Global Teaching InSights: A video study of teaching

 

Global Teaching InSights: A video study of teaching

What does teaching look like? What practices are most impactful? By directly observing teaching in the classroom, this study trialled new research methods to shed light on these key questions for raising student outcomes around the world. This report provides a detailed account of classroom management, social and emotional support, and instructional practices in the classrooms of eight countries and economies, drawing upon the observation of lesson videos and instructional materials, the analysis of teacher and student questionnaires, and the measurement of students’ cognitive and non-cognitive outcomes.

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Check out the Global Teaching InSights platform and share experiences with your fellow teachers!

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1276477196024064

The Platform

The Global Teaching InSights initiative aims to make quality teaching practices from around the world visible through classroom videos in a digital platform. Authentic classroom videos will provide tangible examples of teaching to stimulate a new and more effective international, peer-driven discussion around pedagogy, broaden national horizons by presenting diverse teaching approaches and settings, and support the teaching profession with a powerful resource to improve classroom practice. Its main goals are to: 

How do science teachers teach science - and does it matter?

How do science teachers teach science - and does it?

PISA in Focus #90

https://doi.org/10.1787/f3ac3fd6-en

     
Much ink has been spilled debating the merits of different science-teaching practices. Proponents of enquiry-based science teaching argue that this approach exposes students to the procedures used by professional scientists, while the proponents of traditional practices emphasise the role of teachers in transmitting knowledge about science and in guiding students’ learning. So what is the best practice to use and is success contingent on the school environment? PISA 2015 asked students about the teaching practices they are exposed to at school. The analysis of these data reveals interesting findings about the effectiveness of certain teaching practices, particularly enquiry-based science activities and teacher-directed science instruction.                                                                     

Teachers often use a combination of practices to achieve the desired learning outcomes. Empowered with strong classroom- management skills and professional knowledge, teachers could guide students’ learning of science with explicit instruction on basic concepts, then encourage students to participate in enquiry-based activities to consolidate their knowledge. Adapting science lessons to meet the needs of individual students can benefit those students who struggle to understand a particular concept or topic. Flexibility and responsiveness to their students are the hallmarks of effective teachers.

How primary and secondary teachers differ and why it matters

How primary and secondary teachers differ and why it matters

While policy debate is often focused on the whole teaching profession, primary and secondary teachers differ in more ways than one. While all countries require teachers to have at least a bachelor degree to enter the profession in primary or lower secondary education, the structure and content of the programmes vary and are less geared towards practice at secondary than primary level. Primary school teachers spend on average 10% more of their working time teaching, though their class size will be slightly smaller. Finally, primary teachers’ salaries are less competitive than their lower secondary peers in more than half of the countries. Improving the attractiveness and effectiveness of the teaching profession can only be addressed by recognising these differences and adapting a differentiated policy to address the challenges of each.

Lower secondary school teachers are older than primary ones, but the under-representation of men is less pronounced in teaching at that level

Teachers’ salaries are less attractive in primary education than in lower secondary education

Teachers in lower secondary education spend 10% less time teaching than primary teachers, and their classrooms are slightly larger

 

The bottom line

While policy debate is often focused on the whole teaching profession, primary and secondary teachers differ in more ways than one. While all countries require teachers to have at least a bachelor degree to enter the profession in primary or lower secondary education, the structure and content of the programmes vary and are less geared towards practice at secondary than primary level. Primary school teachers spend on average 10% more of their working time teaching, though their class size will be slightly smaller. Finally, primary teachers’ salaries are less competitive than their lower secondary peers in more than half of the countries. Improving the attractiveness and effectiveness of the teaching profession can only be addressed by recognising these differences and adapting a differentiated policy to address the challenges of each.

What makes great teaching?

Many popular teaching practices are ineffective, warns new Sutton Trust report:

The two factors with the strongest evidence in improving student outcomes are:

• Content knowledge. Teachers with strong knowledge and understanding of their subject make a greater impact on students’ learning. It is also important for teachers to understand how students think about content and be able to identify common misconceptions on a topic.
• Quality of instruction. This includes effective questioning and the use of assessment by teachers. Specific practices, like reviewing previous learning, providing model responses for students, giving adequate time for practice to embed skills securely and progressively introducing new learning (scaffolding) are also found to improve attainment.

The seven examples of strategies unsupported by evidence are:

1. Using praise lavishly For low-attaining students praise that is meant to be encouraging and protective can actually convey a message of low expectations. The evidence shows children whose failure generates sympathy are more likely to attribute it to lack of ability than those who are presented with anger.
2. Allowing learners to discover key ideas for themselves Enthusiasm for ‘discovery learning’ is not supported by research evidence, which broadly favours direct instruction.
3. Grouping students by ability Evidence on the effects of grouping by ability, either by allocating students to different classes, or to within-class groups, suggests that it makes very little difference to learning outcomes. It can result in teachers failing to accommodate different needs within an ability group and over-playing differences between groups, going too fast with the high-ability groups and too slow with the low.
4. Encouraging re-reading and highlighting to memorise key ideas Testing yourself, trying to generate answers, and deliberately creating intervals between study to allow forgetting, are all more effective approaches to memorisation than re-reading or highlighting.
5. Addressing low confidence and aspirations before teaching content Attempts to enhance motivation prior to teaching content are unlikely to succeed and even if they do the impact on subsequent learning is close to zero. If the poor motivation of low attainers is a logical response to repeated failure starting to get them to succeed through learning content will improve motivation and confidence.
6. Presenting information to students in their preferred learning style Despite a recent survey showing over 90% of teachers believe individuals learn better when they receive information in their preferred learning style, the psychological evidence is clear that there are no benefits to this method.
7. Being active, rather than listening passively, helps you remember This claim is commonly presented in the form of a ‘learning pyramid’ which shows precise percentages of material that will be retained when different levels of activity are employed. These percentages have no empirical basis and are pure fiction.

What makes great teaching?

Review of the underpinning research

Robert Coe, Cesare Aloisi, Steve Higgins and Lee Elliot Major

October 2014

Report

Becoming A Better Teacher

It’s as simple as this: I cannot improve my craft in isolation from others"