things successful teachers do differently

Things Successful Teachers Do Differently

Things Successful Teachers Do Differently
21. Successful teachers teach
Learning does not happen in a vacuum. Depression, anxiety, and mental stress have a severe impact on the educational process. Its crucial that educators (and the educational model) take the whole person into account. You can have the funniest and most innovative lesson on algebra, but if your student has just been told his parents are getting a divorce, you will not reach him.
22. Successful teachers never stop learning
Good teachers find time in their schedule to learn themselves. Not only does it help bolster your knowledge in a certain subject matter, it also puts you in the position of student. This gives you a perspective about the learning process that you can easily forget when youre always in teaching mode.
23. Successful teachers break out of the box
It may be a self-made box. Oh I could never do that, you say to yourself. Perhaps you promised youd never become the teacher who would let students grade each other (maybe you had a bad experience as a kid). Sometimes the biggest obstacle to growth is us. Have you built a box around your teaching methods? Good teachers know when its time to break out of it.
24. Successful teachers are masters of their subject
Good teachers need to know their craft. In addition to the methodology of teaching, you need to master your subject area. Learn, learn, and never stop learning. Successful educators stay curious.
25. Praise can do more harm than good
The wrong kind of praise can be harmful for students, the report found. A number of studies conducted by education experts, including Carol Dweck professor of psychology at Stanford University and Auckland University professors John Hattie and Helen Timperley, have observed this.
Deborah Stipek, the dean of the Stanford Graduate School of Education, said that praise is meant to be encouraging but it can actually convey a teachers low expectations. Stipek said that if a pupils failure was met with sympathy rather than anger then they were more likely to think they had done badly due to a lack of ability.
The report adds the caveat that the findings are open to interpretation, however, as teachers can do things well or badly, and some methods are not appropriate in all circumstances.
26. Instruction matters
The quality of teaching has a big impact on the achievement of students from poorer backgrounds, and effective questioning and assessment are at the heart of great teaching. This involves giving enough time for children to practise new skills and introducing learning progressively. Defining effective teaching isnt easy, the report conceded, but research always returns to the fact that student progress is the yardstick by which teacher quality should be assessed.
27. Teacher beliefs count
The reasons why teachers do certain things in the classroom and what they hope to achieve has an effect on student progress. Mike Askew, the author of Effective Teachers of Numeracy, found that beliefs about the nature of maths and what it means to understand it, along with teachers ideas about how children learn and their role in that process, was an important factor in how effective they were. Evidence to support this is not conclusive, however. A study by professor Steve Higgins of Durham University and the University of Newcastle upon Tynes David Moseley about teacher beliefs in ICT did not find a convincing relationships between beliefs and pupil progress.
28. Think about teacher student relationships
This may also seem obvious, but the interactions teachers have with students has a big impact on learning as well as the classroom climate. The report said that it was important to create a classroom environment that was constantly demanding more while affirming students self-worth. A students success should be atributed to effort rather than ability.
29. Manage behaviour
Interestingly, this wasnt as significant as subject knowledge and classroom instruction as a factor contributing to teacher success. But classroom management including how well a teacher makes use of lesson time, coordinates classroom resources and manages the behaviour of students was noted as important.
30. Theres no evidence that setting works
Putting students in groups depending on their ability makes little difference to their learning. Although setting can in theory let teachers work at a pace that suits all pupils and tailor content, it can also create an exaggerated sense of all pupils being alike in the teachers mind. This can result in teachers not accomodating to the various different needs within one group and in some instances going too fast with high-ability groups and too slow with low ones.