She's Strict for a Good Reason: Highly Effective Teachers in Low-Performing Urban Schools

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

http://pdk.sagepub.com/content/92/5/39.full

 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.