The 6 Truths Of Effective Educators

In all the work I have done with countless educators from across the world I believe we can break them down into two groups. Good Teachers and Great Teachers. What separates the two is effectiveness. Effective Educators are those that have a set of truths that they live by. It's what they wake up everyday thinking about and striving for. It doesn't mean they aren't human. Quite the contrary. They know they have limits yet are constantly seeking minute improvements to continue growing themselves as an educator.

6 Truths of Effective Teachers 

View Their Teaching As A Science And An Art-Most educators, early on in their career, have had one of those moments, at the end of a long successful day, realizing that they learned more in those 8 hours than in their previous 4 years of higher education. It's why doctor's offices are called practices and why we should reframe our notion of teaching as a practice, rather than a set of skills acquired through college courses. Effective Educators are never satisfied with where they are in their practice and are constantly seeking to figure out the best ways to teach and the best ways students learn. They might experiment with various, evidence-based instructional practices. Perhaps the ones that work are the ones that work for everyone. Or maybe they aren't. The key is they know as time goes by and methodologies change, they are not inflexible. Rather they know there is still much to learn and that each day is an opportunity to practice, fail, examine, reflect and try again.

Are Students of their Students-Most educators can attest that if they know who their students are, how they learn and how they think, they can better differentiate for those student's needs. While formative assessment is a key part of knowing who their students are, Effective Educators go deeper. They know their students on a personal level. They know what motivates their them. And, perhaps most importantly, they understand how each individual student learns and thinks. Effective Educators are constantly using questioning of their students. Not to see what the student knows but how they know what they know. What processes are their students using to develop their understanding and how can that be used going forward.

Challenge All Students-Current Brain Research shows that intelligence is variable, the brain is malleable and hungers for challenge. Evidence shows that students, even those that may be struggling, rise to the occasion when challenged. We see it in our own lives. When everything we do is easy we become bored and might even become disengaged. When everything is too hard we are resolved to the fact that we can't do it so why even try. In order to avoid being either too easy or too hard, Effective Educators, understanding who their students are, provide differentiated instruction that challenges and pushes their students to go further with their learning.

Believe In The Success Of All Students, No Matter What-Research shows that educators and schools that have collective teacher efficacy can grow their students at a tremendous rate. Collective Teacher Efficacy (CTE) is the belief that all students can achieve and those educators will stop at nothing to ensure they do. In order for CTE to be as effective as it can be there has to be buy-in from all educators. As Education Researcher John Hattie notes, "A school staff that believes it can collectively accomplish great things is vital for the health of a school and if they believe they can make a positive difference then they very likely will." Effective Educators believe in CTE. The do all they can to effect the culture of their school to help other teachers buy in to the idea of CTE and provide support. Effective Educators and CTE doesn't stop at the classroom with teachers. It's a collective effort of teachers, administrators, support staff and instructional staff all believing that the positive things they can do for their students will ultimately make a difference.

Continuously Seeking Out Professional Learning-Effective Educators don't just believe that lifelong learning is a characteristic they want their students to have, it's a mantra they live by. They aren't waiting for their principal or school or district to tell them what they need to learn. They are continuously seeking out professional learning. to improve all aspects of their practice. Whether it is a national conference in their subject area, an online course in evidence-based instructional practices, a Twitter chat to push back against conventional thinking or a webinar to learn about a specific type of EdTech, they are hungry to learn and know their learning never stops. Even reading blog posts, articles in trade publications, books, or attending Edcamps, they want to constantly be examining their own practices, realizing opportunities for improvement and capitalizing on all that learning.

Feedback Is A Part Of Their Routine-Effective Educators don't just look at their classroom as a unique, fluid space that they are constantly evaluating and improving. They also look inward at their own practices, thinking about where they are in their teaching and where they want to improve. Effective Educators seek out feedback from their colleagues. They invite them in to evaluate their teaching and are eager to hear where they can improve. They also participate in the feedback loop with those colleagues. Research shows that educators who engage in honest, open conversation with their colleagues improve their effectiveness with their students. Effective Educators view these conversations as a necessary and critical part of their overall growth.

