Chapter One | Effective Teaching

Chapter One
Effective Teaching

Every teacher in every classroom should understand important research on what teachers
do to help their students achieve. So, what research should teachers turn to as a guide? In this
chapter I present three studies I believe every educator should review and analyze to determine
how to apply associated best practices (Marzano 2003; Black & Wiliam, 1998; Hattie, 2008). The
staggering findings of these three ‘studies of studies’ should make us all think twice about our
current classroom practices.

First, Marzano5 and his colleagues evaluated the results of studies on effective teaching
and placed a high value on the relationship between an effective teacher and student achievement.
Second, Black and Wiliam6 analyzed results of studies and found the way teachers provide specific
feedback to students has a profound effect on student achievement. Third, Hattie7 produced results
from one of the most extensive ‘studies of studies’ and identified the top variables that influence
student achievement.

Marzano and his colleagues synthesized the research on effective schools. They analyzed
research studies that had been conducted over a 35 year time span. The focus separated the effect
of a school’s climate on student achievement from the effect an individual teacher had on student
achievement. Take a look at the extremely revealing results that provide a strong basis for teachers
being the most important variable that affects student learning. The results revealed the following:

 A student at the 50th percentile who attends an average school and has an average
teacher achieves at the 50th percentile at the end of two years.

 The same student at the 50th percentile who attends a least effective school and has an
ineffective teacher drops to the 3rd percentile at the end of two years.

 The same student at the 50th percentile who attends a highly effective school and has
an ineffective teacher achieves at the 37th percentile at the end of two years.

 The same student at the 50th percentile who attends a highly effective school with a
highly effective teacher achieves at the 96th percentile at the end of two years.

 The same student at the 50th percentile who attends a least effective school with a highly
effective teacher achieves at the 63rd percentile at the end of two years.

These findings show how important an individual teacher is to student learning. Marzano
and his colleagues show us that students in classrooms with highly effective teachers employed in
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ineffective schools achieve powerful learning gains. Therefore, the teacher affects student
achievement more than the school. However, the most powerful gains occur when both are
effective.

So, what then do highly effective teachers do to support high student achievement? In the
late 90’s Black and Wiliam co-authored the publication, Inside the Black Box: Raising Standards
Through Classroom Assessment, describing some of the most significant findings about the effect
feedback has on student learning. Black and Wiliam conducted an extensive survey of the research
literature of books and journals over a nine year time period, which yielded about 580 articles or
chapters that focused on formative classroom assessment and feedback practices of teachers. Of
the 580 manuscripts, they selected 250 to review. The findings of their research show that teachers
who use formative assessment processes and provide consistent feedback to students increase
student achievement. Remember, assessments used for formative purposes are those that occur as
students are learning. Specifically, Black and Wiliam discovered that when teachers applied good
formative assessment practices in their classrooms their students showed significant gains on
standardized tests. Important to note, the highest gains occurred for lower performing students
(lowest quartile).

In 1998, Black and Wiliam presented a study that today reinforces how important formative
assessment information is to improving student learning. Nine years prior to their study, Sadler8
wrote a pivotal paper introducing a theory of formative assessment. Sadler identifies three
conditions of effective feedback. Students must be able to understand quality work and make good
decisions about their work. They, therefore, must be able to compare their work to some sort of
standard. Doing so, students identify their learning gaps and know where they need to improve.
Consequently, Sadler proposes that students become more motivated about learning and confident
in their abilities.

Sadler suggests that teachers consider using the concept of a feedback loop, which involves
teachers and their students simultaneously collecting and analyzing student learning information
to determine where students are and where they need to go. Students’ progression from one
learning target to another works best when students receive descriptive feedback to help them
improve. Students rely on feedback and without it, their chance for remaining engaged learners
spirals downward.

A third important study is presented by Hattie who authored the book, Visible Learning.
He describes the results of one of the most comprehensive studies in education. He presents results
focused on factors that improve student learning after he analyzed and synthesized over 15 years
of research of over 50,000 studies. In particular, Hattie analyzed factors categorized into student,
teacher, teaching strategy, curricula, school, and home. To align with the content of this book,
Who’s Engaged?, I focus on the most influential factors specific to what teachers do to engage
students to achieve. Hattie, similar to Black and Wiliam, found that feedback is an important action
for teachers to use to reinforce learning in their classrooms. Hattie’s findings expand our thinking
to consider a teacher’s role in providing students with opportunities to engage in two-way

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feedback conversations about the learning expectations and the strategies students apply to
achieve. Also, students tend to set levels they expect to achieve and will work to only achieve at
that level. Effective teachers help students adjust these personal expectations to achieve a more
advanced target and show students what success looks like at that level.

