Who was your best teacher ever? What are the Special Qualities of Effective Teachers?

Who was your favourite teacher? What made this teacher such a special person in your life?

What could be more important than to see our young people grow and develop into confident, competent, capable and knowledgeable young men and women? If we think back to our own schooling, I'm sure there are teachers who still hold a very special place in our hearts. Why do memories of these teachers stay with us during our life? Maybe because they seemed to really understand us, or relate to us. Sometimes they turned our lives around and sometimes they turned our days around because they were caring, understanding and empathetic.

One of my favourite quotes, written by a dear friend, inscribed in a book called "Hugs for Teachers" is: " A teacher affects eternity, she can never tell where her influence stops."
It's so true and sometimes I think teachers forget the powerful impact and life altering effect that they can have on the boys and girls and young women and men in their charge. It goes without saying that teacher quality matters or rather the quality of the teacher matters most!

One of the best books I've come across on teacher effectiveness is a book written by James Stronge called: Qualities of Effective Teachers (2007, Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development). Stronge has also written for teachers a great practical Handbook to accompany the book.

In a nutshell when we talk about teacher effectiveness, we are talking about a teacher's capacity to improve a student's learning outcomes. At the end of the day, we are looking at ensuring students are successful after school, in work, university and further study and importantly as a citizen.

According to Stronge, the important qualities of a teacher who is effective can be distilled to the following:

An effective teacher is a person who:

• Is Caring - someone who brings out the best in a boy or girl through encouragement and affirmation, listens, understands and knows each student very well.
• Fair and Respectful - effective teachers establish rapport and credibility with students by emphasising: Respect, Modelling appropriate behaviours, Practising respect and fairness, someone who is consistent and shows no favouritism, no gender bias and treats students equitably.
• Interacts in and beyond the classroom with students in a friendly, personal manner maintaining appropriate teacher-student structures and norms. Someone who gets involved in sporting events, concerts, cultural events, talks to students during recess and allows students to participate in decision making.
• Is Enthusiastic and Motivating - the teacher's enthusiasm for teaching, learning and expertise in their subject matter is important in supporting positive relationships with students in encouraging student achievement. Research consistently demonstrates that high levels of motivation in teachers relates to high levels of achievement in students. High levels of enthusiasm is particularly important in motivating older students. (See research by Aaronson, Barrow and Sander (2007), Teachers and student Achievement in the Chicago public high schools. Journal of Labor Economics 25, No. 1)
• Is Passionate about students, and teaching and learning - Students are very intuitive and pick up very quickly if a teacher is not interested in them, the subject or the school. A teacher should not hide her or his light under a bushell - let students know how passionate you are about them and your work.
• Attitude is everything in teaching - effective teachers exude positive attitudes about life and teaching. They believe that extra hours spent preparing and reflecting upon teaching and learning are well worth the student outcomes. They believe that all students can learn and they can help their students learn!

When we consider that the destiny of each of our student's lives can depend on how caring we are, how helpful we can be, how enthusiastic, how fair and respectful, how encouraging we are and how expert we are in our teaching and learning, how can we be anything but the very best teachers we can be?

It doesn't matter if we have been teaching for one or twenty years, we can all improve on each of these qualities. All of us can make a difference to the young people we teach.

The principles of teaching and learning, the qualities of effective teachers, are in fact the principles by which we can all live - teacher or not - we can all affect eternity of the people we come in contact with in our day to day lives.

Mother Teresa sums up the way we can choose to live our lives:

"Be kind and merciful. Let no one ever come to you without coming away better and happier." Oh, what a better world it would be if we could live by this mantra. :)

Karon Graham
Principal
Caloundra City School

Beleaguered! Bedevilled and Betwixt!

To my astonishment, the League Table of Primary Schools Report appeared in the Courier Mail on Saturday, 23 May, 2009 under the misleading heading of "Educating parents on vital results". Far from educating parents ,(now there's a hypocrisy), the production of raw data with no valuable background information to parents of the Primary School's context, was far more damaging than it was informative and by no stretch of the imagination was it 'educating parents'.

This is a classic case of reporting the statistical facts, without any meaningful analysis. I'm reminded of a quote from Aaron Levenstein, "Statistics are like bikinis. What they reveal is suggestive but what they conceal is vital." Parents would be very wise to consider more importantly, what the League Table of Primary results does not reveal, rather than take at face value the raw statistics presented.

What conclusions could parents draw from the published results? In all honesty, very little. Yes the statistics provided a 'snapshot of students' at one point in time, but do they tell you anything about the quality of teaching and learning at the school? I don't think so. Do the figures reveal anything about the intervention programs currently in place at the school? No they do not. Do the statistics show how much students have improved upon the previous years in literacy and numeracy? No they do not.

