What, exactly, is a good teacher?
What makes a good teacher?
An important question, given the nationwide discussion about merit pay and whether it’s time to re-fashion, or simply to do away with, the practice of teacher tenure.
It’s a question too that leads to other questions, such as: can good teaching be effectively measured solely by student test scores; or, will a good teacher succeed anywhere (and a poor one fail) regardless of extrinsic circumstances such as administrative guidance, school facilities and materials, and economic resources of the students; or, will good teachers always remain good and poor ones poor - in other words, are good teachers born or made?
These questions loom as Ann Arbor Public Schools looks to trim its operating budget. Since teacher pay forms a huge portion of that budget, it makes sense to try and understand how best that money should be spent. Is the current system of teacher-evaluation providing the best bang for the buck? Is it ensuring that decisions to hire, grant tenure, or structure a salary scale, result in the best teachers doing their best work in the classroom? Is money spent on professional development money well spent?
Addressing these questions at the local level mirrors the broader conversations happening on a national scale. Was the recent decision to fire all seventy-five teachers at a struggling high school in Rhode Island a good idea or a lousy one? Will the Obama Administration’s Race to the Top program, which is highly focused on merit pay for teachers, improve our schools, maintain the status quo, or hurt them? What should teachers get paid in the first place and how, if at all, should their jobs be protected?
Seems to me we can’t effectively answer any of these questions without a clear understanding of what good teaching is and when (and how) we know it’s happening.
So, again, what makes a good teacher?
I posed this question to Dmitri Barvinok, a former student now in his first year at Michigan State, who stopped by my class for a visit while home on his spring break, and he pointed to several teachers he’d had at Pioneer, all significantly different in style and personality, whom he’d thought had provided him with positive experiences. Some were letter-strict by-the-book types. Others were more unconventional. Different teachers were good teachers in different ways, he said, but it always mattered if the teacher seemed personally engaged in the subject.
I asked a couple veteran teachers at Pioneer the same question and, like Dmitri, neither answered with anything having to do with test scores. Maria Montri felt that a good teacher was one who teaches beyond the material, meaning that in addition to covering the content, the teacher also tries to see each student as a whole person and attempts to help that student grow emotionally and socially as well as intellectually. Shawn Ashley answered the question more simply. One word, he said, passion. Both for subject and the student. Anybody who doesn’t care about children shouldn’t be in the classroom.
These comments seem to reflect the sentiment expressed in the current issue of Newsweek, in which the cover proclaims in a single sentence written repeatedly on a chalkboard that the key to saving American education is “We must fire bad teachers.” In the lead article, which makes the statement that when assessing what makes schools succeed or fail, what really makes a difference, what matters more than the class size or textbook, the teaching method or the technology, or even the curriculum, is the quality of the teacher. The piece then says, Much of the ability to teach is innate - an ability to inspire young minds as well as control unruly classrooms that some people instinctively possess (and some people definitely do not.)
This approach - the good teachers are born not made approach - would seem to argue that if we want to fix America’s educational woes, all we need to do is train administrators to be able to recognize good teaching when they see it, and give them the resources to attract the naturals to the teaching profession and keep them in it once they get there. If that’s the case, we could save an awful lot of money and time currently wasted on staff development and curriculum alignment. All we’d really need to do is find somebody who just gets it, give that teacher a classroom and say, go ahead, do your thing.
The cover story in this week’s New York Times Sunday Magazine, on the other hand, argues essentially the opposite approach. That story, titled Can Good Teaching Be Learned? agrees with Newsweek that the number one factor regarding student success is which teacher the student had been assigned to, but rejects the tenet that good teaching must be purely instinctive, a kind of magic performed by born superstars, a quality the writer of the article also described as a certain inimitable voodoo.
