Defining Factors of Good Teaching

When people think back to their childhood, they often think of their teachers. Whether for good or bad reasons, teachers leave a lasting impression on each one of us. A teacher can spark a passion in you that you never knew you had, or damper the joy you once had for learning. A teacher can lift your spirits when you enter the classroom, or leave you feeling crushed. A teacher can prove that you are worthy of knowledge, or belittle your intelligence. Clearly there is a difference between good teaching and poor teaching. But what factors really makes a teacher a good one, rather than bad or even mediocre? Research as well as personal experience consistently point to the same defining characteristics. Good teaching consists of caring for and building relationships with students, holding the belief that all students are capable of achieving, presenting academic content effectively, and having a reflective mindset with the notion that teaching is multi-faceted and always changing. As a brand new teacher with minimal experience in the field, I was confident about one idea: establishing rapport demonstrating my care and interest towards students was key to a successful school year. This proved to be true in my first job as a fifth grade teacher in Chicago Public Schools. I spent a great deal of time at the beginning of the year getting to know my students and discovering what was important to them. I asked questions, made connections, and shared my own life when them. As a result, my students were comfortable in the classroom and more motivated to work hard and participate, especially since I knew what was motivating for them. Robin McBee (2007) agreed, writing that to care deeply and to demonstrate that care, teachers must know their students' needs and interests (p. 2). McBee went on to detail research that showed the importance of caring. When surveys were distributed to teachers and teacher candidates, it was made evident that offering help, showing interest in the students, and showing

compassion were all valued by educators and essential pieces in developing these caring relationships. These are all ways that I reached and continue to reach students in my own classroom. William Ayers (2010) wrote, From the perspective of an ethic of caring, it is the person before us who becomes our central concern. This in no way implies a lack of concerns for academic rigor or excellence, or for basic teaching skills, but it does mean that skills are taught, for example, as a result of care for that person (p. 36). Establishing a sense of care not only makes a direct impact on students but also on teachers and the quality of teaching that is delivered. Because I care, I am willing to spend my weekends working. Because I care, I want to stay late after school to help with homework. Because I care, I take the time to differentiate instruction and find ways to teach in more creative ways. When teachers care about their students, they instinctively find ways to teach better. They are not just teaching for the sake of teaching, but teaching to better the lives of the students who they have a meaningful relationship with. The result is more effective teachers and better educated students. Caring for students is not, however, only reflected in a teachers interactions with students. It is also reflected in the teachers thoughtful approach to instruction with his or her students specific needs and backgrounds in mind. I have found this to be especially true in both of my inner-city teaching jobs. I have had students with a wide range of challengesa parent in jail, several younger siblings to help raise, and even homelessness. The importance I placed on caring for my students did not change, but the mode through which I would show and experience this caring relationship did change when I realized how much extra support students might need. Richard Weissbourd (2009) explained how important it is to address the issue of quiet problems, or problems that can go virtually unnoticed because they do not always appear immediately or obviously in the classroom. While these problems may go unnoticed, they can be

extremely detrimental to a childs learning and development. Weissbourd wrote, But a very small amount of effort can go a long way in preventing serious problems (p. 8). By taking some time to be careful in my instructional planningallowing extra time to work on projects in class, giving students an opportunity for help with homework after school, being mindful of the fact that students may not have access to the internetI am showing that I care. In addition to what can be done instructionally for students, taking action to help students on a basic-needs level is another factor in caring for students and in good teaching in general. Weissbourd mentioned that teachers and their schools can partner with food banks, homeless shelters, etc. to provide for the needs of their students (p. 7). Being a good teacher, then, means adjusting in the classroom to meet the needs of students but also going beyond the classroom to ensure a students well-being. In order for a teacher to be considered good, he or she must also have a strong belief in the abilities of his or her students. Put simply, a teacher must know that all students are capable of learning. Part of this belief means that teacher bias needs to be eliminated. For example, a teacher with limited experience teaching racially or socio-economically diverse students may have preconceived notions about what these students can or cannot learn. A teacher who teaches science may think that the males in the class know the material better, and inadvertently show this through his or her actions in the classroom. Camille Cooper (2003) recognized that these biases exits and explains the detrimental effect they can have on students. She wrote, Teachers' judgment and treatment of students has tremendous influence on their educational and emotional development, and also impacts how students are labeled, and thus able to access educational resources (p. 104). Cooper mentioned that it is a teachers position of power that gives a teacher so much influence in determining a students success. She said that because of this position of power, biases should be eliminated and instead teachers should become social justice educators.

