Research on Effective Teaching

1. Research on Effective Teaching Jim Flowers Department of Agricultural and Extension Education North Carolina State University

2. Effective Teachers • Over 1,200 studies on effective teaching • Five variables have been identified

3. Effective Teaching • Measurement of Effective Teachers: How much do students learn. • Studies have shown that teachers make a difference: good teachers can increase student learning and poor teachers can have a residual effect on overall student development. • Students can recover from the effects of a poor teacher, but their progress is slow

4. Being an Effective Teacher Most Important Characteristics • Enthusiasm • Organized • Clarity • Business-like • Interaction

5. Enthusiasm • Speaks expressively or emphatically • Moves about while speaking • Gestures with hands and arms • Shows facial expression • Uses humor • Reads verbatim from notes (negative!!!!)

6. Clarity • Uses concrete examples of concepts • Gives multiple examples • Use stories to illustrate a point. • May involve “drawing a picture” • Points out practical application • Stresses important points • Repeats difficult ideas

7. Organized • Uses headings and subheadings • Makes notetaking easy • Gives preliminary overview of presentation • Signals transition to new topic • Explains how each topic fits into the lesson or how a topic relates to previous instruction • Topics have logical order

8. Interaction • Addresses members of class by name • Encourages questions & comments • Asks questions of students in class • Encourages students to express opinions or ideas • Use student experiences as examples

9. Business like • Begins on time • Proceeds at rapid rate • Stays on the topic – does not get distracted or sidetracked. • States objectives • Makes transitions quickly and easily • Essentially, this is tied to effective use of learning time.

10. Other Characteristics That May Contribute • Variability • Use of different teaching techniques (small groups, role play, brainstorm, etc.) • Appropriate Feedback • Quick feedback • Descriptive, explain what is good or not good • Use of Probing Questions • Ask for explanations from students • Ask the Why? Question – even when their answers are correct!

11. Summary • Most of this information should not be surprising. The research confirms what many have believed about good teaching for a long time. • But this also shows that some things are not as important as we may have thought. • Example: Teacher warmth is not related to student achievement • If we want to improve, the 5 major characteristics may be a good place to start.