TEACHER EFFECTIVENESS AND COMPETENCY, CONCEPT, PRINCIPLES AND CRITERIA

Teacher effectiveness, concept, principles and criteria

Before knowing the meaning of teacher effectiveness, it is essential to know the meaning of effectiveness. Effectiveness is a term used extensively by different people in different contexts. So it is defined in different ways. Teacher education and job performance of a teacher are the contexts in which this term is used. Effectiveness are the requirements of a competency based teacher education, which includes knowledge, skills and values the trainee teacher, must demonstrate for successful completion of the teacher education programme

Anderson (1991) stated that “… an effective teacher is one who quite consistently achieves goals which either directly or indirectly focus on the learning of their students”.

Dunkin (1997) considered that teacher effectiveness is a matter of the degree to which a teacher achieves the desired effects upon students. He defined teacher competence as the extent to which the teacher possesses the requisite knowledge and skills, and teacher performance as the way a teacher behaves in the process of teaching. The term “teacher effectiveness” is used broadly, to mean the collection of characteristics, competencies, and behaviours of teachers at all educational levels that enable students to reach desired outcomes, which may include the attainment of specific learning objectives as well as broader goals such as being able to solve problems, think critically, work collaboratively, and become effective citizens. A few characteristics of a competency are as follows. 

1. A competency consists of one or more skills whose mastery would influence the attainment of the competency.

2. A competency has its linkage with all the three domains under which Performance can be assessed. It covers the domains of knowledge, skill and attitude.

3. Competencies, since have a performance dimension of them, are observable and demonstrable.

4. Because the competencies are observable, they are also measurable. It is possible to assess a competency from the performance of a teacher. It is not necessary that all competencies of a teacher have the same extent of knowledge, skill and attitude. There may be some competencies of a teacher which have the same extent of knowledge, skill and attitude. There may- be some competencies involving more of knowledge than skill and attitude, whereas, same competencies may be skill/performance loaded.

Who is an effective teacher?

Effective teachers are those who achieve the goals which they set for themselves or which they have set for them by others (Ministries of Education, Legislators and School administrators). As a consequence, those who study and attempt to improve teacher effectiveness must be cognizant of the goals imposed on teachers or the goals that teachers establish for themselves or both. A corollary of this definition is that effective teachers must possess the knowledge and skills needed to attain the goals, and must be able to use that knowledge and those skills appropriately if these goals are to be achieved. The possession of knowledge and skills falls under the heading of Teacher competence. In contrast, the use of knowledge and skills in the classroom is referred to as teacher performance. Thus those who investigate and attempt to understand the teacher effectiveness must be able to link teacher competence and teacher performance with the accomplishment of teacher goals (that is teacher effectiveness). Four major assumptions are implicit in this definition of teacher effectiveness. The first is that effective teachers tend to be aware of and actively pursue goals. These goals, in turn, guide their planning as well as their behaviours and interactions with students in the classroom. The second assumption is that teaching is an intentional and reasoned act. Teaching is intentional because we always teach for some purpose, primarily to facilitate learning. Teaching is reasoned because what teachers teach their students is judged by them to be worthwhile. A third assumption implicit in this definition of teacher effectiveness is that the vast majority of teachers goals are, or should be, concerned either directly or indirectly with their students learning. An example of direct teacher concern with learning is a teacher who states that he or she intends to help students develop the ability to differentiate facts from opinions, or reality from fantasy. An example of indirect teacher concern with learning is a teacher who sets out to decrease the level of disruptive behaviour in the classroom because he or she believes that learning cannot occur before the level of disruptive behaviour is reduced. A fourth assumption underlying this definition of teacher effectiveness is that no teacher is effective in every aspect of their profession. For example a primary school teacher may be highly successful in teaching reading comprehension to his or her students while struggling to teach the elements of rudimentary problem solving in mathematics.

Characteristics associated with more effective Teachers

Professionalism:

Commitment: Commitment to doing everything possible for each student possible and enabling all students to be successful.