It is not surprising that independent schools (and some state schools for that matter) in higher socioeconomic areas did significantly better than school in lower socioeconomic areas. There are many research papers showing a close positive correlation between students results and socioeconomic background. This was not groundbreaking news to any parent or educator.


Schools have enough to contend with at the moment with a "forced testing regime" without having to deal with so called League Tables with minimal information of any value to parents. I recommend to all parents to visit the schools that they are considering for their sons and daughters and investigate for themselves the values of the School, the curriculum, the student-teacher ratios, the sports and cultural programs available. This is far more revealing and informative than so called League Tables.

Remember, 'you don't fatten a pig by simply weighing it more', nor do you improve literacy and numeracy results by testing more. The real improvement in literacy and numeracy comes from employing highly skilled teachers and intervening at an early stage of your child's development to improve or to extend his or her learning. Providing a rich and engaging curriculum that challenges and supports deep learning is a surer way to improve literacy and numeracy than simply to "teach for testing" which some of our politicians are suggesting.

Yes it's not surprising that all sectors of primary and secondary education are feeling decidedly beleaguered, bedevilled and betwixt! We are following an American 'testing regime' model and an English model, which history will reveal as flawed. In all measures of improved literacy and numeracy (International literacy, numeracy and scientific test results - PISA and TIMMS), the very countries, which we seem to be following, are amongst the mediocre, at best, in terms of improvement over the last ten years. Surely our students and educators deserve better than this?

Why are we betwixt? Well between 'forced testing" (yes, funding arrangements require agreement to the NAPLAN testing), and the push by the federal government and the media for greater so called 'transparency', (which is not achieved by the publication of poorly organised raw data), many schools are feeling that they are under increasing pressure to prepare students for tests rather than preparing our children, in a meaningful way, for their future. A future which holds all the joy of a narrative, an understanding and empathy for different cultures, a capacity to work together in a team, the skills of problem solving and the ability to think and work creatively to meet the challenges of the future.

Beware of statistics, without explanation.
Our children deserve better and our schools deserve better than this "League" mentality.

Karon Graham
Principal
Caloundra City School

Do you have instant appeal?

Have you ever wondered why some people, some products and even some organisations are a hit and others seem to flounder in a sea of obscurity? (Think: Susan Boyle, Apple ipod, Dancing with the Stars, Microsoft, Google and you've got the picture.) Well I think I've found the perfect book to explain why universal appeal happens for some and seems to be out of reach for others.

Vicki Kunkel's book: Instant Appeal: The 8 Primal Factors That Create Blockbuster Success (AMACON, 2009) is an eye opener from start to finish. The first myth debunked, is the notion that we have to be perfect to have appeal. Ms Kunkel's chapter: Ducklings, Defects and Devotion: The Conspicuous Flaw Factor, blows any notion of 'picture perfect' as having instant appeal right out of the water.

The book is based on extensive research and for us 'mere mortals', it's very comforting to know that we're in with a chance of success if we can simply apply a few tried and tested strategies. I don't think Susan Boyle has read the book, because over the last two days, we have seen a new 'glamorised' Ms Boyle. If she had read the book, she may have rethought the glam makeover. Kunkel cites the #1 Universal Law, that contrary to popular belief, physical flaws create an instant appeal to others. Yes, it's true! (There's hope yet for all of us!) Believe it or not, being too perfect can be a drawback! (Phew, that's a relief!)

The book is totally absorbing and Kunkel not only explains why Agatha Christie's books are so addictive (and reality shows too), but gives some good down to earth advice on how to make simple changes to engage and increase your own personal appeal or that of your organisation. She explains how certain words trigger a strong emotional, almost primeval response in us and how we can tap into this energy. (Think: Oh yeah, don't we just love this girl?)

In each chapter, Kunkel draws on other Universal Laws that help us to better understand the human psyche. For example I found the following chapters quite reassuring:

• The Reptilian Comfort Universal Law - or as Vicki calls it, the principle of least effort or the "Garfield Rule". Ok - hands up if you're guilty of this one? It seems that we're all guilty of this! (Don't worry then!) When it comes to the KISS principle, it usually works well in a marketing sense too.
• The Sacred Cow Universal Law - it turns out that we prefer to stay with something that we're familiar with rather than experimenting with something new. Why? Researchers have found that we feel safer with what is known.