Instead, the Times article insists that good teachers can be made, that certain techniques and practices can transform all kinds of different people from all kinds of backgrounds, with all kinds of different strengths, weaknesses, and talents into effective classroom instructors. In fact, when the article asks the same question I did to start this column - What makes a good teacher? - it answers by saying: There have been many quests for the one essential trait, and they have all come up empty-handed. Among the factors that do not predict whether a teacher will succeed: a graduate-school degree, a high score on the SAT, an extroverted personality, politeness, confidence, warmth, enthusiasm and having passed the teacher-certification test on the first try.
Among other things, the article proposes that teachers need to be better taught methodologies in classroom management, that all the passion and creativity in the world won’t make a difference if the teacher is unaware of or simply fails to implement time-tested techniques that compel students to pay attention and do what he/she wants them to do. From this perspective, what’s needed is more teacher-training, more staff development and standardized methodologies, not less.
I’m not really sure which of these arguments I agree with. I do think some folks just have a natural talent for teaching (or coaching) and could do a good job anywhere regardless of circumstances. When, for instance, I staff the instructors at the VOLUME Summer Institute for Creative Writers at the Neutral Zone, I often hire folks who’ve had no formal training as teachers. However, I’ve seen them in action. I know the good teaching when I see it and, by and large, this approach has been successful. Our instructors are terrific and the students experience tremendous growth. On the other hand, I also think certain classroom management techniques I learned in my own teacher-training have been crucial to my evolution as a teacher. I don’t think I’m naturally adept at standing in front of a roomful of students and getting them to do what I want. Had I not learned some tricks-of-the-trade early on, I think I’d have been pretty lost.
So, good reader, I’ll put the questions to you - are good teachers born or made?
What makes a good teacher?
** NOTE - Tonight kicks off the 2010 Ann Arbor Youth Poetry Slam season. If you’re interested in hearing what the next generation of powerful young writers in this community have to say, you can hear their words on any one of the five following nights: The Huron Poetry Slam on Thursday 3/11; the Community Poetry Slam on Friday 3/12; the Pioneer Poetry Slam on Thursday 3/18; the first ever Skyline Poetry Slam on Friday 3/19; and the spectacular Slam Finals on Thursday 3/25. All the preliminary slams are at the smaller theaters or auditoriums in the respective high schools and are free and open to all students and the general public. The finals cost $5 for students and $7 for members of the general public. All events start @ 7pm. The Finals will be packed so get there by 6:45 if you want a seat. **
Jeff Kass teaches Creative Writing at Pioneer High School in Ann Arbor and at Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti, and directs the Literary Arts Programs at the Neutral Zone, including the VOLUME Youth Poetry Project, which meets every Thursday night at 7pm. He will post new blog entries every Thursday morning throughout the school year.
Comments
Melanie Carbine
Wed, Mar 17, 2010 : 8:19 p.m.
Clearly the discussion on this has been very extended and I'm just beginning to think about what it would mean to have a merit based system. Basically there should be a base pay for so many years experience (not necessarily in one district alone) and a 10%, 20% increase based on performance evaluations/rubrics before the next pay bracket. And, those bonuses should be expected and sufficient paper work/documentation to justify not giving the mark up. The union is supposed to make sure that it's fair. Teaching is hard and it's like having 20-30 plus their parents evaluating your performance everyday.
Lisa Starrfield
Wed, Mar 17, 2010 : 5:19 p.m.
EyeheartA2, I hate to tell you this but I do my best to avoid building gossip so I don't know to whom you refer. However, if one of your child's teachers is not doing his/her job or is inappropriate, then there is a process to handle it as I am sure you know if your X and Y are who I think they are. I would recommend discussing your concerns about your child's current teacher (I read this as a single teacher, perhaps I was mistaken) with his or her counselor or one of our administrators. But I do want to warn you that students don't always notice everything and their opinion can be quite different than an adults about what justifies removal from the classroom. And I am sorry you feel I am 'carping' about 10% but I cannot support a system which has so many flaws, doesn't work perfectly where it is in place and improves nothing. Based upon my experience out of state, merit pay can not be relied upon; it will be cut as soon as the budget becomes tight. As for grades, grades can, unfortunately, be arbitrary. I do my best to be sure students know how they will be graded and why. Most teachers do but there is little that is political or personal in grading a math test or science lab. However, a difference in opinion should never result in a lower score and unfortunately, in education, there is a history of undesired opinions having ramifications for teachers with position and pay. If you want to continue this conversation, please contact me directly. It's quite frustrating having this kind of one-sided conversation with someone who obviously knows who I am while I have very little information about the person I speaking with.
