Teacher Effectiveness: The Search for a Proper Definition - Essay Example

? Teacher Effectiveness: The Search for a Proper Definition Introduction Society stands to benefit greatly from the education of its members. Education has allowed for the advancements that are now being experienced. The fact that the education of one person brings substantial benefits to society as a whole is what has allowed the government to fund and regulate education. That person also reaps great rewards for their education in their own lives. Education helps to grant them a higher standard of living as well as the benefit of having a greater level of understanding. All of these benefits of education have served to highlight the fact that the teaching profession is one of the most important career fields. Teachers have a great responsibility. In order to receive the maximum benefit of education the students must be taught by an effective teacher. For if education if not facilitated by an effective teacher then it is not truly received and the benefits of it cannot be had. However, there is often disagreement about what it means to be effective teacher. There are various definitions of teacher effectiveness available. To this large pile of explanations there is room for more to be added. Therefore, an effective teacher is one who is ethical, can maintain and create a great learning environment, and has the required personal and professional skills. The Importance of Education Education is vital to the health and well being of both the student and society. For this reason governments have carefully regulated education to ensure that both students and investors get the most return for their investments. An individual who is educated brings great benefits to society as a whole. It is for this very reason that education is allowed to be funded by the government. It has been proven that education is a good investment. Public funds that are invested in educating the citizens reap great rate of returns. As it was reported, We find that each new high school graduate would yield a public benefit of $209,000 in higher government revenues and lower government spending for an overall investment of $82,000, divided between the costs of powerful educational interventions and additional years of school attendance leading to graduation. The net economic benefit to the public purse is therefore $127,000 per student and the benefits are 2.5 greater than the costs. (Levin et al 2007). These returns are a result of s change in the life of the person who received an education. The amount covers improvements in various areas of their life. They cost the government less as they have a greater ability to demand a higher income for themselves. As well, the cost of crime is lowered because those who are educated generally do not get into as much legal trouble. The benefits of educated citizens to the government and, thereby, society as a whole has aptly been explained when it was stated that, “Not only do graduates pay more taxes on their typically higher incomes, but they also tend to have better health, rely less on government social programs, are less likely to be incarcerated, and are more likely to engage in civic activities” (Cunningham 2006). As for the individual, having an education can make a fundamental difference in their life. There are the occasional exceptions to this, but overall education has proven to be a driving force to success. Having an education can place a person in a completely different socioeconomic class. It has been the means by which many people have found their way out of poverty. As it has been reported, “An individual’s educational attainment if one of the most important determinants of their life chances in terms of employment, income, health status, housing, and many other amenities” (Levine et al 2007). Effective Teachers: A Literature Review Stronge (2002) wrote a report about what make an effective teacher. He acknowledged the fact that traditionally teacher effectiveness has been measured by the academic success of the student. However, he takes the approach of defining teacher effectiveness from a stakeholder’s point of view, such as the students, administrators, and the teachers themselves. Stronge’s approach to the definition of teacher effectiveness is possibly a more enlightened view. There are a variety of factors that can affect the academic performance of a student, such as their home life, tendency for test anxiety, and support system, which even the best teacher cannot control. By defining an effective teacher instead by the perceptions of the stakeholders, important qualities of an effective teacher become part of the definition that would have otherwise been left out. According to Stronge, the qualities of teachers that should be measured in order to define their effectiveness are caring, listening, understanding, knowing students, fairness and respect, social interactions with students, the promotion of enthusiasm and motivation, attitudes towards the teaching profession, and reflective practices (Stronge 2002). This list of qualities that an effective teacher should rank high on is very extensive. It is the opinion of the author that this list can be simplified into a few categories. There was a paper written which contrasted and compared the qualities of effective and ineffective teachers (Walls et al 2002). It was pointed out that often students have well established beliefs about what is an effective teacher. In fact, the article reports that a survey was given to teachers about the definition of an effective teacher both before and after going through a course on effective teaching and all of the results on both surveys remained the same (Walls et al 2002). This information is significant in light of Stronge’s inclusion of stakeholder preferences in the definition of an effective teacher. These strongly set beliefs in the minds of this population can represent stereotypes which are difficult to change. Therefore, by defining teacher effectiveness solely on the opinions of the stakeholders it is very likely that some important aspects of what it means to be an effective teacher might be left out. More than just opinions and perceptions are needed in order to identify the real meaning of an effective teacher. The surveys conducted for this report demonstrated that the definition of an effective teacher has a lot to do with the emotional atmosphere between the teacher and their pupils. As it was reported, The overall emotional environment was a dominant theme. Caring about students was particularly prevalent in the description of effective teachers. They were described as warm, friendly, and caring. Conversely, ineffective teachers often were said to create a tense classroom and were described as cold, abusive, and uncaring” (Walls et al 2002). Caring is an aspect that was