Quality Teaching for Australia
What characteristics mark the best teachers and their work?
The concepts of "quality teaching" and "quality teacher" are a hot debating topic in Australia. Now researchers are producing a clearer definition of the terms.
What practices and personality traits combine to produce an outstanding educator? Sometimes it seems almost everyone has an opinion on this topic. Much public and professional rhetoric whirls around terms like “quality teacher” and “great teacher”, but very rarely has there been any careful analysis of the concepts.
Recent Australian Background
In 2003, on the basis of extensive local and international research, Dr Ken Rowe presented key findings for researchers and stakeholders in Australian education. [The Importance of Teacher Quality as a Key Determinant of Students’ Experiences and Outcomes of Schooling, ACER, 2003] The central finding was that “quality teachers and teaching, supported by strategic teacher professional development” was the most important factor in determining their schooling outcomes. Socio-economic background of students, characteristics of the whole school or system, the gender of the teacher and other factors had very little effect. This conclusion triggered major projects and proposals across education systems in Australia.
The Nature of “Quality” in the Classroom
But what exactly constitutes quality teaching? What sort of person is a quality teacher? Until recently it seemed that everyone had a different opinion. Over the last few years rigorous research has produced a gradual coalescence of views.
One prominent example is the Hay McBer Report (2000), commissioned by the British government, which had a transformative influence on that country’s education system. The researchers concluded that teacher-effectiveness could not be predicted on the basis of data such as age, experience, qualifications and background. They declared that over 30% of the variance of school student achievement resulted from three inter-related factors: professional characteristics, teaching skills and classroom climate.
The Current Australian Scene
More recent Australian research has drawn some similar conclusions, but also gives considerable weight to the way teaching quality is affected by factors outside of the classroom. The investigating team in the University of Western Sydney who produced the major document, Teaching and Leading for Quality Australian Schools (February 2007), describe three domains of quality teaching:
· contextual factors
· professional practices
· attributes and capabilities of teachers.
Contextual Factors
The society, education system and school within which the teacher operates all mediate the teaching in complex ways. For this article it is sufficient to stress that the interaction can significantly reduce the quality of teachers. It will be a topic for another article.
Professional Practice
The best teachers
· deliver intellectually rigorous programmes, integrated with other curricular areas and relevant to the world of the individual student;
· draw upon diverse teaching methods to fit the circumstances of the lesson;
· develop learning environments and facilitate human relationships that support, include and empower the students;
· use assessment practices that provide specific, frequent and positive feedback.
The Teacher’s Attributes and Capabilities
An excellent teacher is marked by
· “passion” for teaching;
· creativity;
· excellent verbal ability and clear communication of ideas;
· the ability to develop effective collegiate relationships with peers;
· willingness to take on leadership roles in some contexts;
· thorough education in the content areas and methodology in the early-career stage;
· continuing professional development at all career stages which is active and collaborative with peers, relevant to the school and supported by the school’s leaders.
Future Directions
More research is called for in a number of areas, especially if quality teachers are to be paid more highly than others. For instance, we need to know which forms of pre-service preparation and induction are most helpful. We should investigate what types of in-service professional development and school leadership are most effective and what they should focus on to bolster quality teaching. The respective effects of centralised and decentralised curriculum design on teaching quality need to be clarified and their benefits compared.