Confidence: Belief in one’s ability to be effective and to take on challenges

Trustworthiness: Being consistent and fair, keeping ones word.

Respect: Belief that all individuals matter and deserve respect.

Thinking/Reasoning

Analytical thinking: Ability to think logically, break things down and recognise cause and effect.

Conceptual thinking: Ability to identify patterns and connections, even when a great deal of detail is present.

Expectations:

Drive for improvement: Relentless energy for setting and meeting challenging targets for students and the school.

Information seeking: Drive to find out more and get to the heart of things, intellectual curiosity.

Initiative: Drive to act now to anticipate now and pre-empt events.

Leadership:

Flexibility: Ability and willingness to adapt to the needs of a situation and change tactics.

Accountability: Drive and ability to set clear expectations and parameters and hold others accountable for performance.

Passion for learning: Drive and ability to support students in their learning, and help them become confident and independent learners.  

Criteria for effective teaching

Product variable: It means what students learnt. Persons who prefer this criterion think that the best test of teacher effectiveness is how much and how well students achieve. This includes achievement in all domains-cognitive, affective and psychomotor. Examples of this kind of criterion are.

1. Students gain in a subject matter, knowledge and related abilities.
2. Students gain in psychomotor skills and related abilities.
3. Students gain in interests, attitudes, personality integration, and other effective characteristics. It can be directly assessed with tests and performance ratings before, during and after instruction.

Process variable: In this variable judgment about teacher effectiveness are made in terms of what the teacher does, what the students do, the interactions between student and teacher, or all the three, but not in terms of student achievement. Examples of this kind of criterion are:

1. Teacher behaviours, such as explaining, questioning, leading a discussion, counselling evaluating etc.
2. Student behaviours, such as courtesy, industriousness, attentiveness, conducting an experiment, leading a discussion.
3.  Student-teacher interactions, such as teacher-directed and student-directed exchanges, information exchanges and warmth. The use of process criterion involves making observations of teacher and student behaviours during instruction in the classroom.

Presage variable: Presage is partly a predictive factor. A teachers present and probable future effectiveness is judged on the basis of his intellectual ability, college grades, personal appearance and other characteristics. Examples for this kind of criterion are intellectual abilities of the teacher, amount of college work completed in the teaching, major grade point average in college, personal characteristics and others. This can be assessed indirectly from college records, tests and ratings outside the classroom.   

Sources for deriving teacher competency

Effective teachers consistently achieve goals that focus on desired outcomes for their students. Teacher effectiveness is encompassed in knowledge, attitudes, and performance.

Knowledge

Teachers have excellent verbal and written communication skills.Teachers have thorough knowledge of the subjects they teach and pedagogical methods for teaching those subjects to students. Teachers know a variety of pedagogical strategies, and when and with which students these are appropriate and likely to be effective. Teachers have a thorough understanding of the linguistic and cultural backgrounds of their students and how best to maximize learning for students with diverse needs and characteristics. .Teachers knows how to organize and manage classrooms, using time effectively. .Teachers know how to assess student learning, both formally and informally, and how to vary instruction for students based on these assessments. Teachers know how to select and make resources that are appropriate for student learning activities.Teachers understand language development and children’s developmental stages at the level they teach.

Attitudes

Teachers respect their students regardless of their background, language, or ethnicity Teachers use formative evaluation to adjust instruction and diversify it for the needs of individual or groups of students. Teachers create warm and caring relationships with their students. Teachers maintain collaborative relationships with their peers and with parents and community members. Teachers have high expectations for the learning of all students. .Teachers view student errors as a window to their thinking that can be used to improve student learning. Teachers are reflective about their practice. Teachers believe in collaboration with others toward common goals for student learning. .Teachers are receptive to involvement of parents and community members in their classrooms. Teachers are eager to continue to learn and to improve their practice. Teachers are committed to their profession.