According to Cooper: Social justice educatorsrecognize that social is inequitable. Hence, they expect students of color, along with those who are poor, disabled, female, or have limited English language skills, to encounter racism, classism, and other forms of discrimination as part of their efforts to become productive and prosperous citizens. (p. 105). When teachers do just thattake what seem as obstacles to student success and instead recognize them as stepping stones in growing as a student and personthey empower students and open doors for success and achievement. In my short time as a teacher I have come to realize being confident in each students ability to succeed is essential to good teaching. While I cannot remember a time when I thought that some students were impossible to teach or simply could not learn, through experience as well as research I now understand that teaching is ineffective without this belief. In my first year of teaching, I had a student who was essentially written off by his previous teachers and even the administration. An English language learner who had once been homeless, this student had received the message that he was incapable of learning, and it was clear that he believed it too. I refused to agree and throughout the course of the year I slowly built up his confidence. I reminded him again and again that he could do whatever task I set before him, and set small goals to establish a sense of success. Eventually his academic achievement increased as a result of his newfound confidence. Though he was not at a fifth grade level in reading or math by the end of the year, he accomplished something so much greaterhe proved to himself that he was able to learn, despite what he had previously believed. Good teaching is clearly more than just delivering academic content. However, it is important not to forget that having a deep understanding of academic content and an effective

way to deliver the content is essential to good teaching and making a difference in the lives of students. The actual art of teaching looks different for each teacher, and part of being a good teacher is deciding how the content is going to be presented in the most engaging and effective way possible. At times, this may deviate from the standard way of teaching and functioning in a school. Frances A. Miller (2009) described the success that these types of teachers have. She wrote: Teachers who are positive deviants are our most effective teachers, able to produce results and solutions to problems that others in the learning community cannot. As a result, students in their classroom usually produce assessment scores that are higher than those of students in their colleagues classrooms. (p. 12). Miller goes on to detail positive deviants as teachers who problem solve in creative ways, rather than going along with more typical solutions. Positive deviants quickly adjust to the needs of their students and the school in general, and they are able to seamlessly integrate their own teaching style and understanding of what is effective into the prescribed curriculum and teaching methods (p. 13-14). Positive deviation can be manifested in many different ways and can have multiple positive effects on students. William Ayers (2010) wrote about positive deviation through liberating the curriculum. Rather than being guided by a strict set of rules and regulations from the administration, good teachers deviate from the prescribed curriculum and find ways to make learning as meaningful and powerful for students as possible. Ayers gave several examples of what this looked like in his classroom. Ayers often taught through broad themes that were driven by student interests or relevant issues occurring in the community. Through these themes, students could make deep connections and ask challenging questions to be answered later on.

Ayers mentioned a time when he and his students actually planted and tended to a garden. Participating in community service activities was another fact through which Ayers taught important skills and objectives outside the typical curriculum. (p. 109-110). Ayers wrote, There is no formula or recipe that works for all learners in all times. There is no set of lesson plans or units that can engage the range of learning styles, approaches, and intelligences that are likely to gather in any given classroom (p. 103). Effective instruction, therefore, means being flexible in what you teach and how you teach it in order to meet the specific academic needs of students. The effects of liberating the curriculum can be astounding. I recently read of a teacher named Rafe Esquith. He was told to teach a prescribed curriculum, which he knew would not benefit his fifth grade students. Instead, he taught literacy through Shakespeare plays. Knowing his students learned best through rhythm, rhyme and relatable texts, he believed this would be a more effective and rigorous tool for teaching students what they needed to know. Students studied, memorized, and analyzed the plays. The result was high test scores and high student engagement. Although skeptics thought fifth graders were too young to learn Shakespeare, Esquith believed in his students abilities and did what he knew was best for them. He proved that liberating the curriculum worked. Esquith also believed that a nine month school year was not enough instructional time for his students to learn to the best of their ability. He decided to teach all summer long to continue to nurture his students academic growth. Despite the fact that his school had spare rooms, due to the district politics and regulations he was told that he could not use the rooms. Instead, Esquith told students to meet him on the playground. He met over 30 students there, rain or shine, without payall because he knew it would allow his students to succeed. Clearly, Esquith is a prime example of a positive deviant who liberates the curriculum