Lisa Starrfield
Tue, Mar 16, 2010 : 7:40 p.m.
EyeheartA2, Respect for the teaching profession? What respect? You mean insinuating that I'm a bad teacher and would get crap pay because I don't jump on the bandwagon. None of the issues I raise are addressed.. merely dismissed as what 'everyone else' has to deal with. Not one person has challenged my premise (based upon experience mind you) that this is an attempt to lower the base salary of teachers and that in the next budget crisis, the bonuses will be cut. No one. Because you know what we will hear then... "Those greedy teachers wanting a bonus for doing their job right.. well, I didn't get my bonus this year, why should they?" and the bonuses will be gone, our decent level of pay will be gone and we will be left bereft. Until those advocating merit pay can adequately answer my concerns, I cannot support it. But hey, if it makes you feel better, assume it is because I'm a bad teacher.
Lisa Starrfield
Tue, Mar 16, 2010 : 11:08 a.m.
EyeheartA2, Merit pay doesn't work beautifuly in the business world either. Pretty people, people who kiss their bosses behinds or say politically correct things often get better raises, choice vacation slots. I don't think that is reasonable. When you can show me an merit pay evaluation method that isn't political in nature, that adequately handles the difference in the disciplines, that doesn't lead to infighting amongst the staff or grade inflation, then maybe we can talk about merit pay... but I still won't trust it because I believe (based upon experience) that merit pay is excuse to cut teacher base salary all the while knowing that 'bonuses' will be easy to take away.
Ram
Mon, Mar 15, 2010 : 7:35 p.m.
Correction to Strider's post: For the record, that was Rosie who got fired, not me. I am not and have no claimed to be a teacher
krc
Mon, Mar 15, 2010 : 10:36 a.m.
As an aside, try taking 27 kids down the hall to a 'special'. If the kids stay in line, don't talk and don't touch the whole way there, well, I think that is also part of good teaching.
northside
Sun, Mar 14, 2010 : 5:17 p.m.
I'm in shock: a piece on education that asks thoughtful questions and doesn't claim to have all the answers. What a refreshing change from the endless stream of "I know exactly what's wrong in education and how to fix it" op-eds.
Strider
Sun, Mar 14, 2010 : 3:42 p.m.
Let me start by saying that our teachers are some of the most under-appreciated, hard working, and underpaid people in this country. Many have an incredibly difficult job, that is being made nearly impossible due to the breakdown of the family in this country. We wont fix our schools until we pay attention to the importance of the family in the childs education. But that is another topic. I wanted to address merit pay and tenure. A while ago while serving on a local school board I was shocked to learn how pay was handed out to the teachers based on a formula involving education and years experience. I couldnt believe that the truly talented teachers at the school were getting the same pay as the mediocre ones with the same experience. Yet this was seen as an accepted practice that couldnt be changed. I come from the business world and we cant imagine surviving with that kind of approach. How do we expect our schools to work when we fail to reward good teachers? Kelly bemoans the fact that teachers who shmooze do better: yep that happens in the business world too. We deal with it, so can you. Eventually good supervisors will recognize a schmoozer for what they are: worthless. Either they get weeded out of a company or the company will become so bloated with useless people that it will go under. Fortunately most of the places I have worked at the schmoozers are quickly seen for the frauds they are and they leave in a huff for not being appreciated. Several people (I think all of them admitted teachers) complain that there really are no good objective criteria by which to measure every teacher. No one sees them teach, there are difficult subjects, difficult students and difficult environments. Yep we deal with all those things in the business world too. I manage a small eclectic groups of researchers. These are really smart people doing challenging work. Some projects are trying to do the impossible, others are easier. Some have lots of funding, others operate on a shoestring. Some require long hard hours, others can be done in a leisurely 50 hour work week. They come from all different disciplines: software engineers, computer scientists, social