TITLE: Building a Better Teacher

SUMMARY:
America offers some of the best schools on the planet and one of the worst systems of
education in the developed world. We have created countless educational principles and
philosophies that have inspired teachers and enlightened students on every continent, but we
have failed badly in implementing competitive strategies that would either cultivate talents or
address deficiencies.
This phenomenon is not caused by lack of trying. Over a long historical period of time,
state and federal governments have spent billions of dollars creating irrational programs
implicated to reorganizing how and where kids should learn. In recent years we have built a
testing industry based on the theory stating that if you can evaluate something, you can
improve it. After all that effort, conducting tests, formulating solutions, the viable strategies for
improving teaching and learning are nowhere to be found.
In the article entitled “Building a Better Teacher,” Elizabeth Green evaluates the forces
and obstacles interacting against certain changes in our schools. But she doesn’t engage directly
in the political spectrum that swirls around tenure, unions, cheating, over-testing and growing
inequality. Instead, she identifies and points out three deep sources of confusion: one myth and
two inadequate arguments.
Green views the “Myth of the Natural-Born Teacher” to be ubiquitous and detrimental.
It attributes greatly in teaching personality traits that can’t be learned. This contributes to the
idea that a person either has it or don’t have. This keeps us from developing a professional
culture to improve teaching. Instead, we seek to hire people who have “it,” without defining
what “it” is.
Two arguments that mainly feed off this myth are labelled by Green as accountability
and autonomy. According to the accountability argument, a teacher’s results must be measured
by testing his or her students repeatedly again and again. Data from the tests will be used to
hold the teacher accountable without a clue about how to improve performance. According to
the idea of autonomy, nobody can understand what really goes on inside a classroom better
than the teachers themselves. Instruction is given so personal that we must always respect the
professional autonomy of teachers and let them do whatever they feel right to them. The said
myth and the arguments she stated prevents us from achieving what the philosopher John
Dewey called for decades ago: develop “an analysis of what the gifted teacher does intuitively,”
so we can build a strong foundation of culture in which effective teaching and deep learning
take place.
Green shows that effective teaching is a professional achievement rather than a natural
ability by describing some of the key efforts with enthusiasm. In the 1980s Lee Shulman
recognized that like physicians, teachers must learn how to combine their specific subject
expertise with an ability to make that knowledge relevant to others. More recently, Magdalene
Lampert has shown how sharing best classroom practices can promote teaching as a “complex
craft” mastered over time. Green paints a picture of dedicated professionals striving to create a
culture that can refine, share, improve upon and disseminate effective pedagogy. She points
out that teachers need to know how to turn “a student’s slippery intuition into solid
understanding” and that this kind of knowledge can itself be taught.
Creating the infrastructure to develop this knowledge is a massive undertaking, given
the scale of our heterogeneous systems. There are more than 3.7 million teachers in this
country, and looming retirements mean that we can expect to hire around 3 million new
teachers by 2020. The most interesting parts of “Building a Better Teacher” don’t have to do
with numbers, systems or politics. Green is at her best when she describes how dedicated
teachers work in the classroom. It isn’t nearly enough, she explains, for instructors to show
their pupils how to get the right answers. Teachers have to divine why youngsters landed on
the wrong answers and then steer them away from error so that in the future they can find
their own way.
That’s the key to great teaching at any level: cultivating in students the enhanced
capacity to think for themselves in productive ways when they are no longer in the classroom
or doing homework. This is so much more than following a rule or showing discipline. Green’s
pages on teachers who help their students to think mathematically are particularly effective.
But, as to how to share teaching strategies simply misses an answer. Green compares the
Japanese use of discussion sessions, jugyokenkyu, with the American reluctance to talk about
teaching techniques at all. In Japan, regular observation and discussions turn the discovery of
effective strategies in individual classrooms into a comprehension of craft that can be shared by
a community of professionals.
A community of professionals is not the same thing as a union defending basic working
condition nor is it a high-flying cadre of charismatic instructors whose students score well on
exams. It’s the human core of effective instruction. All the testing in the world is just an
“exoskeleton” and won’t provide this foundation.
Many obstacles inhibit the development of a culture for learning the craft of teaching.
But Green emphasizes the ingredients for positive change that are currently in place. In
addition to advances in teacher training, there are energetic entrepreneurs creating schools
with ambitious, measurable goals: “The Common Core offered coherence, the research on
teaching and teacher education offered a starting point for a curriculum, and the entrepreneurs
added passion and a laboratory for experimentation.”
Now that we know how great difference skilled teachers can make, we should leave
behind the myth of the natural teacher, and our obsessions with accountability or autonomy.
“The only logical conclusion,” Green writes, is “that American education ought to build a
coherent infrastructure, clear goals, accurate tests, trained instructors to teach teaching.”
Despite her lack of attention to the wider culture and context, Green’s account of passionate
educators dedicated to their “complex craft” should be part of every new teacher’s education.
