Commonality and Diversity in Effective Teaching Richard Watson Todd

What is important in the language classroom? Content Activities Teacher Students

Historic shifts in what is most important focus of articles in ELT Journal Activities, content Activities Teacher Students Do ideas about what is most important in the language classroom simply follow fashion?

But … “All of us do harbour memories of teachers who had a positive or negative impact in our lives” (Leng, 2004: 52)

What makes an effective teacher? Some surveys Oxford 2001 Van Avermaet et al Berendt & Mattsson 2013 Mullock 2003 Participatory teaching approach High expectations, empathy, tolerance, flexibility, enthusiasm A model, cares for students Teaching skills, good attitude to students, personal characteristics

What makes an effective teacher? Comparison of variables Kounin 1970 Observations of 49 classrooms Teacher characteristics linked to successful teaching: –Withitness (awareness of what’s happening) –Overlappingness (ability to do 2 things at once) –Smoothness (flow of the lesson) –Momentum (lesson pacing) –Challenge arousal (keeping students involved) –Variety

What makes an effective teacher? Teaching skills, personality, teacher characteristics, attitude View taken depends on conception of the nature of teaching If teaching is an art, personality If teaching is a science, teaching skills

What makes an effective teacher? Open-ended observations –Reports from observing 15 teachers –Most comments are positive, a few are negative –Comments categorised as: Style/personality Teacher characteristics Teaching skills (e.g. questioning, explaining) Activities used

Positive comments are even across categories –Style: 27.4% –Characteristics: 22.0% –Skills: 27.4% –Activities: 23.2% Negative comments focus on teacher characteristics –Characteristics: 57.1%

Teacher style Intangible Best described through metaphor (Katz, 1996)

Teacher style The teacher as livewire “The class was very dynamic, lively and active”

Teacher style The teacher as soother “The classroom was calm and relaxed but encouraged independent thinking”

Teacher style The teacher as safe harbour “The students feel well-supported … The teacher builds a good safe environment for them to take risks”

Teacher style Contrasting teaching styles are both viewed positively Diversity in effective teaching styles

Teacher characteristics Withitness –Positive comment –“The teacher appeared fully aware and in control of what was happening. In return, the students were highly attentive.” –Negative comment –“It was difficult for the teacher to monitor the students closely, and I noticed the students using their phones a lot.”

Teacher characteristics Smoothness –Positive comment –“There were a couple of problems with the technology but the teacher dealt with these smoothly.” –Negative comment –“Some students were late and interrupted the class, so the teacher may consider how to deal with latecomers.”

Teacher characteristics Challenge arousal –Positive comment –“She addresses particular students to make sure they are on task.” –Negative comment –“There is some downtime for the other students which runs the risk of students’ focus and attention dropping.”

Teacher characteristics Having specific teacher characteristics is always judged positively; not having them is judged negatively Commonalities of effective teacher characteristics Possible to improve teacher characteristics through reflection on videos of own teaching (Snoeyink, 2010)

Effective teacher styles are diverse Effective teacher characteristics are held in common All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way Leo Tolstoy All good teachers are alike in their characteristics; each effective teacher is effective in their own style