Pre-conference: 101 Tools & Techniques to improve Teacher Quality

101 Tools and Techniques to improve Teacher Quality

Opening question 1:

Why do we need good teacher?

Reform happen 1 classroom at a time.  We have to start with having effective teacher in school.

Improve quality of teacher  =  Improve learning of students

On the other hand, research has shown that ineffective teacher has a deep impact on student academic gain, very often leading to regression.  One year impact on maths.  Student with 50 percentile, improve to 70 percentile under an effective teacher.  Same student will drop to 40 percentile under ineffective teacher.  Over a 3 year impact, student under an ineffective teacher will regress even further.

Question 2: What is an effective teacher?

The speaker suggested that effective teacher should be determined base on two main criteria. First, the background of the teacher which is further divided into prerequisites and the person.  Second, job responsibilities and practices which can be observe through classroom management and instruction, organizing for instruction, implementing instruction and monitoring student progress and potential.

The speaker went on to illustrate how each of the determinants can be observed or examined through use of interview and classroom observation through rubrics or questions that are specially designed for this purpose.

Personal takeaway

I have always deemed teaching to be a nurturing profession whereby you allow people to make the change at their own pace. After attending this session, I have understood the urgency of having effective teacher in the classroom.  In a way, we owe it to students to provide the best learning experience and opportunities if not we should not be drawing a salary as an educator.

This ties in with the notion of improving teacher’s competency so that effective teachers are in school to help with student learning and engaging them to realize their potential.

Lawrence