them, handled in the right way and in some contexts, might not be effective. Above all, what these materials should not be allowed to do is close down the doors of possibility on what works for you.
The schools that have contributed to this article have developed their own styles of "great teaching" which work for them. Their own confidence and shared vision is contributing to the success of their chosen methods. Schools should feel confident in holding on to the methods they have already found to work and use this report as a ready reference rather than the gospel.
- Suzanne O'Connell is a freelance education writer and a former primary school headteacher.
Further information
What Makes Great Teaching? Review of the underpinning research, Coe, Aloisi, Higgins and Major, October 2014: http://bit.ly/12CehIF