scientists, psychologists. They work on many projects, most of which I dont get to participate in directly. There are few objective criteria to evaluate any of them and none that can evaluate all of them. I rely on 360 reviews (with careful attention to the interpersonal dynamics and scoring tendencies) and where there are unexpected negative reviews I delve in deeper to get to the bottom of the issue. Its hard work and takes a lot of judgment, but in the end I believe it is fair and equitable. If I asked the readers how many of them think they could tell the really good and the really bad teachers in a school after being involved with it for a few years, I bet nearly everyone would be able to say yes, they could. The biggest impediment to good teacher evaluation is good supervisors. They need to be less tied up with administration and more involved with the teachers and what is happening in the classrooms, with the students, and with the parents. Until that happens, I wouldnt want them evaluating me! But this is something that can and must be fixed. Ram almost lost a job (prior to tenure) when a parent decided to take out their frustrations through outrageous claims. Other teachers have lost their jobs from personal vendettas, politics, or rocking the boat (I know some personally). Yep that happens all the time in the business world (I know many personally). Oh, and you can rarely do anything about it unless you can prove discrimination of some kind. But we dont have tenure to protect peoples jobs in the business world. It would be unthinkable. Tenure may have a place (with certain caveats) in the universities, but it simply has to go from primary and secondary education. So what about those teachers who wrongly lose their jobs because they dont have tenure? Well these things have a way of working themselves out in the business world. Supervisors who behave this way dont tend to last long as their performance is going to be judged by how well their group is performing and no group will perform well under such poor supervision. Oh we dont evaluate our school supervisors that way? Guess what: that has to change (are you catching my drift here?)
proudtobeme
Fri, Mar 12, 2010 : 11:55 p.m.
I think you need to ask students what makes a good teacher. When I think back to my school days I have a few teachers who pop into my mind. My 5th grade teacher was really good at math and her passion for it instilled a passion in me. She also believed in me and told me I could do whatever I put my mind to. To me no test scores,or teacher evaluations are comparable to what a student thinks about you after they have left your class. If as a teacher you have made that student feel good about themselves but more importantly they left your room feeling that they could do anything they wanted to do in life, then you,teacher,have done your job. Everybody has one teacher that left an impression on them.
Greg Bergin
Fri, Mar 12, 2010 : 10:54 p.m.
Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination are omnipotent. The slogan 'press on' has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race. ~ Calvin Coolidge Let's be careful what we wish for. There is a very low correlation between high grades/test scores and later success in life, and a much higher one for the number of years one STAYS in school and later success in life. A degree in statistics is not necessary to see the truth in the above. Valedictorians do not run our schools, businesses, nor government. Commoditizing our students in the name of MARGINAL additional reward for the teacher is foolish. First, it is manipulative. Second, should "manipulation" be wordsmithed to "revised curriculum," what benefit will go to the student? Higher grades do not mean/guarantee later reward. They, rightfully, would want something NOW for their part in the performance. Third, student resistance to learning (the "Go ahead, try to make me learn" mentality) would jump at least proportionally. Fourth, to paraphrase Lincoln, those who support merit pay should have it tried on them, and their children, first.
Lisa Starrfield
Fri, Mar 12, 2010 : 2:46 p.m.
Braggslaw, I hate to tell you this but public schools are here to educate everyone's children not just yours and school employees exercising their RIGHT to collective bargaining has zero negative impact on a child's education.
Lisa Starrfield
Fri, Mar 12, 2010 : 11:37 a.m.
Mr. Jacobs, Can you please identify which best practices in education are not being used in Ann Arbor?
Soothslayer
Fri, Mar 12, 2010 : 11:09 a.m.