What's most appealing (sorry, I can't help it) about the book, is that it's easy to read ( there we have it, the 'reptilian comfort' factor), it deals with loads of examples that you're all familiar with(oops there's the 'sacred cow' factor), in an imperfect world, with imperfect people (yes, you've got the picture now, the 'conspicuous flaw factor').

A fabulous read with great insights, lots of wit and it goes without saying, lots of "Instant Appeal". Susan Boyle, if you read this blog, then go out and get the book, you will no doubt already be an "instant star" but you may want to keep your "universal appeal" going a little longer. Lessons for all of us in this book, check it out.

Inspirational - You're never too old!

Have you seen Susan Boyle perform on "Britain's got talent"? If not make the time to watch this inspirational clip, which just goes to show you can never really judge people by the way they look. I was moved to tears as I watched this 47 year old woman show the world what an extraordinary talent she was. Now she's wowing the world. Just click the above title to see for yourself this amazing woman perform.

Books that Matter to Me: Good to Great

One of the best books I've read on leadership and taking organisations from ordinary organisations (or at best, what could be described as 'good') to a higher level, is Jim Collins' book: "Good to Great", Harper Business, 2001.





What I love about this book is that it's based on intensive research conducted by Collins and a great team of researchers and it has lots of practical cases (albeit predominantly American examples) of companies that have risen from 'good to great' and behind every great company, guess what? Yes there's a great leader.





Each chapter has a handy summary that gives you the key points. For example:
"The good to great leaders began the transformation by first getting the right people on the bus (and the wrong people off the bus) and then figured out where to drive it."

Rigorous decision making in people decisions:

• When in doubt, don't hire - keep looking
• When you know you need to make a people change, act. First, be sure you don't simply have someone in the wrong seat.
• Put your best people on your biggest opportunities, not your biggest problems.
• Good to great management teams consist of people who debate vigorously in search of the best answers, yet who unify behind decisions, regardless of parochial interests.
  One of the best quotes in the book is in Chapter 1: Good is the enemy of great.
  

Other great quotes: Chapter 4: from Winston Churchill:

"There is no worse mistake in public leadership than to hold out false hopes soon to be swept away." Collins makes the point that many companies fail to face the real facts, as he says:

"There is nothing wrong with pursuing a vision for greatness. After all, the good to great companies also set out to create greatness. But, unlike the comparison companies, the good to great companies continually refine the 'path to greatness with the brutal facts of reality.'

Collins argues that good to great leaders embrace the 'facts of life' and they understand the importance of creating a climate within their organisation, where the truth is heard. He suggests that leaders begin with questions not answers. "Leading from good to great does not mean coming up with all of the answers and then motivating everyone to follow your messianic vision. It means having the humility to grasp the fact that you do not yet understand enough to have the answers and then to ask the questions that will lead to the best possible insights.

• Lead with questions not answers
• Engage in dialogue and debate, not coercion
• Conduct autopsies, without blame
• Build red flag mechanisms that turn information into information that cannot be ignored

Collins describes the good to great leaders as Level 5 Leaders, which is the top level of the hierarchy of executive capabilities. They:

• display compelling modesty, are self-effacing and understated
• are fanatically driven, infected with an incurable need to produce sustained results. They are resolved to do whatever it takes to make the company great, no matter how big or hard the decisions.
• display a workmanlike diligence
• look out the window to attribute success to factors other than themselves.

Level 5 leaders are not larger-than-life celebrity leaders who ride in from the outside - these are negatively correlated with going from good to great organisations.

Other tips:

• If you have 'to do lists', do you have a "stop doing" list ?
• Good to great companies think differently about technology and technological change - they become pioneers in the application of carefully selected technologies.
• No matter how dramatic the end result, the good to great transformations, never happen in one fell swoop. There is no one single defining action, no grand program, no one killer innovation, no solitary lucky break and no miracle moment!

Harry Truman once said:

You can accomplish anything in life, provided that you do not mind who gets the credit.

What I love about this book is that it debunks most of the myths that we hold dear about what makes a great organisation and a great leader. Great leadership is not about the charismatic all-knowing leader, who envisions and leads a group of followers to the 'land of honey'. The reality is that great organisations and great leaders can be ordinary people with passion, vision, direction and above, all humility to ask what they don't know and to get on and do the job with the best team of people they can assemble. Anything is possible with the right people, doing the right work and heading in the right direction!

Read the book and judge for yourself the benefits of asking the right questions and getting the right people on the bus and the wrong ones off! Enjoy!

Is it Possible to Live in Harmony?

World Harmony Day: 21 March, 2009

Whisper words of wisdom, let it be.

