The Power of Expert Teaching

Lessons for Modern Education

Shane N. Phillipson, Sivanes Phillipson

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2020
• eBook ISBN: 9781351139748
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

Throughout the world, the challenges facing modern education are formidable. Although some of the challenges facing are unique to each educational jurisdiction, there are also some important commonalities that transcend jurisdictions. Irrespective of the nature of these challenges, there is an increasing focus on teacher quality – what it is and how to enhance it. To date, research tells us what expert teachers should be doing in their classrooms. This approach is based on the idea that teaching expertise is nothing more than the accumulation of specific skills and knowledge, and as teachers acquire these skills and knowledge most of our educational challenges can be overcome.

This book questions this idea by asking 37 teachers who are already recognised as experts to share their classroom secrets. Importantly, the teachers come from diverse cultural contexts, including Australia, Finland, Hong Kong and the US, and they share:

• how they became expert teachers;
• their expectations for every student when they enter their classroom;
• how they view and encourage teacher–parent partnerships; and
• what skills and knowledge they consider important for expert teaching.

To our knowledge, this is the first book that compares and contrasts the approaches taken by expert teachers from four very different cultural groups. The book helps to demystify the work of the modern teacher – what they do and the challenges they face.

If you aspire to be an expert teacher, this book provides a clear model of how to approach the process. If you are an education researcher searching for 'impact', this book outlines what are some of the emerging hot topics in education research. If you are involved in teacher education then this book offers some new approaches to initial teacher education. If your focus is on educational policy, this book helps make sense of the links between the classrooms of expert teachers, education research and academic achievement. Finally, this book will help parents understand how best to partner with their child's teacher in order to enhance their learning.

1

MAKING SENSE OF TEACHER EXPERTISE

When I first started teaching my supervisor said to me, ‘Get them in, get them engaged as soon as they walk in the door.’

(Australian expert teacher Catherine Jeffery)

Over the years, there have been huge shifts in how teachers are supposed to teach and how students are meant to learn. Today, teachers are increasingly being asked to prepare students for jobs that are yet to be invented. For many parents, it is important that their children are safe and happy, but for others, they need to meticulously plan their children’s education and insist on nothing less than their children attending the top schools, producing the best grades, having the most prestigious careers and, ultimately, having upward social mobility.

What children are supposed to learn has also changed. For yet-to-be invented jobs, students need to acquire creative and problem-solving skills in ways that take advantage of social media and the possibilities that come with instant and universal communication. Although literacy and numeracy are still very important, today’s students take advantage of the medium of virtual and augmented reality and – with the help of ‘Dr Google’ – expect to be able to find instant answers to every question.

We have seen the rise of the ‘influencer’ because of the power of social media.¹ Through the same social media, heroes and villains are created within minutes. Soon after the Christchurch tragedy,² for example, the media turned their attention to the (then) Australian Senator Fraser Anning. After commenting on the tragedy at a political rally, Senator Fraser was ‘egged’ on the left side of the face by 17-year-old Will Connolly. As well as an egg, young Will was also equipped with a mobile phone so that he could simultaneously record his ovoid assault. Will’s recording and those of others, together with Senator Anning’s response, were almost instantly uploaded onto various social media platforms and news sites. Will became an instant social media sensation, gaining international notoriety as the eponymous ‘Egg Boy’.³

Students are adept at seeking attention through social media but often lack the skills to handle the rejection when it occurs or the ‘fame’ that sometimes comes their way. Their feelings of rejection as well as other stressors are real and increasingly being felt by younger and younger students. Children are feeling stressed by global concerns such as climate change and, currently, the COVID-19 pandemic. If these feelings are not dealt with, children can develop psychological distress such as anxiety, depression and self-harm. Teachers often witness the outcomes of such distress on a day-to-day basis and, increasingly, are being asked to implement strategies to support students to deal with the potential harm of social media.

Gerald LeTendre has pointed that modern education is a core element in almost all countries around the world and now takes up a greater share of a child’s life.⁴ With parents spending less time with their children, this means that teachers take on a greater responsibility for the care and socialisation of children, particularly with their socio-emotional development and values orientation. As a consequence, the testing of educational outcomes and teacher quality should include socio-emotional learning as well as academic outcomes. As LeTendre has also pointed out, positive emotions are directly linked with positive academic outcomes and, as a consequence, teacher quality should include the capacity to promote positive emotions in all students, especially with regard to their learning.

Although positive emotions are already accepted by schools and teachers as an important component of a student’s learning experience, LeTendre has argued that a teacher’s capacity to develop these emotions needs to be considered a feature of teacher quality alongside their skills in developing their students’ academic achievements.

