Over the last few weeks I have been leading a small group of teachers as we look to define what Great Teaching looks like at our school.
The document will form the basis of our future INSET, as well as part of the instructional coaching programme I am looking at implementing over the next couple of years. My hope is that we can agree on a set of "safe bets" (as Tom Sherrington likes to call them), that all teachers can make use of to improve their teaching, and ultimately, the learning of our students. This would not be a prescribed checklist of things we expect to see in every lesson, but rather things we expect teachers to think about, and that probably would be seen over a period of time.
Another aim of this process is to have a set of words and phrases that we all recognise what they mean, giving the school a unified language when it comes to talking about education and learning.
The process started in August when I sent a survey to all teachers, students and parents asking them this exact question. I wanted to get a range of responses and see what different groups within our community had to say.
Before the first meeting I put together a small booklet with the following resources in it for each member of the groups:
- First page is taken from Making Every Lesson Count (2 copies in the CPD Library). Summary blog post. Blog post from authors.
- Executive Summary is from Effective Teaching.
- My number one recommended piece of educational research: Principles of Instruction. Summary Blog Post. Exploring the Principles. Putting Theory into Practice.
- What Makes Great Teaching
- The results from the survey
After a brief discussion, I asked the team to read through the booklet before the next meeting, where we brainstormed all the words and ideas that came to mind from what we had read. In this meeting we reiterated the point that we were looking for things that describe great teaching not great teachers. Although subtle, I believe there is a difference between these two. I also made it clear that we want a list of practices that can be seen.
The end goal is to have a one page document that summarises the points, but also an accompanying document that explains what is meant by each in more detail, and provides examples of what this might look like in the classroom. If we can't explain what it would look like to an observer, then I was reluctant to include it in this document. I would also like to include references to places for further reading on each aspect as appropriate within the document.
We are nearing the end of the process now, and it will need to go to SMT to be approved. At this stage we have 12 points, given below.
Great Teaching:
- Is driven by an objective - so that teacher and students are aware of what knowledge, concepts and/or skills they are learning
- Challenges all students - so that students have high expectations of what they can achieve
- Includes clear, well planned explanations and modelling - so that students can acquire new knowledge, concepts and skills
- Checks for understanding of all students and responds appropriately - so that teachers can check what students know and address any misconceptions and/or missing knowledge, concepts or skills
- Includes time for deliberate practice, including reflection - so that students can develop automaticity with their new knowledge, concepts and skills
- Uses questioning to develop understanding - so that students can master their new knowledge, concepts and skills
- Has regular opportunities for spaced retrieval - so that students can easily recall their new knowledge, concepts and skills
- Provides timely feedback - so that students can improve their knowledge, concepts and skills
- Encourages students to develop independence - so that students can continue to learn new things outside of class, and make connections between their learning
- Cultivates a safe learning environment - so that all students feel safe to take risks
- Maximises learning time - so that learning is seen as an important part of life
- Is always improving - so that the best education is constantly provided to the students
I would be really interested to hear what others think of this list. Are there any glaring absences?
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