When John Lennon and Paul McCartney penned the song Let it Be in 1970, the Beatles were the top selling musical band of all time. The 1970’s was a period of much world unrest and dissatisfaction with big business and governments around the world.

Apartheid was deeply entrenched in South Africa.
The Berlin Wall divided East and West Germany.
Australia had only just introduced voting rights to indigenous aboriginal people and as the original inhabitants of Australia they were discriminated against and unjustly treated. Aboriginal children were still being taken from their families.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 states:
“All human beings are born free and equal, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.
Whisper words of wisdom, let it be.
Let’s bring harmony to our world.

Are human beings born free and equal?
In many countries, including our very own country, people are not free and not equal.

From outer space there are no borders – just continents that extend from west to east, north to south. If we were a visitor to the earth from outer space, we would have the perception that all people would be free to travel from one country to another, to work in live in the country and region of their choice.

Once upon a time this was true as humans moved in nomadic tribes to different parts of the globe. We know this is no longer the case.

Some governments make it very difficult for people from other countries to move or even visit and in some cases, make it almost impossible for their own residents to leave the country. Even in Australia, it is difficult for many people to move from certain countries to live here.

“We have seen a miracle unfold before our very eyes”, said Archbishop Desmond Tutu…. Freedom and justice must become realities for all our people and we have the privilege of helping to heal the hurts of the past.”
When Archbishop Tutu uttered these words in 1995, the South African system of apartheid was being dismantled, Nelson Mandela had been finally released from jail after 25 years of imprisonment. and he had been elected as President of South Africa in their very first multicultural election. Mandela called the new South Africa: the “Rainbow Nation.”

Whisper words of wisdom, let it be.
Let’s bring harmony to our world.

Was there bitterness and revenge in the heart of Nelson Mandela? No there was not. Mandela set about changing the hearts and minds of his people – repairing the damage and breaking down racial barriers.

Whisper words of wisdom, let it be.
Let’s bring harmony to our world.

In 2008, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said ‘sorry’ to the stolen generation of indigenous people of Australia. Quietly but deliberately our Prime Minister moved to heal some of the hurt of our own indigenous people. Was there talk of revenge or huge compensation claims by aboriginal people?
No, there were only tears.
Tears for the past injustices.
Tears of forgiveness.
Tears of joy.

Whisper words of wisdom, let it be.
Let’s bring harmony to our world.

In a country where one in five people are born overseas, nearly 4 million people or just over 22.5 percent of our population are first generation migrants. Our country has been built by the labour, ingenuity and perspiration of peoples from countries in Europe and Asia in particular. Today in Australia, nearly half of our population 5 out of 10 people are first or second generation immigrants.

With so many people from so many different countries, is it possible to have harmony?

Harmony is only possible when we open our hearts and minds to the diversity of people that surround us and embrace the very differences that divide people. Harmony does not come naturally to us humans. It is only through deliberate effort on our part and deliberate practise that harmony comes.
Deliberate practise comes from making a choice in the way we act and what we say. There is a variation on the special prayer written by St Francis that is like a creed. If we followed this creed each and every day, then harmony would surely follow each step we make on life’s journey:

Master, make me a channel of your peace;
that where there is hatred, I may bring love;
that where there is wrong, I may bring the spirit of forgiveness;
that where there is discord, I may bring harmony;
that where there is error, I may bring truth;
that where there is doubt, I may bring faith;
that where there is despair, I may bring hope;
that where there are shadows, I may bring light;
that where there is sadness, I may bring joy.
Master, grant that I may seek rather to comfort than to be comforted;
to understand, than to be understood;
to love, than to be loved.
For it is by self-forgetting that one finds.
It is by forgiving that one is forgiven.

Whisper words of wisdom, let it Be.
Let’s bring harmony to our world.

In simple words, if we put the needs of others before our own, if we were more caring and understanding of others, then the world would be a better place. Harmony would reign.

Today, on Harmony Day, we embrace one another’s heritage.
Today, on Harmony Day, we embrace one another’s cultural differences
Today, on Harmony Day, we embrace the very diversity of all people who share our country.

Today we celebrate harmony and all that it means.
Whisper words of wisdom, and Let it be.
Let’s bring harmony to our world.

Does School Size Matter?

“Why not the best schools?” Professor Brian Caldwell’s 2008 book came at a critical time in the educational debate around Australia. With falling standards in literacy, numeracy and science, Professor Caldwell and Jessica Harris researched those countries which were outperforming Australia, to discover why they had leaped ahead of Australia in international benchmarking testing.