LeTendre has not specified precisely what teacher qualities are needed to develop the social-emotional learning, life skills and values development in students. This is an area that needs to be researched in more depth, but we believe that quality should not reflect their capacity to impart ‘head’ knowledge about values, life skills and the development of social-emotional learning; rather, values, life skills and social-emotional development form a subtle transaction between teacher and student, with the transaction requiring a positive relationship between teacher and student. Although the transaction is subtle, the relationship would be different in different schools and cultures. This may mean that the teacher qualities necessary for this non-academic area will be different for different contexts.

Each of the three countries, Australia, Finland and the United States (US) and the territory, Hong Kong, face their own unique educational challenges. In Australia, there are deep concerns regarding falling standards in numeracy and literacy and a widening gap between students at the high and low ends of educational achievements. In Finland, the major challenges are the result of Finland sliding from its high ranking in international tests of student achievement to now being ranked in the middle. In Hong Kong, the major concerns are focused on the socio-emotional outcomes of students and teachers as a result of the intense pressures on students from parents, teachers and the wider community. Within the US, commentators are frustrated at the country’s low international ranking despite the maturity of its education system and the money it has spent on education.

A ‘blowtorch’ on teachers

Against this context, the professional teacher is being placed under a ‘blowtorch’. For us, the metaphor is accurate because it reflects the intense scrutiny and stress currently being felt by teachers. As well as dealing with an increasingly regulated learning environment, trying to raise numeracy and literacy skills, and teaching the skills for jobs ‘yet-to-be invented’, teachers are being asked to teach life skills (such as how to complete a tax return and apply for a job), social skills (such as being respectful and being able to resolve conflict), awareness of and acceptance of gender diversity, and cyber safety.

Furthermore, teachers are required to implement teaching strategies for students with learning difficulties, students with disabilities and students from diverse cultures. To meet social justice agendas, our teachers need to ensure that no student is disadvantaged because of their gender, sexuality, socio-economic background or culture.

Governments apply a blowtorch on teachers because they want to improve educational standards (and, of course, stay in government!) without necessarily spending more money from the public purse. Parents hold the blowtorch because the primary responsibility for academic outcomes is no longer with the student (and their family) but is, more specifically, with their child’s teacher and, more generally, with the education system. Although the reasons for the change remain unclear, it is interesting to note that academic standards have also fallen, making it possible to hypothesise that there is a causal link between change in the locus of responsibility and the drop in academic standards.⁵ Not only is the blowtorch being felt by teachers in Australia and the US but also in Finland and Hong Kong.

Increasingly providers of teacher education are also feeling the blowtorch because they have to equip professional teachers with the skills, knowledge and experience to deal with the expectations of governments, parents and students. Aspiring teachers in Australia now need to demonstrate that they have a personality that is closely aligned with teaching before being enrolled. The budding teacher also needs to demonstrate their literacy and numeracy before being given a licence to teach professionally.

Between the initial personality test and the final demonstration of literacy and numeracy, the issue for the providers of initial teacher education is to identify the necessary skills, knowledge and experience that these students need in order for them to be effective teachers. This issue is particularly pertinent in the context of the crowded classroom.

Surprisingly, the solutions to this issue are not easy to find. Internationally, there is no consensus as to what skills and experiences are necessary in order to be effective. There are many reasons for this lack of consensus, some of which reflect the unique cultural contexts of each country. Each provider of teacher education must then decide what skills and experiences are required in order for teachers to be effective.

In Australia, for example, the decision is made a little easier because these skills and experiences are described (and regulated) by the federal government through the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL).⁶ The standards for ‘graduate’ teachers of initial teacher education stipulate that all graduate teachers need to demonstrate their understanding of how students learn, for example. However, it is up to the provider to decide which particular area of scientific research is to be used to describe how students learn and how students can demonstrate their understanding. Of course, graduate teachers will then vary in their knowledge of how children learn because each provider varies in the research they use and the emphasis that is placed on this research.

We believe that this variability can be a good thing: it means that a nation’s educational environment is enriched because there are many ways to understand how children learn. On the other hand, we are aware of situations where graduate teachers from one provider find it difficult to find and maintain employment at some schools because their understanding of how students learn is at odds with the school principal’s understanding. For these teachers, the blowtorch is felt even before they begin their careers!

If there is a distinction between graduate teachers and lead teachers – as clearly expressed by AITSL – then how can teachers begin their journey and progress through the standards?

