1. Mapping the Road: Success in Language Training How schools and teachers exercise considerable influence over the learning curve

2. Research put into action Schools and teachers affect student achievement

3. Robert J. Marzano 35 yrs. of research into 3 general factors –School-level factors –Teacher-level factors –Student-level factors

4. Robert J. Marzano 35 yrs. of research into 3 general factors –School-level factors –Teacher-level factors –Student-level factors

5. School-level factors Opportunity to learn

6. School-level factors Opportunity to learn Time

7. School-level factors Opportunity to learn Time Monitoring

8. School-level factors Opportunity to learn Time Monitoring Client involvement

9. School-level factors Opportunity to learn Time Monitoring Client involvement School climate

10. School-level factors Opportunity to learn Time Monitoring Client involvement School climate Leadership Cooperation

11. Robert J. Marzano 35 yrs. of research into 3 general factors –School-level factors –Teacher-level factors –Student-level factors

12. Teacher-level factors Under control of individual teachers –Specific instructional strategies –Classroom management techniques –Classroom curriculum design

13. Professionalism Efficacy of the teachers (Peterson: 1994) Level of teacher experience (Ferguson: 1991)

14. Quality assurance 1.Teacher education programme accreditation 2.Initial teacher licensing 3.Advanced professional certification

15. What about subject-matter knowledge vs. achievement? Not a straightforward relationship 17 out of 31 studies positive ( Byrne: 1983) 5 out of 14 studies positive (Ashton & Crocker: 1987) Only up to a certain point (Monk: 1994)

16. What about subject-matter knowledge vs. achievement? The more a teacher knows about the subject-matter, the better teacher he will be.

17. What about subject-matter knowledge vs. achievement? The more a teacher knows about the subject-matter, the better teacher he will be.

18. What about subject-matter knowledge vs. achievement? A critical minimum of knowledge is needed differing from grade level to grade level.

19. What about pedagogical knowledge vs. achievement? = consistently associated with student achievement

20. What about pedagogical knowledge vs. achievement? It may be that the positive effects of subject matter knowledge are augmented or offset by knowledge of how to teach the subject to various kinds of students. That is, the degree of pedagogical skill may interact with subject matter knowledge to bolster or reduce teacher performance. (Darling –Hammond: 2000)

21. What about pedagogical knowledge vs. achievement? In a related study of 200 teachers, the amount of courses teachers took in instructional techniques accounted for four times the variance in teacher performance than did subject-matter knowledge. (Ferguson and Womack: 1993)

22. What about pedagogical knowledge vs. achievement? Teacher participation in professional development activities accounts for significant amounts of variation in achievement. (Weglinsky: 2000)

23. What influence does an individual teacher have? Independent impact on student achievement Instructional strategies Classroom management Classroom curriculum design

24. What influence does an individual teacher have? decisions individual teachers > decisions at school level

25. What influence does an individual teacher have? Report on achievement scores for 60,000 students (Wright, Horn & Sanders: 1997) student learning most affected by teacher wide variation in effectiveness among teachers

26. What influence does an individual teacher have? […] the most important factor affecting student learning is the teacher. In addition, the results show wide variation in effectiveness among the teachers. The immediate and clear implication of this finding is that seemingly more can be done to improve education by improving the effectiveness of teachers than by any other single factor. Effective teachers appear to be effective with students of all achievement levels […] If the teacher is ineffective, students under that teacher’s tutelage will achieve inadequate progress academically, regardless of how similar or different they are regarding their academic achievement. (Wright, Horn & Sanders: 1997)

27. What influence does an individual teacher have? Report on achievement scores for 60,000 students (Wright, Horn & Sanders: 1997) Improve effectiveness of teachers Improve education True for all achievement levels

28. What influence does an individual teacher have? Student achievement differences affected by teachers TeacherStudent achievement gain in 1 year Least effective14 percentage points Most effective53 percentage points

29. What influence does an individual teacher have? Cumulative effects over three years between students with least effective versus most effective teachers Most effective teacher83 percentile point gain Least effective teacher29 percentile point gain

30. Cumulative effect If the effect of attending the class of one of the least effective teachers for some time is not debilitating enough, the cumulative effect can be devastating.

31. Conclusion Professionalism includes a certain level of knowledge about one’s subject area, but perhaps more important, it also involves pedagogical knowledge of how best to teach that subject-matter content.

32. Conclusion If the individual teacher is the most important factor affecting student learning and If the effectiveness of that teacher primarily depends on her/his pedagogical achievements Then our main concern when recruiting new teachers should be a pedagogical one.