These three ‘studies of studies’ tell us a great deal about teaching students. The results from
Marzano and his colleagues’ study show us that the teacher is the most important variable that
affects student learning. The Black and Wiliam study reveals quality formative assessment
practices directly influence student learning with the highest effect on the lowest performing
students. Hattie’s findings dig deeper into specific teacher associated factors as well as other
factors having the greatest influence on student achievement. These three studies leverage our
number one goal as teachers - to improve student learning. Two important facts exist. First, most
students are likely to achieve with help from a really good teacher. Second, when teachers apply
specific strategies, students will become more engaged and therefore, have a greater opportunity
to achieve success. Teachers own the responsibility to change practices to align to evidence-based
teaching strategies.

Teaching ALWAYS Actions™

As my colleagues and I work with teachers we engage in conversations about domains of
teaching now aligned to many teacher evaluations. Danielson’s and Marzano’s frameworks seem
to represent the most popular ones in today’s schools. Both provide a comprehensive approach to
describing effective teaching practices.

I introduce the Teaching ALWAYS Actions™ as a way to align effective teaching to the
research while ‘making the complex, simple.’ The Teaching ALWAYS Actions are five actions
teachers must do every day in their classrooms to ensure students are engaged and therefore,
learning. That is, the Teaching ALWAYS Actions are essential for every teacher to apply every day.
Teachers could do more than the essential or ALWAYS Actions (i.e. detailed indicators of domains
of learning such as those presented by Danielson9 and Marzano10). However, teachers must not do
less. I have observed, at times, teachers fail to always apply evidence-based practices. Every day,
all day long great leaders and teachers must apply best practices that research indicates work.

So, what do I mean by ALWAYS? No one is perfect. If people expect to achieve perfection,
they will fail; if people expect to achieve excellence, they will achieve at high performance levels.
Therefore, the term, always, means the demonstration of specific research-based practice
behaviors at least 97% of the time. Don’t sweat the 3% or bad days; focus on the good days
representing 97% of time.

The Teaching ALWAYS Actions are ‘must do’ behaviors in the Student Engagement
Framework™. I present a way for teachers to apply these essential teaching practices aligned to
Hattie’s evidence-based recommendations. The following chart and descriptions demonstrate this
alignment.
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Teaching ALWAYS Actions™ Alignment to Hattie’s Research

Teaching ALWAYS Actions™ Hattie’s Research

Have a well-managed classroom with
 Create an environment where everyone
very well defined classroom rules and
1 Procedures procedures that are clearly
listens, cares and has positive regard for
each other.
communicated to students.
 Segment information into parts moving up
cognitive levels and getting to synthesis.
Show and communicate the learning
 Clearly communicate lesson expectations
targets of the day and how they
2 Targets connect to an essential higher order
and what constitutes success.
learning goal.  Start with learning targets and success
criteria and engage students in moving
towards these.
 Model problem-solving steps.
Provide many opportunities for
 Apply interactive small groups.
3 Practice students to practice learning tasks
aligned to the targets.  Engage in dialogue between teacher and
students to make meaning of learning.
Constantly give feedback to students,
create ways for students to self-  Offer feedback (teachers to students,
assess, and include strategies for students to students).
4 Feedback students to give feedback to each  Offer feedback loops between teacher &
other to know what they have learned student on small units of well-defined,
and where learning gaps exist. Know appropriately sequenced instruction.
how to close the gaps.
Record a grade from a student
achievement score applying a well-  Ask students how they will perform on the
developed test and/or a performance test and they can tell you. Set student
5 Grades assessment (both designed and expectations higher than students set for
aligned to targets taught) to score themselves.
student achievement.

Action 1 Procedures (Who’s Engaged? Online Learning Module11 and Harry Wong12 The First
Days of School)

The ultimate goal is to get the first day of school off to a good start by communicating and
teaching students about the rules and procedures. Students, much like us, want to work in
environments where consistency is applied and fairness remains a priority. Remember, students
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gain better opportunities to engage in learning when they feel safe and cared about. Establishing
rules and procedures affords students this safety. I find the majority of students engage in learning
when teachers continuously communicate, teach, and assess classroom rules and procedures.
When students fail to pay attention to a particular rule or procedure, re-teach and re-assess students.
Remember, when considering rules and procedures – what we permit, we promote.