Performance

Teachers’ classrooms are well organized, providing an environment that fosters an interest in learning. Teachers develop classroom rules with students and maintain safe and orderly classrooms in which all students are treated fairly and equitably.Teachers make effective use of time, both of overall classroom time and the time of individual students. Teachers use effective teaching techniques: planning lessons, presenting new material clearly, helping students connect new learning with previous learning, and providing guided and independent practice for new material taught. .Teachers provides opportunities for students to be actively involved in their own learning. .Teachers respond to student errors in positive ways that help students understand and learn the concepts involved. Teachers use formative evaluation to adjust instruction and diversify it for the needs of individual or groups of students.„Teachers create warm and caring relationships with their students. Teachers maintain collaborative relationships with their peers and with parents and community members.

Planning

Teachers' planning refers to that aspect of teaching where teachers formulate a course of action. It is an activity that is typically carried out in the absence of students and before the actual teaching. Teacher’s plans, which serve as 'scripts' (whether they are done on paper or in one's mind), include decisions on what to teach ad how to teach the chosen content.

Motivation

Even when the plan is good, an important function of the teacher in implementing it, is to motivate those learners who are demotivated o the task of learning and nurture those who are already well motivated. There are several ways in which one can achieve this.

Presentation and communication

After ensuring the students' interest in the learning, a teacher in the classroom is to transact with the students in the context of a specific subject matter. The teacher is expected to communicate with the students in a number of ways so that the learners attain various types of learning outcomes. In order to achieve this effectively, the teacher may have to manifest various types of skills including lecturing, explaining, eliciting through questions, conducting discussion, dramatizing, reading, demonstrating; using audio-visual aids, etc. all these may be categorised into skills for effective presentation and communication in the instructional situation.

 Evaluation

Evaluation of the students' achievement of a pre-specified objective is part and parcel of a teacher's function, what would these evaluation skills include? Preparing question papers? Taking viva voce? Yes, all these are included in the evaluation process. But these are only a part of the total evaluation function of a teacher. He has to observe the students in many different situations in order to judge the extent to which the expected terminal behaviours have been actually achieved by them. This includes so many activities. A teacher has to; first of all, select the suitable techniques and tools of evaluation. It is obvious that one cannot measure the length of a stick by using a weighting machine. Similarly, for measuring the skills of performing experiments, one cannot have a written examination. Hence the teacher has to select the suitable techniques and tools for measurement according to what he would like to measure.

Problems for measuring the teacher effectiveness

1. The basic format of the traditional “teacher effectiveness” study is a so-called product-process design, similar to that used in most school effectiveness research. In particular, it does not take into account sufficiently the fact that teachers' roles are broader than their classroom practice and includes management roles, pastoral roles, and relationships with parents and community as well as classroom practice.

2. A major problem in classroom observation is observer bias. If an observer has a preconceived expectation of the behaviour of the observed person, s/he is likely to align the actual observations to these expectations to at least some extent. In one example, students received information that a visiting lecturer was either a warm or a cold personality. Following the lecture, they were asked to rate the lecturer. The half of the class who had received the information that he had a warm personality rated him a more effective, sociable, humorous, and informal lecturer than did the half who had received the information that he was a cold person. Careful training can help alleviate this problem.

3. Generalisability has been found to be a problem in observational research, in that behaviours observed on one occasion are not necessarily typical of a teacher's everyday behaviour. This points to the need to observe teachers as many times as possible and the need to take contextual factors into account.

4. Some individuals have argued that student achievement is the most logical criterion on which to evaluate teachers. We reject this superficially attractive notion for three reasons: student variability, the regression effect, and the limitations of currently available achievement tests.

 5. Rating scales lack the minimum properties necessary or accurately measuring the performance of teachers. Second, such rating scales lack validity. And third, they are highly susceptible to the halo effect. We question the validity of rating scales and of teacher e valuations based on them, because such scales reflect the beliefs of the raters about the nature of competent performance -not actual teaching competence.