I'm the product of a well funded but nonetheless pretty crummy public k-12 school system. I wasn't challenged, I didn't care and most of the facultys attitudes were similar. My parents played little/no role in my education excepting to remind me to get my homework done and being disappointed about my mediocre performance scores and marks showing "not reaching potential" but nothing every was changed/done about it. Teachers read the WSJ at school and were generally not engaged in the process. We had a few bright teacher stars who you could tell were interested in being there and making a difference and they shone so brightly compared to the others. I can only hope that we've all had at least one of these so we can see the difference and its terrible they are/were so far and few between. The ENTIRE public school system nationwide is broken. Instead of continuing to employ the best practices like any successful corporation would we entrench, retreat, blame and put our heads in the sand. Instead of employing best practices a good education experience appears to be the unwitting, mystical and happenstance product of adequate resources/healthy tax base AND administrative/teacher competency/attitude AND parental investment/attitude/support AND student investment/attitude AND a successful/best practice curriculum. All of these core items have to be present to ensure success. Removing or diminishing any one of these key components almost ensures failure of the entire program. Most modern activities and initiatives dealing with the concerning issues seem to be focused on pushing the blame up/around with parents blaming teachers, administrators blaming funding, teachers blaming parents/administrators/students and students blaming just about everyone (hey, its their prerogative). If there are limited resources then the attitudes, support and involvement of the faculty, administration, parents and students needs to be that much greater so that they can make up for the deficit. Typically what happens in an unsuccessful system is a downward spiral starting with lack of resources and then general apathy and lack of support from all angles which degrades to finger pointing and blame with no one initiating beneficial action. The MOST important investment we can ever make is to provide our children with best practice education pre-K on and support and encourage them at home to learn and master the subject matter. I have yet to meet any teacher that wasn't pleasantly surprised and encouraged by a student genuinely eager to learn and be attending school. Throwing more money at the issue is not the answer. For any successful service adequate resources ARE required but a change in attitude and support can happen at ANY time regardless of market and financial conditions. Want to make a change for the better? Start with investing time/support in your own family and branch out from there. If anything good came out of the Bush era was the idea to become one of the thousands points of light. I couldn't agree more and the sooner the better. Our children and our future depend on it.
sunlvr
Fri, Mar 12, 2010 : 9:27 a.m.
Lisa, thank you for your last comment. It truly is hard for people outside of the classroom to evaluate your effectiveness based solely on what the business world would call acceptable. Our success as a teacher is evident in the successes of students in our classroom; as teachers know, sometimes that idea can be lost on the political fights we face- especially in this econonmy where teacher's jobs are no longer as secure as we once thought. But I know as a teacher, I look at everyday as a chance to help at least ONE student. My classes are all just students who need extra help, so if I can help one student succeed per day, I have done my job much better than if I just taught my students to a test, had them rote learn and memorize facts, then score 100% and move on to the next grade- thats why I have 8th grade students in a specialized reading program who can only read at a 1st grade level. So determining a teacher's effectiveness should be based on their drive, committment, and ability to find to success in their student- not how smiley they are, not how many clubs they lead, and certaintly not if they can teach to a standardized test.
Lisa Starrfield
Fri, Mar 12, 2010 : 8:36 a.m.
