1. QUALITY TEACHING/LEARNING
Phil Draper, HAT,
Coonabarabran High School

2. Attributes Key attributes and features of quality teaching include:
A proactive effort by teachers to change or modify current teaching practice – question how relevant or interesting is what is currently being presented or how it is being presented.
Active participation of the teacher eg. in planning/teaching strategies
Ongoing questioning of the way students are working
A high degree of student engagement and motivation
The presence of good learning behaviours in the classroom
Name three changes or innovations you have introduced this year into the classroom.

3. Research Research strongly supports:
That the major in-school influence on student achievement is the quality of the classroom teacher.
That expert teachers differ from experienced teachers, particularly in the degree of challenges they present to their students, and in the depth of understanding their students attain. Students taught by expert teachers exhibit an understanding of the concepts targeted in instruction.
That teacher quality varies considerably within schools and across schools.

4. Exemplary Teachers
Exemplary teachers possess and manifest the following attributes:
A high level of knowledge, imagination, passion, and belief in, and for, their field.
An overriding commitment to, and high aspirations for, their students’ learning.
A rich repertoire of skills, methods and approaches on which they are able to draw, to provide the right mix for the specific needs of individual students.
A detailed understanding of the context in which they are working; of the specific expectations of the community; and of the needs of the cohort of students for whom they are responsible.
A capacity to respond appropriately to students, individually and collectively, and to the context, through their teaching practice.
A refusal to let anything get in the way of their own or their students’ learning, and what they perceive as needing to be addressed.
A capacity to engender a high level of respect and even affection from their students and colleagues - a by product of their hard work and professionalism.
A great capacity for engagement in professional learning through self-initiated involvement in various combinations of professional development activities, some provided by the employing authority; others sought out by the individual.
A great capacity to contribute to the professional learning of others, and a willingness to do so.
Moral leadership and professionalism, in that they exemplify high values and qualities and seek to encourage these in others.
Dinhan – 2002

5. Limiting Factors Factors hindering quality teaching:
Low expectations of certain students and groups held by some teachers
Varying quality of the induction and support for beginning teachers
The isolation of the classroom – lack of opportunity for teachers to observe and be observed: for teachers to learn from each other: lack of structured feedback on performance and lack of frameworks and a language to analyse and discuss teaching practice.
The variable level of educational leadership in schools
Other contributing factors include:
The quality of those entering teacher training
Students who disengage; students who disrupt learning and teaching
Conditions of work
Community’s perception of teachers that results in dissatisfaction
The ‘overcrowded’ curriculum.

6. EFFECTIVE TEACHING PEDAGOGY
Quality teaching involves the implementation of classroom practices that:
Engage and challenge students to develop deep knowledge and understanding
Sustain student interest and learning
Engage and challenge students to develop appropriate learning skills
Nurture, develop and extend relationships (student-teacher and student-student)

7. Effective Teachers: Intellectual Challenge Classroom practices must (intellectually) engage and challenge students to construct deep knowledge and understanding.
Higher order thinking
Substantive Conversation
Create activities that give all students opportunities to engage in higher order thinking
Provide the tools and support to allow students to solve complex problems, hypothesise, synthesise and arrive at conclusions
Facilitate considerable student-teacher and student-student interactions around topics and concepts that build on ideas and promotes collective understanding
Share intellectual control with students

8. Intellectual Challenge (cont
Intellectual Challenge (cont.) Classroom practices must intellectually engage and challenge students to construct deep knowledge and understanding.
Knowledge Management
Explicitly teach students to critique problematic knowledge in a sustained way.
Facilitate learning that expects sustained reading and research, significant performance and exhibitions
Allow students some autonomy in their learning.

9. Effective Teachers: Engagement Classroom practices must sustain student interest in learning.
Relevance
Implement a problem based curriculum where students work with real, practical or hypothetical situations
Build on students’ knowledge and understanding
Articulate a clear purpose for learning
Make clear outcomes for all lessons and activities

10. Engagement (cont.) Classroom practices must sustain student interest in learning.
Recognition of Difference
High Expectations
Student Centred Learning
Acknowledge and give status to the cultural background of students within the classroom
Use topics and problems based on the context of the students’ world
Expect high standards from their students and clearly articulate the criteria for these standards
Enable students to explore possibilities and engage in an ongoing discovery process
Create student centred learning environments
Allow students’ choices to determine directions within a framework

11. Effective Teachers: Learning Skills Classroom practices must engage and challenge students to develop appropriate learning skills.
Learning to Learn
Model good learning
Explicitly teach learning and thinking skills
Encourage students to question
Encourage self and peer appraisal and feedback
Cater for a diversity of learning styles within their classrooms

12. Learning Skills (cont.) Classroom practices must engage and challenge students to develop appropriate learning skills.
Communication Skills
Expect and encourage students to communicate their ideas clearly using appropriate technology, literacy and numeracy skills
Model and expect students to vary their presentations to suit varying audiences including groups of students and adults
Explicitly and systematically teach literacy and numeracy
Place emphasis on the literacy and numeracy components of the task they set students
Explicitly teach writing through scanning, summarizing, sorting, planning and drafting and publishing of work.

13. Learning Skills (cont.) Classroom practices must engage and challenge students to develop appropriate learning skills.
Independent Interdependent Learning
ICT Skills
Encourage and give students the skills to be independent learners
Use technology to learn about current research in their discipline and apply it to their teaching
Interact with their students electronically when appropriate
Utilize technology wherever the opportunity to use it appropriately arises.

14. Effective Teachers: Relationships Classroom practices should inform, nurture, develop and extend relationships.
Support and affirmation
Teamwork
Welcome contributions and support risk taking within a framework
Provide guidance and encouragement
Set high expectations for performance
Develop students’ abilities to be effective team members by explicitly teaching the necessary skills

15. Relationships (cont.) Classroom practices should inform, nurture, develop and extend relationships.
Recognition
Self Regulation
Use their knowledge of students’ backgrounds to enhance the learning experience
Give regular feedback on performance relative to the criteria and outcomes
Negotiate and define acceptable behaviour
Clearly explain the consequences of unacceptable behaviour
Use non-confrontational strategies to deal with problems

16. Current Support Documents – Quality Teaching
Quality Teaching in NSW Public Schools – A Classroom Practice Guide
Use of the guide
Quality Teaching model
Purpose
Elements/Observation Sheets Handouts
Professional Teaching Standards - NSWIT