In the 2006 PISA testing program on science, the top ten nations were: Finland, Hong Kong, China, Canada, Chinese Taipei, Japan, Estonia, New Zealand, Australia, Netherlands and Korea. Across a range of benchmarks in relation to student performance, student completion of schooling and tertiary qualifications, Finland scored at the highest level across a range of criteria and outperformed Australia in every measure. Why is this so?

There are a number of factors that contribute to Finland’s success. Now many readers at this point, may be wondering how this relates to their own schools and what we can learn from a relatively small isolated country in the northern hemisphere, like Finland.

There has been considerable debate in Australia also about the ideal school size. What size is best for getting the best educational results from students? It may surprise many parents to learn that the ideal size according to research is between 200 and 400 for a primary school and slightly higher for secondary schools. The findings since 1996, by Caldwell and others (Cotton, K, 1996, School Size, School Climate, and Student Performance. School Improvement Research Series #20) confirm that smaller schools have many benefits over larger schools. In particular, smaller schools have:

Academic achievements which are equal to or superior than most large schools
Student attitudes toward school and specific subjects are more positive in small schools
Levels of participation in extracurricular activities is much higher and more varied in smaller schools
Student attendance is better in smaller schools
Students have a greater sense of well being and belonging in smaller schools
Interpersonal relationships between administrators, staff and students are more positive
Student academic and general self concepts are higher in smaller schools
Student social behaviours – as measured by truancy, discipline problems, violence, theft, substance abuse, and gang participation – is more positive in small schools.

There are a number of attributes which researchers have identified as accounting for the superiority of small schools:

· Everyone is known - a far smaller percentage of students is overlooked or alienated
· Adults and students in the school know and care about one another to a greater degree than in larger schools
· Small schools have a greater rate of parent involvement
· Students in small schools take more of the responsibility for their own learning; their learning activities are more individualised, experiential, and relevant to the world outside of school
· Classes are smaller and scheduling is much more flexible
· Grouping and instructional strategies associated with higher student performance are more often implemented in smaller schools.

Small schools can offer so many more opportunities to students in improved learning outcomes. Importantly, it is not just in the academic area that small schools can provide superior learning environment, but in a whole range of equally significant aspects of learning. Specifically, each student benefits in a small school in the individual personal development of each child, the social, cultural, sporting achievements and involvement and as clearly evident in recent months, in school and community connectedness.

So why is it that a small country like Finland leads the world in literacy, numeracy and science learning? Firstly there’s a clue in the fact that Finland is relatively small. Secondly and most importantly, Finland ensures that all teachers employed hold a Masters Degree and it pays its teachers commensurately. Thirdly it insists that all teachers undertake regular Professional Development every week to ensure that they are abreast of the very best and latest in teaching and learning strategies.

Some educationalists argue that Finland is a homogeneous culture with only Finnish spoken. This fact, combined with the less complex nature of the written and spoken language of Finland, results in higher literacy levels in this country compared to Australia for example. This claim can not be made about all of the other countries that lead Australia in literacy and numeracy though.

Finland has a National Curriculum, which is very broad in principle and is not prescriptive of specific topics and themes. The development of work programs lies in the hands of the schools and the teachers, who are highly qualified to carry out this task. Unlike the US, which has slipped further behind on the international league tables, Finland does not have standardised testing. There is an adage:
"If you carry on doing what you've always done, you'll carry on getting what you've always got" (Jay Abraham).
In other words, more testing (and not changing anything else) does not result in a better outcome, and Finland is testament to this principle. My only hope is that Australia does not fall into the same trap that the US has with standardised testing.

In relation to Australia's more recent performance in The Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), as reported by Sue Thomson, Principal Research Fellow in ACER, Australia's students are performing to an 'average standard' but our students are not performing at the very highest levels as students in Finland, Singapore or Korea.

In fact there is now evidence showing that Australian students are not as interested in Mathematics and Science as they once were, particularly in the Primary and lower Secondary Schools. This I think (and many educators would agree) is due to the poorer quality of teachers entering the profession and the lack of high quality teacher training in Primary and lower Secondary education. Finland leads the world in terms of qualifications needed to enter teaching, but ten years ago this was not the case. Australia is in a position to change the current trend, but only with heavy investment in teacher training and raising the standard of university entrance for teacher education.

Does school size matter? Yes it does and there is compelling research which clearly demonstrates that smaller schools have many benefits that larger schools can not provide. See some of this research and links to other sites at:

http://eric.uoregon.edu/publications/roundup/W98-99.html;

http://www.nwrel.org/scpd/sirs/10/c020.html

More information on Australia's performance in TIMSS 2007: Taking a closer look at mathematics and science in Australia by Sue Thomson can be found at the ACER website at: http://www.acer.edu.au/