EyeheartA2, You want my pay to become a political decision. Here are your suggestions: - An assessment of standardized scores Not all teachers' work could be assessed in this way. Do music, art, kindergarten teachers get zeros? How do math and science teachers fare when science is only assessed every three years? - Work done "above and beyond" (attending that concert after hours, making yourself available for tutoring after 4:00, yearbook etc.) So I get less pay because I have children to tend to? Clubs and other activities are already paid positions. But voluntarily attending activities in which you are not a participant will now equal cash? Do certain activities garner more cash than others? This will result in a lawsuit as it INHERENTLY discriminates against those with their own family obligations. - The difficulty of your subject matter (OK, this one might be dicey, but I would suggest some subjects are "harder" than others, but if you don't like it, leave it out.) Some subjects are harder to teach than others but you do realize that seniority determines who teaches what? Senior teachers get first pick so if they want the 'harder' advanced math classes, they get them. Or do you mean you want to pay science teachers more than say PE teachers? - Relationships with parents - this could be done via a survey. So if I give all my students A's, don't penalize kids for not doing homework, and tell everyone their little Johnny is going places, I can get more cash? - 360 degree survey including your peers My peers are never in my classroom when I am teaching. - Professional advancement (advanced degrees and seminars) I thought people didn't like paying more money for Masters degreed teachers? - Attitude - yep, your bosses get to make the call on this one, just like everywhere else. My attitude.. where? In the classroom? In faculty meetings? At professional development? Do I lose cash if I ask the wrong questions and get more if I'm perky? What does this have to do with being a good teacher? So what you describe is pretty much political evaluation of teachers which has NOTHING to do with the effectiveness of a teacher.
Rosie
Thu, Mar 11, 2010 : 11:06 p.m.
Sadly as a teacher I have to agree with Jake C who said that teachers who hand out good grades and make friends with the parents and administration will be more "successful" in their career than those who hold true to their professional beliefs, doing what is best for the students. I lost a job because of that. Tenure can work both ways. I would have not lost my job if I had had tenure at the time; it would have been a good thing. I almost lost my job when a parent decided to take her frustrations from the previous year out on me. She knew I was a newer teacher and guessed that if I didn't have tenure protection she could make outrageous claims and get me fired. Because her claims were completely unfounded I was fine, but sometimes good people lose their jobs when false accusations are made. I have known many administrators who would get rid of a good teacher simply because he/she did not like the individual. Yet at the same time there are incompetent teachers and administrators who are protected by the tenure law. Incompetent persons can be removed from their jobs; it just takes some effort on the part of the administration to gather evidence of poor performance.
Ram
Thu, Mar 11, 2010 : 10:24 p.m.
Recommended Reading: http://www.educationreport.org/9598
fed-up
Thu, Mar 11, 2010 : 10:20 p.m.
I have always been in favor of merit based pay for teachers but also believe that it can not be based on test scores alone. I would like to see a system like others have suggested that would be based on test scores, parent evaluations, student evals, administration evaluation, and further education. If the Union wanted to truly move education forward they would be working with the district to move towards a system like this and do away with tenure. My sons teacher this year is a great example of why tenure does not work. His teacher is one of the oldest teachers at his school. She has poor communication with us parents, provided no homework or any feedback on what was happening in the classroom till January because she "didn't have a student teacher". The principal has reported to several parents that he can do nothing because she is tenure. Also she does little from what I have observed to try to accomidate students that have different learning styles or that are struggeling.
limmy
Thu, Mar 11, 2010 : 8:58 p.m.
Great questions. One thing I know -- what is a great school, teacher, program for one student may very well not be very good for another. I would love to see some evaluations that included a simple survey of both parents and students. I believe that most colleges survey students. It wouldn't need to be complex and there could just be a small number of random surveys selected for data. It would give trends and I think it would be really great to see the feedback from the students and parents.
Lisa Starrfield
Thu, Mar 11, 2010 : 6:23 p.m.
Eyeheart2, There are evaluation processes in place for teachers; they are acceptable.. neither great nor terrible. But what is assessed (at least for newer teachers) is mastery of teaching skills. ALL teachers are expected to have mastered all skills before reaching tenure and are not kept if they have not mastered those skills. What we find bizarre is that people keep telling us that we should be getting merit pay without any appropriate way of determining who gets low pay and who gets higher pay. Not all teachers teach subjects or grades for which there are standardized tests. Groups of students are not equal from one year to the next... do I get great pay this year because I happen to have a really strong group of kids? And what about next year if I have a group that is struggling?
Good2catchu
Thu, Mar 11, 2010 : 4:01 p.m.