in order to teach to the best of his ability. Liberating the curriculum from the confines of predetermined resources and even from pre-determined time constraints is what makes Esquith a good teacher (Mathews, 2009, p. 196-199). Good teaching is multi-faceted. It involves truly caring about each child you interact with, learning more about his or her background and being willing to act on this knowledge, making a conscious effort to eliminate bias, and working hard to deliver effective instruction. Reflecting on all of these factors on a regular basis through an evaluative lens is key to maintaining a good teaching practice. Regular observations by administrators or fellow teachers can allow beneficial feedback to occur. Goldstein and Noguera (2006) wrote, The vast majority of teachers do not enter the profession as highly effective instructors; even those with strong academic backgrounds typically take several years to hone their craft and acquire the repertoire of skills necessary to meet student needs (p. 31). Goldstein and Noguera go on to say that teachers need to be observed by other teachers acknowledged for their excellence who can give objective observations as well as solutions for ineffective practices in the classroom (p. 31-33). When teachers are observed and evaluated, they are given the tools that are necessary to improving their practice. These observations can help teachers in all aspects of teaching instruction, classroom management, and even interactions with students. If a teacher is willing to reflect on what is observed and come up with a way to address these observations, he or she is allowing room for growth and improvement. As I teacher, I benefit greatly from the weekly observations and meetings I have with my dean. Simple observations and feedback can make a huge difference in the effectiveness of my teaching. For example, my dean took data on student engagement in my room for a couple of weeks. We noticed that student engagement seemed very high for most of the day, with the

exception of math. At first we thought about my math lessons and why they may be less engaging than the other subject areas I taught. After further reflection, I remembered several occasions where my students mentioned that they were hungry during math, which happens to be right before lunch. My dean and I decided that I should start instituting snack time in the school day to see if it made a difference in student engagement. I saw immediate positive effects from having a snack during the day. My students were much more focused during math time and the student engagement my dean saw was much higher than what was seen before. Without the observations of an outside expert, whose purpose was to help me experience success with my students, it is possible I never would have identified the snack-time dilemma. Having another person not only to observe and collect data but to talk with and analyze that data is an excellent way to problem solve issues that may be occurring in the classroom and an essential factor for good teaching. Educational policy is always changing. Research on the best teaching methodologies is constantly being used and then discarded. The truth is that people will always have differing opinions on what consists of good teaching and what the characteristics are of a good teacher. A principal may think that it is a teacher who produces high test scores; a parent may think it is a teacher who helps their child overcome shyness; a person of a different career may think it is simply a teacher with the ability to manage a large classroom of children. When it comes to those that education really affectsthe studentsthe characteristics mentioned in this paper seem to always hold true. By caring for students, knowing those students can learn, effectively delivering the academic content, and reflecting in order to adjust, any teacher can achieve greatness.

Reference List Ayers, W. (2010). To teach: The journey of a teacher (3rd ed). New York, NY: Teachers College Press. Cooper, C.W. (2003). The detrimental impact of teacher bias: Lessons learned from the standpoint of African American mothers. Teacher Education Quarterly, 30 (2), 101-116. Goldstein, J. & Noguera, P.A. (2006). A thoughtful approach to teacher evaluation. Educational Leadership, 63 (6), 31-37. Mathews, J. (2009). Work hard. Be nice. New York, NY: Workman Publishing. McBee, R.H. 2007. What is means to care: How educators conceptualize and actualize caring. Action in Teacher Education, 29 (3), (33-42). Miller, F.A. (2009). Empowering teachers who break the mold. Principal, 89 (1), 10-14. Weissbourd, R. (2008). The quiet troubles of low-income children. Harvard Education Letter, 24 (8), 4-8.