As has already been described, the AITSL standards imply that lead teachers are at the pinnacle of teaching expertise and, therefore, graduate teachers should aspire to be lead teachers. According to these standards, the road map to lead teacher is clearly signposted and there doesn’t appear to be any ‘speed limit’. Graduate teachers are encouraged to move as quickly as possible through the levels until they reach the level of ‘lead teacher’. Of course, it is important to ask whether teachers can be ‘expert’, even if they have not yet achieved the standard of lead teacher. Are the attributes of lead teachers those of an expert teacher, and should teachers aspire to this standard in order to be effective?

In short, our answer is no. We believe that the secret to teaching expertise is not about aspiring to the status of lead teacher. Sure, research is important and teachers should be well informed; however, we also need leaders in the teaching profession – especially those who can show the way for teachers new to the profession and those with the skills, knowledge and experience – to evaluate curriculum and teaching programmes.

Although it is well and good to say what expert teaching is not, it is much more important to say what it is. But before we do that, we first describe how others have tried to address the issue. We begin by outlining how ‘research’ defines teacher expertise. Because it is important to understand how governments view teacher expertise, we look at teaching standards in Australia, Finland, Hong Kong and the US in Chapter 2.

Research conceptions of teacher expertise

The pressure on teachers to improve educational outcomes has not gone unnoticed among researchers in the field. In response, there have been many attempts to define an expert teacher. In this section we look at some recent efforts to define expert teachers, and although the terminology differs from one researcher to another, they all describe what they believe is the teacher who is most effective in (and out) of the classroom.

Before we begin, it is good to think about what an expert teacher means for you. So, take out your phone and write yourself a memo beginning with An expert teacher …

European researchers Andreas Lachner, Halszka Jarodzka and Matthias Nückles⁷ have argued that expert teachers are effective in the way they engage students in the topics they are teaching – and using language that is understood by students is an important aspect of being engaging. Expert teachers also continually assess student thinking and respond to students’ different learning needs.

American researchers Collin A. Webster and Paul G. Schempp⁸ ‘have demystified the wonder of expert teachers’ with an athletic analogy. Just as do elite athletes, expert teachers self-monitor their performance against their goals. According to Webster and Schempp, they self-monitor their instructional skills, including their ability to provide detailed feedback to students. Second, expert teachers extend their teaching perspective, constantly building up their knowledge on how to teach. Third, expert teachers are ‘professional’ in the way that they approach their vocation to make sure that they are physically, psychologically and ethically equipped to be effective. Finally, expert teachers endeavour to enhance their professional knowledge regarding their teaching and the ways that students learn. Taking the athletic analogy further, Webster and Schemmp believed that with the proper training and facilities, all teachers can become experts.

Already we can see from just these two examples, that there are differences in how expert teachers are defined. Researchers from China (Xinrong Yang) and Hong Kong (Frederick K. S. Leung) were interested to see if there were differences between two different groups of Chinese people in the way they thought about expert mathematics teachers⁹. One group came from Hong Kong and the second group from Chongqing. The two cities share similar but also different cultural and social backgrounds. Yang and Leung found that both groups shared the belief that expert mathematics teachers should have highly developed teaching skills as well as a profound knowledge of mathematics and of their students. They should also have strong teaching skills, a noble personality and a spirit of lifelong learning. The major difference between the two groups was that the Chongquin residents believe that expert mathematics teachers should be able to conduct and publish journal quality research, mentor others, and have an extensive knowledge of educational theories, and theories about instruction, learning and cognition (i.e. ways of thinking) as well as how the city manages its examinations.

Although we will come back to the Chinese context in the next chapter, Yang’s and Leung’s research has been important because it implies that there is no universal definition of an expert teacher. In other words, there could be some similarities, but there could also be some significant differences when comparing one cultural group with another. It is important to understand the cultural context of the teacher and their students before making up our mind what expertise is.

At this stage, how does your memo compare to these three definitions of expert teachers? No doubt there are some differences and some similarities. When thinking about your expert teacher, you would have probably thought about the teachers you had as a student, or perhaps your children’s teachers.

Perhaps the best-known...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of illustrations
• Foreword: Imagine a world without teachers …
• Preface
• Prologue
• 1 Making sense of teacher expertise
• 2 Introducing the expert teachers: Their contexts and challenges
• 3 Balancing expectations in motivating student learning
• 4 The link between student intelligence, thinking and learning
• 5 Constructing knowledge and student learning
• 6 Teaching students, not subjects: How expert teachers plan and implement successful learning
• 7 The professional learning of expert teachers
• 8 Pathways to teaching expertise
• 9 ‘I’m not starting until five different people say one good thing’
• Epilogue
• Appendix
• Index