Jeff I'm sorry to say I find your writing long winded and lacks true substance although the subjects are thought provoking. My interest to keep reading wanes long before the conclusion. One lesson I learned about life is keeping three things in balance and so applying it to teaching it would be Student, subject and classroom environment, if you fail to keep them all balanced something will have to fail. Concentrating on an individual would result in the remainder of the class becoming disconnected and just preaching watching the class without checking the individuals understanding fails too. I also think at the beginning of the year all students should do a subject test and again at the end of the year the same test, obviously teaching to the test is an option but overall a good teacher would have succeeded in teaching all the subject matter competently and ideally 100% but by knowing all the students have truly learned and understood there would be a measurable improvement for every individual. On a sour note I know of teachers who use the same copied text papers from thirty years ago and others who frequently handout worksheets for self learning from the textbook. One individual is incapable of performing what he asks the students to do setting an inappropriate example of positional power and tenure protection. I believe most teachers start out with great beliefs but soon succumb to the its a job frustrated by all the bureaucracy contented by annual wage increases and excellent job security with all the benefits working for a public (government) job. Retiring early on an enviable pension paid for by our taxes. Times are changing and many good teachers will be lost.
FLC
Thu, Mar 11, 2010 : 3:40 p.m.
I've heard it said, sometimes negatively, that education consists of a little preparation and a lot of theater. Anybody who saw Jeff's show last spring, however, can verify not just that statement but also its potential to be positive. One of the most spot-on ideas here is that good teachers can "put themselves into someone else's head" to figure out how that person learns. Furthermore, a common characteristic of the great teachers Jeff mentions at the Volume Summer Institute is not just their intuitive teaching "ability," but also their giftedness in the area of performance - of their work and of their workshops. Given all that, might some kind of "performance" training - and not just teaching-specific training, but theater and improv straight up, even on those "professional development days" - be useful as part of teacher education? It might democratize the issue of being "compelling" as a teacher and provide a new forum for creative problem-solving. Being a student, and NOT a student of education, I don't know whether or not that's been tried, but if not, it might be something to consider.
Sara H.
Thu, Mar 11, 2010 : 3:13 p.m.
I think you missed an important point from the NY Times article you cited. UofM's Dean of Education, Deborah Loewenberg Ball, is quoted: Teaching depends on what other people think, not what you think. In other words, teachers need to empathize with the way their students think and learn. For instance, the article describes Ball's work with "Mathematical Knowledge for Teaching": "She theorized that it included everything from the 'common' math understood by most adults to math that only teachers need to know, like which visual tools to use to represent fractions (sticks? blocks? a picture of a pizza?) or a sense of the everyday errors students tend to make when they start learning about negative numbers. At the heart of M.K.T., she thought, was an ability to step outside of your own head." The NYTimes article indicated that Prof. Ball and others have developed tests to measure whether teachers of maths have high or low MKT, but they are still working out how to increase MKT among those with low scores. I inferred from the article that it may be possible to teach MKT skills, but there may be an element of the "innate" ability to teach that people have assumed in the past was the definitive difference between good and bad teachers. It's exciting (and a hopeful development for the State of Michigan) that MSU and UofM seem to be centers for research on improving teaching methods.
Patti Smith
Thu, Mar 11, 2010 : 2 p.m.
I have pondered this question many times. I am a special ed teacher and I hope with all of my heart that I am a "good teacher". I think you have to have be able to respect kids as they are and offer unconditional love. I teach in the D, most of the kids in my school get free lunches (high poverty school). The kids I deal with should know that I love them no matter what. I am not afraid to say I'm wrong or that I made a mistake. You have to be patient, flexible and have empathy but at the same time, you can't be their "friend". You should be able to "speak their language" so they'll hear you but then have a way to let them know when you mean business (I just say, "Don't make me put on my Teacher voice). I'm lucky though--I have great kids to work with. I also want to agree with the person who said good students have good parents. This isn't always true, but I have seen it so many times. For instance, I have kids who are totally blind, live in the D, parents work hard at low paying jobs, and the kids could just say, "To hell with this!" and stop showing up. But they don't. They keep coming and keep trying because they are getting so much support and love at home. Then again, I have kids who were born addicted to crack, have questionable home lives, never learned to read (I am trying SO HARD to teach this one kid!!!) and they keep showing up too...so maybe sometimes it's just within the individual kid to keep showing up and keep trying.
