Outstanding Teachers

Outstanding Teachers

At this time of the year schools are planning for 2017. The most important decision a school will make is the employment of new teachers. John Hattie is an educational researcher, over the last 20 years he has conducted many studies on the ‘biggest influences’ on student achievement. He has identified 195 of these ‘influences’. The reality is that for our children to receive these ‘influences’ they need to have an outstanding teacher.

Teaching has changed dramatically. It scares me when I hear teachers talk about how education goes in cycles. It may on the surface seem similar but it is not. A great example is the Modern Learning Environment (MLE). I have heard many state that these were around in the 1970’s and did not work, too loud, too many students etc. Yes they were around ‘physically’ but not in the way we have them now. They are now based on ‘student agency’ where the learning environment is set for the students to make decisions in their learning. They are environments where teachers work collaboratively to ensure all students are successful. Most are highly digitised where digital devices are used in conjunction with teachers teaching. The whole educational thinking has changed.

To be a ‘verified’ MLE teacher you need to understand and implement these changes into the classroom programme. Things have changed and so must the approach of the teacher.

The latest word that is now on most tongues and resources of the Ministry of Education and Educational Review Office is ‘Accelerated Learning’. This approach is about teachers ‘shifting’ student achievement rapidly over a short amount of time. The thinking behind accelerated learning is sound but requires big changes to the approach traditional classrooms have taken in the past. It means teachers have to work collaboratively, they need to look at assessment as feedback on their teaching, not just a result for a student. Teachers carry out inquiries into their teaching to make sure it does have an impact and be quick to change it if it does not. A good school will collect and analyse data to ensure that all students are making progress. Identifying those students who are not and then working as a team to figure out how to get progress moving.

We also have great educational researchers like Russell Bishop whose research is from a cultural perspective. Interestingly he talks of schools using evidence from data and collaborative inquiry where teachers work together to solve problems. He talks about setting high expectations, developing relationships with students and bringing the students cultural capital into the learning environment.

There is a heap of other research on the brain and what environments are best suited for our students. Nathan Wallis talks about the development of the brain and what this means for teaching.

Our teachers do lots behind the scenes for their learning. Staff meetings in many cases are collaborative inquiry, looking at data, researching current thinking and planning next steps. They are deep learning conversations.

There are outstanding teachers throughout the Far North making sure all their students make great progress. They do not make excuses they find solutions. They work extremely hard in a constantly challenging and changing landscape with high expectations. I want to acknowledge and thank these awesome people who are at the ‘cutting edge of education’ making a difference for our children of the Far North.