1. What makes great teaching?
Robert Coe
ResearchED Research Leads Network Day, 13 December 2014

3. 1. Pedagogy

4. Dimensions of great teaching
(Pedagogical) content knowledge
Quality of instruction
Classroom management / behaviour / control
Classroom climate / relationships / expectations
Beliefs (theory) about subject, learning & teaching
Wider professional elements: collegiality, PD, stakeholder relationships
Coe, R., Aloisi, C., Higgins, S. and Elliot Major, L. (2014) ‘What makes great teaching? Review of the underpinning research’. Sutton Trust, October

5. 1. We do that already (don’t we?)
Reviewing previous learning
Setting high expectations
Using higher-order questions
Giving feedback to learners
Having deep subject knowledge
Understanding student misconceptions
Managing time and resources
Building relationships of trust and challenge
Dealing with disruption

6. Self-evaluation and feedback
High expectations
Ask students: “How often is Mr X satisfied with your work?”
“When you agree a target, do you believe you will achieve it? Do you think your teacher believes you can achieve it?”
Deep subject knowledge
Could you sit the exam (in half the time and get full marks)?
Managing time and resources
An observer records: What fraction of the lesson do students spend (apparently) thinking hard about the material to be learnt?

7. 2. Do we always do that?
Challenging students to identify the reason why an activity is taking place in the lesson
Asking a large number of questions and checking the responses of all students
Raising different types of questions (i.e., process and product) at appropriate difficulty level
Giving time for students to respond to questions
Spacing-out study or practice on a given topic, with gaps in between for forgetting
Making students take tests or generate answers, even before they have been taught the material
Engaging students in weekly and monthly review

8. 3. We don’t do that (hopefully)
Use praise lavishly
Allow learners to discover key ideas for themselves
Group learners by ability
Encourage re-reading and highlighting to memorise key ideas
Address issues of confidence and low aspirations before you try to teach content
Present information to learners in their preferred learning style
Ensure learners are always active, rather than listening passively, if you want them to remember

9. Just a check-list of techniques?
No! Great teaching involves
selecting, integrating, orchestrating, adapting, monitoring, responding, etc,
and depends on
context, history, personalities, relationships, etc,
But without the skills, a teacher’s choices are more limited
Developing these skills & techniques takes dedicated, extended practice, with feedback

10. 2. Other claims

11. Methods of identifying effectiveness
classroom observations by peers, school leaders or external evaluators
‘value-added’ models (assessing gains in student achievement)
student ratings
headteacher judgement
teacher self-reports
analysis of classroom artefacts and teacher portfolios

12. Sustained professional learning is most likely to result when:
the focus is kept clearly on improving student outcomes;
feedback is related to clear, specific and challenging goals for the recipient;
attention is on the learning rather than to the person or to comparisons with others;
teachers are encouraged to be continual independent learners;
feedback is mediated by a mentor in an environment of trust and support;
an environment of professional learning and support is promoted by the school’s leadership
Coe, R., Aloisi, C., Higgins, S. and Elliot Major, L. (2014) ‘What makes great teaching? Review of the underpinning research’. Sutton Trust, October

13. Beware these traps Overconfidence about knowledge of what is effective
Focus on teaching rather than learning
Thinking that we are doing it already
Overconfidence in assessments (even if formative) of teaching quality
Thinking that if we assess teaching we must attach consequences to that (cf ‘assessment for learning’)

14. 3. Tools

15. Pupil survey (from Tripod)
Student behavior in this class is under control.
I hate the way that students behave in this class.
Student behavior in this class makes the teacher angry.
Student behavior in this class is a problem.
My classmates behave the way my teacher wants them to.
Students in this class treat the teacher with respect.
Our class stays busy and doesn't waste time.
See

16. Time on task observation tool
Next observation
1.2s
Jimmy Bone-Idle
On task
Off task
Not clear
‘On task’ = thinking hard about what they are supposed to be learning

17. Measuring quality of instruction
Requires ‘high inference’ judgements
May be no alternative to extensive training (eg CLASS, Danielson FFT)
Worth trying:
Specify skills and context (eg Y9 algebra, questioning to check understanding)
Peer review of video excerpts
Rating using ACJ (Adaptive Comparative Judgement)

18. Tools/strategies must …
Challenge the ‘we think we do that already’ trap
Keep the main thing the main thing: student outcomes
Build in impact evaluation: Does using it improve outcomes?
(Cannot work without background of good assessment of student outcomes)

19. Practical toolkit ideas …
Guide to help teachers to focus on what really matters
Research-based elements of effectiveness: ‘what works and why’
Tools to help teachers to see progress against immediate goal
Eg tool for tracking student time on task, quality of questioning, high expectations
Assessments to keep longer-term goals in view (and evaluate against them)