also regarded as important by Stronge, however effective teachers clearly need much more than this. Simple caring alone will not make up for the need to be proficient in other areas. For example, the level of familiarity with subject matter was not mentioned in Walls’ definition of an effective teacher, yet clearly a teacher cannot be effective in teaching what they do not know. The works of Stronge and Walls has only clarified a few significant points in the definition that will be explored later. One more work on the meaning of ‘effective’ in regards to teachers will now be explored. Jahangiri and Mucciolo (2008) Performed a qualitative research study on the topic of teacher effectiveness. They too supported the view that teacher effectiveness can best be measured by the opinions of the students. However, they also assert that the teachers’ self-evaluations can also be a measure of gauging effectiveness. They idea that what the teacher thinks of their effectiveness can be used to define effectiveness is something that is new to this currently undertaken exploration. Jahangiri and Mucciolo do not seem to acknowledge or recognize the issues that can arise when relying solely on student evaluation to rate the effectiveness of a teacher. After all, a student can like a teacher for their personality attributes and still learn nothing, or not enough, from them. Nevertheless, Jahangiri and Mucciolo continued with their study, gathering qualitative research. Their approach was to ask open-ended questions to graduate students about what they considered teacher effectiveness to be. Then they took those responses and compared them to the responses of professional practitioners who were employed in the student’s field of study. Interestingly, the students’ responses revealed that they considered “content design, content organization, and content development” (Jahangiri & Mucciolo 2008) to be the most important while the professionals considered the most important to be expertise and self-confidence. Stronge’s report helped to identify the fact that the definition of an effective teacher cannot be based solely on student achievement to be accurate. Also, it highlighted many of the intangible ingredients of effective teachers. To add to this foundation, Walls et al highlighted the point that effective teachers have to care and that those of who the students were given the impression that they do not care are popularly considered to be ineffective. The qualitative research study presented by Jahangiri and Mucciolo (2008) revealed that students do not limit their idea of an effective teacher to character traits, such as caring, but they actually are more concerned with the organization and presentation of course materials. Therefore, in seeking to define what it means to be an effective teacher it has been realized that there must be a mix of skills, knowledge and character traits. Ethics in Effective Teachers Behind all of the great personality traits that a teacher could demonstrate must be found a platform of ethics. Ethics are the very basics from which other ideas, such a caring, may extend. For a dishonest, unethical teacher cannot be considered a caring one. If they are, it is only due to deceit they practice. A teacher cannot pretend to care and be effective. For at some point the truth about their real character will surface. However, an ethical teacher who is sincere will not only care but also demonstrate other important qualities that can be used to describe what an effective teacher really is. As it has been written, “Taken together, then ethics and teaching seem inherently compatible and unavoidably intertwined’ (Campbell, 2008). Due to this close-nit relationship it is important that ethics be considered when seeking to give the phrase ‘effective teacher’ a definition. While it was hinted at in the reports examined earlier in this paper none of them directly mention the importance of ethics for teachers. However, many have performed research into the role of ethics in the teaching profession. For example, it was reported that, … the moral dimensions of teaching and the ethical nature of the teacher’s professional responsibilities often seem to be taken for granted in both the academy and the practitioner communities, overshadowed by cognitive theories connected to teaching and learning, effective approach to measurement and assessment, classroom management strategies, and other aspects that, while naturally important, are rarely from a moral or ethical perspective (Campbell 2008). Indeed, much as the way in which ethics was omitted from the previously mention studies this is a characteristic that is often taken for granted. It is not that many feel that ethics are not important for an effective teacher to possess, but that ethics are assumed a given characteristic of the teacher profession. However, there are unethical people found even in churches, who are supposed to be beacons of ethics and morality. Therefore, it is not strange that a teacher could be unethical. Yet, because this feature is assumed it often goes unaddressed which allows more unethical practices to occur in the classrooms. In order to address this dilemma, ethics shall be included in the meaning of an effective teacher Campbell (2008) indirectly mentioned that knowledge on learning and teaching as well as effective assessment measures and classroom management are important aspects of an effective teacher. That is to say that in order to properly define ‘effective teacher’ other properties far beyond caring and ethics must be included. . An effective teacher is one that is not only ethical, but can maintain a positive learning environment and has the required skills for the job. References Campbell, E. (2008). The ethics of teaching as a moral profession. Curriculum Inquiry 38(4): 356-385. Cunningham, A. (2006). The broader societal benefits of higher education. Retrieved November 9, 2011 from Cunningham, A. “The Broader Societal Benefits of Higher Education.” 2006. Retrieved http://www.jcu.edu/academic/planassess/planning/files/Planning%20articles/Broader%20Social%20Benefits.pdf Jahangiri, L., Mucciolo, T. (2008) Characteristics of effective classroom teachers as identified by students and professionals: a qualitative study. Journal of Dental Education. 72(4): 484-494. Stronge, J.H. (200). Qualities of effective teachers. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. Levine, Regina. (2007) Effective Classroom Management: Teacher Preparation and Professional Development. TQ Connection Paper on Improving Student Outcomes in General and Special Education. Washington, D.C: National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality. Walls, R., Nardi, A., Von Minden, A., & Hoffman, N. (2002) The characteristics of effective and ineffective teachers. Teacher Education Quarterly. Winter. 39-49. Read More