Teachers Matter: Attracting, Developing And Retaining Effective Teachers

Teachers Matter Attracting, Developing and Retaining Effective Teachers

Why teacher policy is high on national agendas?

• Far-reaching economic and social changes underway have made high-quality schooling more important than ever before. • Teachers are the most significant resource in schools. • Improving the efficiency and equity of schooling depends on ensuring that competent people want to work as teachers, that their teaching is of high quality, and that all students have access to high-quality teaching. • The enthusiasm and morale of the current teacher workforce are important influence on future teacher supply. • Large number of teachers are retiring.

Why is teacher policy important? • Quality teaching is vital for improving student learning. • Teachers are significant in the labor force and in school budget. • Teacher policy concerns are intensifying.

What are the factors that influence student learning?

• Student’s skills, expectations, motivation and behavior; • Family resources, attitudes and support; • Peer group skills, attitudes and behavior; • School organization, resources and climate; • Curriculum structure and content; and • Teacher skills, knowledge, attitudes and practices.

1st and most solidly based findings from research on student learning • The largest source of variation in student learning is attributable to differences in what students bring to school. – Abilities and attitudes, – Family background – Community background

2 finding nd

• Factors involving teachers and teaching are the most important influences on student learning. – “Teacher quality” is the single most important school variable influencing student achievement. – Moving from an average to the 85th percentile of teacher quality would lead to students improving by 4 percentile ranking in a given year, which equal to the effect of reducing the class size by 10. – Students of the most effective teachers (the highest quintile) have learning gains 4 times greater than students of the least effective teachers (the lowest quintile). – Differences among teachers explain up to 23% of the variation in student test score.

3 finding rd

• Lack of consistently clear and strong effects of commonly measured characteristics of teacher quality – Research studies are often faced with little variation in some of the characteristics (e.g. formal qualifications) – “Threshold effect”: Teachers need a certain level of qualifications or experience to be effective, but further attainments beyond those levels may be progressively less important for student performance.

• There are many important aspects of teacher quality that are not captured by the commonly used indicators. – The ability to convey ideas in clear and convincing ways; to create effective learning environments for different types of students; to foster productive teacher-student relationships; to be enthusiastic and creative; and to work effectively with colleagues and parents.

Teachers are significant in the labor force and in school budget • On average in OECD countries, teachers constitute about 2.6% of the total labor force. • Teaching is the largest employer of graduate labor. (e.g. 60% more than nurses and twice accountants in Australia) • On average, 64% of current expenditure on schools is allocated to teachers compensation. (equivalent to 5% of total public expenditure, or 2% of GDP)

Teacher policy concern are intensifying • Profound economic and social changes underway • Imperatives for schools to provide the foundation for lifelong learning • Incorporation of ICT into the administrative and scholastic life of the school • Greater gender equality within schools • Greater integration of students with special needs within mainstream schooling.

Concerns about the attractiveness of teaching as a career • About half the countries seriously concern about maintaining an adequate supply of good quality teachers, especially in high-demand subject areas. • Concerns about long-term trends of the teaching workforces, e.g. fewer “high achievers” and fewer males. • Concerns about the image and status of teaching, and teachers often feel that their work is undervalued. • Teachers’ relative salaries are declining in most countries.

Concerns about developing teachers’ knowledge and skills • Almost all countries concern about “qualitative” shortfalls: whether enough teachers have the knowledge and skills to meet school needs. • Concerns about the limited connections b/w teacher education, teachers’ professional development, and school needs. • Lack of systemic induction programmes for beginning teachers.

Concerns about recruiting, selecting and employing teachers • Concerns about the inequitable distribution of teachers among schools, and whether students in disadvantaged areas have the quality teachers that they need. • Schools often have little direct involvement in teacher appointments. • Some countries have a large oversupply of qualified teachers, which raises other policy challenges.

Concerns about retaining effective teachers in schools • High rates of teacher attrition, especially among new teachers. • Concerns about the effects of heavy workloads, stress and poor working environments on job satisfaction and teaching effectiveness. • Limited means to recognize and reward teachers’ work. • Processes for responding to ineffective teaching are often cumbersome and slow.

Teacher quantity and quality are interlinked. • On average, 25% of primary and 30% of secondary teachers are over 50. • Response to teacher shortages in the short term: – Lowering qualification requirements for entry – Assigning teachers to teach in subject in which they are not fully qualified – Increasing the number of classes that teachers are allocated – Increasing class sizes.

Policy at two levels The quality of teaching is determined not just by the “quality” of teachers – although that is clearly critical – but also by the environment in which they work.

Common Policy Direction

Emphasizing teacher quality over teacher supply • Key ingredients in a teacher quality: – More attention to the criteria for selection into initial teacher education and employment – Ongoing evaluation throughout the teaching career for improvement, recognizing and rewarding effective teaching. – Ensuring that teachers have the resources and support. – System structures ensure that teachers are able to focus on the intrinsic benefits of teaching. (e.g. working with children and young people, helping them to develop, and making a contribution to society)

Developing teacher profiles to align teacher development and performance with school needs • Need to have clear and concise statements of what teachers are expected to know and be able to do. Teacher profiles: strong subject matter knowledge, pedagogical skills, the capacity to work effectively with a wide range of students and colleagues, to contribute to the school and the profession, and the capacity to continue developing.

• Need to embody the teacher profiles throughout the school and teacher education systems.

Viewing teacher development as a continuum • Need to create a more coherent learning and development system for teachers. • Supporting teachers in the early stage of their career • Providing incentives and resources for ongoing professional development. • In general, better value from improving induction and development throughout their careers rather than lengthening the pre-service education.

Making teacher education more flexible • Providing more routes into the profession: – Post-graduate study following an initial qualification in a subject matter, – Opportunities for those who are teachers’ aides to gain full qualification, – Possibility for mid-career changes

Transforming teaching into a knowledge-rich profession • How to sustain teacher quality and ensure all teachers continue to engage in effective ongoing professional learning is a challenge. • Teachers need to be active agents in analyzing their own practice in professional standards, and their own students’ progress in the standards for student learning. • Teachers developing a research role alongside their teaching role, with teachers engaging more actively with new knowledge.

Providing schools with more responsibility for personnel management • The process of teacher selection is often highly impersonal and it is hard for teachers to build a sense of commitment to the schools and vise versa. • Schools need to have more responsibility and accountability for teacher selection, working conditions, and development. • Schools need more skilled leadership teams and stronger support, especially disadvantaged schools.

Developing and Implementing Teacher Policy • Unless teachers are actively involved in policy formulation, and feel a sense of “ownership” of them, it is unlikely that substantial changes will be successfully implemented. • Institutional arrangement: Teaching Council for professional autonomy and public accountability