Engagement Doesn't Often Mean Effectiveness

A few weeks ago I asked a group of teachers to describe a lesson where technology was used effectively to impact learning. After some thinking, one of the teachers described a lesson where students were using Google Maps to take a tour of different parts of the world. They were to visit some predetermined places, go into street view and answer a few questions. The teacher finished the story by saying the students were really engaged, the most he had ever seen them.

I ask this question a lot when I work with teachers on effective technology integration. And every time I do I hear lessons described just like this teacher. And they always end the same way.

The students were really engaged. 

Then I always ask, but was the lesson effective? And if you think it was how do you know? 

This question seems to stump many educators.

When I work with Principals on walk-throughs I hear the same thing over and over. If students are engaged, the lesson must be effective. But effectiveness doesn’t mean that what we teach is effective, especially in the case of technology. Just because we see technology being used, and students highly-engaged, doesn’t at all mean the lesson is effective.

In order for a lesson that utilizes technology to be effective, meaning that students actually learned and retained knowledge, then technology has to fade to the background and just be the tools that are used for students to collaborate, or share their work with a global audience or create new knowledge or new products. Effective lessons that utilize technology are those where there are not only clear outcomes for what students are to be learning but clear understanding of where students are in that learning and where the teacher is in their teaching.

When looking at the effectiveness of a lesson we have to turn to what is research-proven to work. Using the research of John Hattie and his Visible Learning “meta-meta analysis” of over 50,000 individual studies of factors that affect student achievement as a guide, we can find clear methods that can help educators to not only create engaging but effective lessons.

There are four key areas that have some of the largest effect sizes (meaning the more effect they can have to boost lesson effectiveness and student achievement) that can make what and how we teach more meaningful and effective.

Classroom Discussion (Effect Size-0.82) It may seem simple but stopping a lecture or lesson to engage students in a clear discussion on the topics being learned can produce meaningful gains on lesson effectiveness. Instead of lecturing for the entire class period or having students copy pages and pages of notes, we pause to ask questions, related to the aligned standards and intended outcomes of the lesson. Students are given opportunities to respond and ask questions of their own. For the teacher, it is an opportunity to discover how the lesson is progressing and what adjustments need to be made.

In the case of Classroom Discussion students can clearly be engaged and lessons can become more effective by having simple classroom conversations.

Feedback (Effect Size-0.73) Another area that can show students are not only engaged but the learning is effective is feedback. We have to be careful here however. Feedback that only praises students (like saying “good job” or “great work”) won’t cut it. The type of regular feedback that teachers and students engage in that is most effective is student-driven. Students are able to show the teacher learning through their eyes. Closely related to formative assessment, the teacher gains an understand of what students know, with timely, specific and actionable feedback, within the process of learning, not at the end of learning.

In the case of Feedback, it should be clear to the teacher that students are not only engaged but just how effective (or not) the lesson is through regular feedback with students.

Providing Formative Assessment (Effect Size-0.68) If there is one area I believe is the easiest to implement and can provide one of the best ways to judge the effectiveness of the learning that is taking place it is formative assessment. As Shaelynn Farnsworth says formative assessment acts as a GPS to help teachers understand where their teaching is going and where students are in their understanding. Without formative assessment teachers are navigating blindly when they can be making meaningful adjustments in the moment. Formative assessment also informs students what they know and what opportunities for growth there still are.

In the case of Formative Assessment the teacher will not only see that students are engaged but will know whether or not their lesson is effective.

Meta-Cognitive Strategies (Effect Size-0.53) When we use meta-cognitive strategies, teachers help students think about their thinking. It would be easy to believe that our lessons are effective if every student gets all the answers correct on a quiz. But what do they really know? When students can articulate their thinking, describing in detail, not only what they know, but how they know what they know, teachers can gain a clear understanding of the effectiveness of what they are teaching. Students shouldn’t just memorize facts or events. They should be able to speak to their learning in a way that tells the teacher how effective that lesson is.

In the case of Meta-Cognitive Strategies, students must be engaged in order to clearly speak to their learning and the teacher will clearly be able to determine the effectiveness of their lesson.

Going to ASCD in Boston next week (March 23-26, 2018) and want to learn more? Join me for my session Key Indicators of Highly Effective Technology Use, BCEC, Level 1, Room 109A from 1:00-2:00pm to talk about this and much more!