Action 2 Targets (Ch. 4: Who’s Engaged? and Who’s Engaged? Online Learning Module 13)

Students learn when they know what is expected of them. Learning targets communicate
expectations to students and help teachers know what they are assessing as students are learning.
To help students learn, teachers need to create very clear learning targets and communicate them
in ways that students understand what is expected. The Bloom’s Taxonomy Chart provides teachers
with the help they need. The verbs in the chart aligned to various mental levels let teachers know
what to assess and students know what to learn.

Action 3 Practice - Targets Aligned to Tasks (Ch. 5: Who’s Engaged? and Who’s Engaged? Online
Learning Module 14)

To help students achieve at their best academic levels teachers need to provide students
with opportunities to practice. Think about an athletic coach and a team. The coach wants to do
everything possible to prepare each player to win a game. During practice the coach teaches a skill,
demonstrates what the skill looks like when well performed, observes players practicing the skill,
recognizes accomplishments of each player and the team, and offers feedback to improve
performance. The coach engages with the team during practice time for the sole purpose of helping
each player achieve at a high level. Transfer this example to a classroom. The learning task (thing
students do in class) must align to what teachers expect students to accomplish (learning target).
As students perform the task teachers provide specific feedback to recognize what students do well
and assist them to overcome learning gaps. Teachers engage with their students during practice
sessions to coach every student to achieve the target.

Action 4 Feedback - Formative Assessment (Ch. 6: Who’s Engaged? and Who’s Engaged? Online
Learning Module 15)

How important is feedback? Take a look at the results from a teacher who conducted an
experiment to answer this question. She asked students in three different classes (same content and
same grade level) to respond to a writing prompt. In one class she only provided a grade (A to F);
in a second class she provided a grade and descriptive feedback; and in a third class she only
provided descriptive feedback. When students took a test with outside reviewers assessing their
writing, students in the feedback only class outperformed the other two classes.

To get the most out of the practice sessions, teachers need to provide students with very
specific feedback, congratulating them for their accomplishments and providing specific and
timely feedback to help them improve their performance. The type of feedback, the time at which

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feedback is provided, and the way teachers advise students will determine if students stay engaged
in the learning process and better yet, own their learning.

Action 5 Grades - Summative Assessment (Ch. 7: Who’s Engaged? and Who’s Engaged? Online
Learning Module 16)

After students practice learning tasks aligned to learning targets while receiving specific
feedback, they are ready for the teacher to judge or grade their work. Now teachers need the critical
skill of developing good summative assessment tools including tests and performance assessments.
Summative measures are included in a student’s grade unlike the formative assessment or “pulse
checks” used during practice sessions.

Effective Teacher GPA

I developed an Effective Teacher GPA tool, which includes teacher behaviors aligned to
the Teaching ALWAYS Actions and the research presented in this chapter. Continuously, use this
tool to self-reflect on your teaching practices. The items on the GPA include:

 I judge my ability to teach by how well my students learn rather than how well I teach
content.
 I am comfortable with others judging my ability to teach by how well my students learn.
 If I leave school knowing many of my students did not learn as I expected, I determine that
I did not teach very well that day.
 I take full responsibility when my students fail to learn.
 I do not blame students or their parents for my students failing to learn.
 I do not move to another concept until my students have mastered the one at hand.
 Each day I clearly communicate what is expected of my students.
 My students clearly see how one day of learning builds on the next day of learning.
 I give my students ample time to practice learning tasks before I make a judgment about
how well they learned.
 I do not assign a daily grade to my students’ work when they are practicing learning tasks.
 I create opportunities where my students receive continuous and specific feedback that
helps them improve.
 I consistently recognize my students’ strengths.

When completing the Effective Teacher GPA, teachers assign grades to each item using the definitions
below:
A = always (97% of the time and above)
B = usually (80% to 96% of the time)
C = sometimes (40% to 79% of the time)
D = seldom (5% to 39% of the time)
F = never (less than 5%)

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Go to the link, http://WhosEngaged.com/EffectiveTeacherGPA to self-reflect on each

statement using an A to F grade to rate your performance. Put in your grades and the online tool
will calculate your Effective Teacher GPA. The more honest you are with your ratings the more
open you will be to learn. After you complete the self-assessment, read the questions again and
assign a letter grade to each item as you answer this question, “How well do you think teachers in
general perform the actions?” Then calculate an overall teacher GPA. Feel free to use the online
GPA calculator to complete this exercise.

