geoffPETTY


Five steps to improved teaching


Teachers can be simply too busy, as well as wary of getting out of their comfort zone, to improve their methods. But the secret is to put them in charge of their learning, make them feel motivated and supported, and let them try out new ideas to see whether they work. It really can make a difference, says Geoff Petty.


Teaching has at least three times the effect on student achievement as any other factor you might change. Also, teaching can never be done perfectly – it is always possible to improve. But how should we improve teaching? The research shows that both institutions and teachers themselves find it oddly difficult to improve teaching. But we do know a hugely motivating way that really works.


Geoff Petty is an expert on teaching methods and the author of Teaching Today and Evidence- Based Teaching. Visit his website at geoffpetty.com


Why the problem? Teachers are reluctant to get out of their comfort zone – they are often too busy meeting institutional demands to address their teaching strategies at all. Institutions have even more difficulty. We are all familiar with the CPD training session approach. But the research reviews mentioned later in the article show that this method, by itself, simply doesn’t work. Why? Because some staff go back to their desks after the training, they see that their inbox and in-tray have grown while they were being trained, so they embark on reducing the backlog. Soon the training becomes a distant memory, even if they enjoyed it and found it relevant. If the training suggests teaching and learning methods that are known to be effective, and the teacher finds these interesting and relevant, which is not always the case, then some teachers will usually try a method out. (Hooray!) But they often find that the method doesn’t work well first time, compared to methods they have practised for years (an unfair comparison), so they abandon the new method. Soon even those who have tried the methods have reverted to their normal practice. The training was a waste of time. The research shows something we as teachers should have known right from the start – improving


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teaching is a learning process and, like all learning, it requires: • Motivation; • Some new knowledge and skill; • Practice of this new learning; • Trial and error improvement of using this new learning;


• Some support and guidance from others while this improvement takes place.


Teachers are very practical people and it turns out


they are motivated by relevance. They want to decide for themselves what the problems are that they and their students are facing with their teaching and learning, and they want training based on that. Like all adult learners, teachers need to be in charge of the objectives of their learning; we should have known that too. So it makes sense to do a ‘training needs analysis’ which asks teachers for the learning problems that their students have. For example: ‘My students often can’t write essays’. As for the teaching problems teachers themselves have, you might ask ‘How do I motivate disaffected learners?’.


Then the training can be based, at least in part, on the problems that many in the institution are having. There is often remarkable agreement in my experience. The teachers can then be taught about best practice methods and techniques that have been effectively used to solve the problems that they have identified. You can’t improve teaching without changing it. So once the teacher has learned of ideas that might solve their learning and teaching problems, they will need to try them out. This may not go smoothly. The teacher will not be


used to this method, and neither will their students. They will have to try the method out in small ways,


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