Effective teaching is not about jargon, buzzwords or particular philosophies of teaching. Yet, when you look at academics’ efforts to describe the principles of effective teaching, that is exactly what you find.
Rather, effective teaching is about helping your students to achieve the best results they can at school.
Most teachers want to help kids and to make real difference in their lives. This is what keeps them going each day.
Thankfully, research shows that teachers do make a difference. However, some teachers make far more difference than others do.
Therefore, to identify the true principles of effective teaching, you need to explore what it is that our most successful teachers do.
There is a wealth of information available on the practices and factors that have a high impact on student achievement. John Hattie summarised much of it in his book Visible Learning, though there have been further meta-analyses and reviews since then.
After exploring these practices and factors, ten principles of effective teaching emerged. Here are the ten principles of effective teaching in plain English.
10 Evidence Based Principles of Effective Teaching
Teachers that have the largest impact on their students’ results follow these ten principles of effective teaching.
Effective teachers are passionate about helping their students to learn. They form warm and caring relationships with their students. However, they also set high expectations, and they demand that their students meet them. This leads to a situation where the teacher and the students are working together towards a common goal – helping every child to learn as much as they can.
Effective teachers seek to understand their students, but so do most teachers. The difference is that effective teachers still expect each of their students to behave and to achieve well. Effective teachers use their understanding to adjust their approach to teaching, but they did not use it to excuse misbehaviour, poor effort or a lack of real academic progress.
Effective teachers are clear about what they want their students to learn and they share this with their students. Everyone understands what success entails. Effective teachers also know where students are currently at in this area. They then work towards developing the understanding and skills their students need to demonstrate that they have mastered the material.
Effective teachers want their students to be able to think critically and to develop a deep understanding of the material being taught in class. However, they recognise developing this deep understanding requires sharing a foundational set of knowledge and skills. Armed with this foundation, teachers can help students to develop a deep understanding of the topic at hand.
Effective teachers do not ask their students to perform tasks that they have not shown their students how to do. Rather, they start by modelling what students need to do. They then ask their students to have a go themselves, while being available to help as needed. Only when students are ready, do they ask their students to perform the tasks on their own. Finally, they offer ongoing cumulative practice, spaced out over time, to help students retain what they have learned.
Effective teachers give students dollops of feedback. This feedback tells students how they are going and gives them information about how they could improve. Without feedback, students are likely to continue holding misconceptions and making errors. Feedback allows students to adjust their understanding and efforts before it is too late.
Effective teachers supplement teacher-led, individual learning, with activities that involve students in learning from each other. When done well, strategies such as cooperative learning, competition and peer tutoring can be quite powerful. Yet, these activities must be carefully structured and used in conjunction with more traditional teaching.
Effective teachers know that students’ behaviour can help or hinder how much students learn in the classroom. They implement strategies that nurture positive behaviour and minimise misbehaviour. They are consciously aware of what is going in the classroom, and they nip problems in the bud before quickly returning the focus to the lesson at hand. Finally, they follow up on more serious misbehaviour and help students to change any entrenched bad habits.
Effective teachers regularly assess student progress, and they then use this insight to evaluate the impact they are having on their students. If what they are doing is working, they continue to use or even make more use of a particular approach. If what they are doing is not having the desired impact (even for just one student), they reflect on and refine what they are doing until they are getting the results they want.
Effective teachers love learning and are always seeking to improve their own practices. They seek out evidence-based insights, and they are happy to challenge their existing beliefs about teaching. However, they are also critical of mindless innovation, innovation for the sake of it, and innovation that adopts practices that are not supported by research.
You can use these principles of effective teaching to reflect on your own practice, to discuss effective teaching with colleagues or evaluate particular programs/approaches you are considering.
The Principles Of Effective Teaching In Brief
References & Further Reading
Dweck, C. (2006). Mindset. New York: Random House.
Hattie, J. (2009). Visible Learning: A Synthesis of 800 Meta-Analyses Relating to Achievement. Routledge.
Hattie, J., & Anderman, E. (2013). International Guide to Student Achievement: Educational Psychology Handbook. Routledge.
Hattie, J., & Yates, G. (2014). Visible Learning and the Science of How We Learn. Routledge.
Rosenshine, B. (2012). Principles of Instruction: Research Based Strategies That All Teachers Should Know. American Educator.