At the beginning of a professional development session or a class I ask teachers to take this
self-assessment to help set the stage for learning together. At best, I find teachers tend to assign
themselves and other teachers grades that produce a “C” average. Ironically, research over the
years indicates when teachers apply these actions in their classrooms, students achieve higher
scores on standardized tests.

Teachers are not altogether responsible for failing to score an “A” on the self-assessment.
I’ve found teachers have not been taught strategies that attend to how well students learn rather
than what they teach. Good news - when teachers commit to applying the actions in their
classrooms, they regain their passion for teaching.

The information I share, along with some examples of teachers’ work, opens doors for
teachers to reflectively think about the need to modify their practices to focus more on what
students learn rather than on the content taught and the activities completed with students each day
in class. Teachers can use Who’s Engaged? as a resource to help students climb The Learning
Ladder to achieve academic success.

Every day always apply the five actions that define effective teaching. To act always,
teachers need to know ‘why’ they should apply the actions, ‘what’ the actions look like, and ‘how’
the actions reflect good teaching and in turn, influence student achievement. The recommendations
presented in this book give teachers a good start towards becoming and remaining a great teacher.
Therefore, assess yourself along the way using the Effective Teacher GPA to reflect on how well
you apply the Teaching ALWAYS Actions in your classrooms.

Teachers influence whether or not students choose to be engaged learners and therefore,
achieve academic success. Determine the practices you need to modify to become a highly
effective teacher.

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Chapter One | Effective Teaching

Sample Effective Teacher GPA Exercise

When completing the Effective Teacher GPA, teachers assign grades to each item using the definitions below:

A = always (97% of the time and above)

B = usually (80% to 96% of the time)
C = sometimes (40% to 79% of the time)
D = seldom (5% to 39% of the time)
F = never (less than 5%)

Effective Teacher GPA Exercise

Grade
1. I judge my ability to teach by how well my students learn rather than how well I teach
content. C
2. I am comfortable with others judging my ability to teach by how well my students learn. B
3. If I leave school knowing many of my students did not learn as I expected, I determine that
I did not teach very well that day. C
4. I take full responsibility when my students fail to learn. B
5. I do not blame students or their parents for my students failing to learn. B
6. I do not move to another concept until my students have mastered the one at hand. D
7. Each day I clearly communicate what is expected of my students. B
8. My students clearly see how one day of learning builds on the next day of learning. C
9. I give my students ample time to practice learning tasks before I make a judgment about
how well they learned. C
10. I do not assign a daily grade to my students’ work when they are practicing learning tasks. C
11. I create opportunities where my students receive continuous and specific feedback that
helps them improve. C
12. I consistently recognize my students’ strengths. B
2.33
SCHOOL TEACHER GPA* ________________
* How to calculate the GPA: Assign a number to each letter selected (A=4, B=3, C=2, D=1, F=0). Add the numbers for items 1 to 12
and then divide the total sum by 12 to get your GPA.

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Chapter One | Effective Teaching

Key Points (Chapter One)

 Three “studies of studies” provide evidence for teachers to consider when determining
performance criteria and actions associated with effective teaching.

o Marzano and his colleagues demonstrate that the teacher is the most important factor that
influences student learning.

o Black and Wiliam show students who receive timely, specific and consistent feedback as
they engage in learning score at higher levels on standardized tests, with the biggest gains
occurring for students in the lower quartile.

o Hattie’s findings dig a little deeper when viewing effects on student achievement. Attention
needs to be given to two important factors. First, students enter a segment of instruction
and establish their own learning expectations which are usually lower than their learning
potential. Effective teachers help students exceed their potential. Second, teachers who
engage in a two way conversation with students when giving feedback to them or ask
students to communicate back what they need to do to improve, provide students with
opportunities to achieve at higher levels.

 The Teaching ALWAYS Actions align to some of the most important influencers of student
achievement reported in Hattie’s research. The Teaching ALWAYS Actions define the essentials
teachers should do every day in the classroom. Hattie’s research findings refer to specific
strategies teachers should use.

 The Effective Teacher GPA is a self-assessment tool teachers can use to continuously assess
the application of effective teaching behaviors. It is available online at
http://WhosEngaged.com/EffectiveTeacherGPA.

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