DagnyJ
Thu, Mar 11, 2010 : 1:40 p.m.
So Jeff, are you saying that you can't learn how to teach? Or you can't learn how to teach better? That you are just born to it? If that's the case, then why do school districts pay more money to teachers based on experience? Because if teachers are born, then no amount of experience will improve their teaching and so they don't deserve to get paid more just for hanging around a school longer.
crayzee
Thu, Mar 11, 2010 : 12:46 p.m.
Good article. I agree it is challenging to characterize a "good" or "great" teacher. Like the article suggests, my kids have had many good and great teachers in the AAPS, yet they were all different. It is probably easier to consistently characterize "poor" or "incompetent" teachers. Kids have lower scores or less subject matter knowledge (as measured in the *next* classroom or next grade), there are discipline problems, kids report much less interest in the subject matter, adopt negative attitudes about school/homework/etc. Teachers know who among their peers are the poorly performing ones, because they inherit the results. Yet, because of union contracts, the schools are handcuffed and cannot change out the poor teachers. This needs to be changed. It is not like this in the "real world".
Jake C
Thu, Mar 11, 2010 : 12:38 p.m.
Like almost any job, there's multiple ways to consider what makes a teacher "good". A teacher can encourage kids to grow their own individual strengths and do amazing things, but be mediocre at interacting with their parents and the school administration, which unfortunately makes the teacher more likely to be let go or have their budget cut. Or, someone can be mediocre at teaching, but gives all their students undeserved above-average grades and is also an expert at schmoozing with parents and school admins. It's sad, but the second kind of teacher is the one more likely to be successful in today's school climate (and the same applies to just about any other job).
Kelly
Thu, Mar 11, 2010 : 12:25 p.m.
As a teacher, I can say that teaching is much like any other profession: some people have a natural ability or talent, but good training and lots of practice make someone truly great. In other words, "good" teachers might be born that way, but I'd rather be a "great" teacher - which only happens from working with other master teachers, applying their practices, and constantly working to be better. Unfortunately, additional master's level classes and additional years of experience (how teachers are currently earning pay raises) does not necessarily make a great teacher. Consistently doing great things in the classroom makes a great teacher. Can those of us who work hard and get good results please be recognized for that?
skigrl50
Thu, Mar 11, 2010 : 11:52 a.m.
I do think people can be trained to be good teachers, but GREAT teachers have to have passion for their subject, their students and life itself!
krc
Thu, Mar 11, 2010 : 11:46 a.m.
It takes a gifted teacher to reach kids today. Not only does he or she get them to love to learn, they end up loving the teacher and doing anything the teacher wants them to. I Know, I've seen it happen with a group of 27 at risk kids. Robin, if you are following this, hats off to you!!
belboz
Thu, Mar 11, 2010 : 11:13 a.m.
What makes a good teacher? Kids with good parents.
Lisa Starrfield
Thu, Mar 11, 2010 : 10:44 a.m.
The idea that how one feels about a task is more important than one's competence at said task is dangerous. How does one quantify and observe feelings? I've had and seen teachers who were passionate about what they did but incompetent. I've also seen extremely competent teachers who seemed passionless. I think this idea that there is a single definition of a good teacher or good teaching is foolhardy just as I think the idea that a single prescription will 'fix' education or even that 'education' in America is broken. Rather, we have a patchwork system in this nation with some outstanding schools, some schools doing okay and we have some broken schools. In all these discussions about merit pay, I have yet to see a well thought out and equitable plan for evaluating teachers to justify giving one teacher $40,000 and another teaching the same subject, with the same experience and education $60,000.