She's Strict for a Good Reason: Highly Effective
Teachers in Low-Performing Urban Schools
Poplin, Mary; Rivera, John;
Durish, Dena; Hoff, Linda; Kawell, Susan; Pawlak, Pat; Hinman, Ivannia Soto;
Straus, Laura; Veney, Cloetta
Phi Delta Kappan, v92 n5 p39-43 Feb 2011
A most interesting
and thought provoking paper:
The authors
studied for four years 31 teachers that
were recognized as "very effective " in nine low performing schools
in poor neighborhoods in California.
The teacher's effectiveness was defined according to their student's
achievement levels. The effective teachers included in this
research were those who had the highest
percentage of students moving up a level on the English/language arts or math
subtests of the California Standards Test (CST) for two to three years. Thirty four percent of their students maintained their levels, and only 15% dropped a level.
What distinguished these highly effective
teachers?
1. Strictness – the effective teachers believed that their strictness is
necessary for efficient teaching and learning and for a sense of security and
respect in the classroom. Their students
thought that
"the teacher is strict because she wants us to succeed in
life."
2. Instructional intensity - the
effective teachers taught intensively throughout the whole lesson. They meticulously followed and
"covered" the state curriculum for the grade they were teaching, and
aspired to teach a little of the following year's curriculum. The efficient teachers told their students
what they are about to teach, lived up to their timetable, and gave the
students clear directions.
3. Movement in class and lots of one- on- one
interaction – the efficient teachers moved around the classroom to assist students, to give them feedback, to refocus them, to encourage
them and to personally connect with them.
4. Traditional instruction – the efficient
teachers taught in an explicit, teacher-directed way. Typically, following
energetic content presentations and demonstrations, teachers entered into
whole-class discussions. Students were called
on randomly and had to use full sentences and high-level vocabulary. The
effective teachers kept pushing their students forward, expecting better
answers and better work.
5. In the effective teacher's classes there were
very few constructivist projects. Cooperative
and collaborative learning activities were also limited.
(in the constructivist
approach, the student doesn’t receive
information passively from his teacher, but constructs the information himself
in an internal cognitive process, by linking new knowledge to old one. In this process he himself is active). – This
is translated from Wikipedia in Hebrew.
6. The effective teachers encouraged the
students to think about their future, and linked success in school to high
education, a good job and a good life.
They were not focused on making the content immediately relevant to the
students, but stressed on its relevance to the student's future. They focused on specific virtues such as
mutual respect, hard work, responsibility, not giving up, and thinking about
consequences.
7. Respect for the students – the effective
teachers had deep respect for their students and they were optimistic about
their student's future.