It is vital for the United States to build better teachers to inspire the lifelong learning that not
only our students but also their instructors so desperately need.
REFLECTION:
Everyone agrees that a great teacher can have an enormous impact. Yet we still don't
know what, precisely, makes a teacher great. Building a Better Teacher introduces a new
generation of educators exploring the intricate science underlying their art and takes us on a
journey into the heart of a profession that impacts every child in America.
There are many techniques, skills, and practices that can make a teacher become better
and more effective. In my opinion, being a better teacher means allowing an environment that
enables students to learn in the classroom to their best abilities. When effective teaching is
practiced, students develop a love for learning and gain new knowledge about what they are
studying. Better teaching can stem from many different practices and ideas such as attitude
toward subject matter, implementing different learning styles into lessons, and being
passionate about the subject being taught. All of these ideas can help a teacher become more
effective in the classroom. It is true that in-depth and passionate teaching also allows students
to better understand new material and difficult content.
Effective teaching takes time and effort. Being a teacher means making several decisions
concerning planning for instruction, developing teaching strategies, and evaluating outcomes of
lesson plans. After a lesson is taught, it is crucial to make note if any changes are necessary for
next time. If the lesson was successful, the teacher will know to keep using that strategy in the
future. One of the main steps to becoming an effective teacher is to gain intimate knowledge
toward the subject matter that will be taught in the classroom. An effective teacher should be
able to show that he or she is knowledgeable in the subject that is being taught. Another way
to help students in the learning process is to make the content meaningful and applying it into
their own life will help them to understand it.
Another major factor in helping a teacher become effective is attitude. Many people
believe that the teacher’s personality is the most critical factor in successful teaching. If
teachers have warmth, empathy, sensitivity, enthusiasm, and humour, they are much more
likely to be successful than if they lack these characteristics. This statement holds true, thinking
back in the good old days, the teachers who had the most pleasant personalities most likely
inspired students to want to learn. Their personalities made such a huge difference when
teaching because it made the class so much more fun and enjoyable. The attitude toward
subject matter is extremely important. The student can often tell if the teacher is passionate
about what he/she is teaching. Being passionate about a subject encourages and inspires
others to want to learn about it. Teachers who clearly demonstrate no interest in what they are
teaching tend not to be effective. Also, becoming a teacher leader could even encourage other
teachers to develop a good attitude, which in turn, will benefit more students. A teacher’s
attitude will more than likely influence the students. Also, having a positive outlook and being a
role model for students will help with the learning process. After all, attitudes are contagious!
Additionally, effective teaching depends on if different learning styles are implemented
into lesson plans. It is important for a teacher to realize that not every student learns in the
same way. Some students may be better visual learners while others are better at hands on
activities. Incorporating different learning styles will let each student have the ability to learn in
a way that comes most natural to them. A teacher once said to her students, “I am giving a
variety of options for this project because each student deserves their chance to shine.” This is
exactly the kind of attitude students would want to find in their teachers. It is evident that it is
necessary to be aware of the different ways that students process information and eventually
learn the material. Teacher may somewhat be observed to be friendly yet strict with her
students. This is somehow necessary to make sure the students know that the teacher has the
authority. However, making sure students know that they can talk to their teacher when they
have a problem is important. When in becoming a teacher, students should be able to develop
the idea that their teacher can be trusted and can confide with them. Encouraging student
involvement is another effective teaching strategy to enhance a student’s ability to learn more
in different variety of environments.
When it comes to effective teaching, there are many techniques that can improve a
teacher’s ability in enabling students to learn. As anyone can tell, becoming a better teacher is
not easy. It takes a lot of planning, patience, and hard work. However, no matter how much
work it takes, taking these necessary steps are crucial to someone’s success as a teacher.
Changing the lives of students, providing them with new knowledge, and giving them the
materials necessary to help lead a bright future is every ideal teacher’s priority.
Great teachers are made and not born, according to former journalist Elizabeth Green.
She debunks the myth of the naturally capable teacher, shows how people can learn to teach
well and explores why teaching matters. Green cites examples of great teachers in action as
they strive to connect with their students and to inspire them to feel excited about learning.
She relates vivid stories to show how leading researchers affect educational practice. Each
student and each class is unique, so teachers seeking a formal how-to text should look
elsewhere, though Green offers great ideas to consider and recommends her insights, research
and conclusions to educators, parents, policy makers, training officers, educational industry,
participants and anyone interested in how practitioners, researchers and policy makers are
shaping education today to make it better tomorrow.
Building a Better Teacher demonstrates the unexpected complexity of teaching. The
author focuses on the questions that really matter. Incorporating new research from cognitive
psychologists and education specialists as well as intrepid classroom entrepreneurs, Green
provides a new way for parents to judge what their children need in the classroom and
considers how to scale good ideas. Ultimately, discovers that good teaching is a skill. A skill that
can be taught.