What separates good from bad teachers?

Jackie Beere has seen plenty of great, and not so great, teachers. So what separates the good from the bad?

The teacher is nervous about me observing her lesson but as soon as I walk into the Year 5 classroom and join a table of children doing literacy tasks, I feel the buzz of excited learning. They are challenging each other through peer assessment and I am astounded by pupils’ vocabulary and high expectations as they work to improve their extended writing. Books, strategies and views on what helps them to make progress are all eagerly shared with me

The lesson continues with a pupil presenting a lesson on his favourite author’s writing style and testing what the class has learnt. He is followed by a group who find literacy more challenging; they take the lead in demonstrating the best tablet apps to improve spelling and punctuation.

So much learning, such high expectations – and the teacher has barely spoken. When she does, she is softly spoken, offers expert knowledge and asks probing questions that demand deeper thinking. I ask her what she loves about teaching. “It’s about the progress pupils like Mark have made,” she replies. “He has been such a challenge, but you must see what he is producing now.”

Think back to your own school days – which teacher made the most difference? Who inspired you to really fulfil your potential and get turned on to learning?

If you were lucky enough to experience great teaching then you will never forget it; it stays with you forever. But it comes in lots of guises and it is often the person you remember rather than the lesson.

I trained as a primary teacher but ended up in a secondary school as an Advanced Skills Teacher. Later I became a head and so have had the privilege of working with a huge range of great (and not so great) teachers. The most important thing I learned about people who are really effective is that they:

a) Love their job – despite how tough it can be
b) Love children (and find them fascinating) – even the challenging ones
c) Love learning – and are always trying out new ways to improve

These teachers find ways to communicate their belief that they can make a difference – because that is what motivates them. It is this spark, this passion and commitment that triggers our best learning experiences and helps pupils develop the essential habits of curiosity, resilience and risk taking that are crucial for good progress.

We may all start out that way, but it’s easy to get ground down by bad behaviour, marking, lack of parental support, political interference and so on. The very best teachers keep their passion for teaching despite the current challenging context; they know the power to give their pupils a great learning experience five days a week, 38 weeks a year, is in their hands. 

Great teachers often don’t know how good they are. They still get a buzz from trying out new ideas, even when they have been teaching 25 years. The very best teachers rarely teach the same subject matter the same way because they are endlessly flexible and always seeking that ‘lightbulb’ moment. One of the best science teachers I have seen would roll up his trouser legs to show how plant root hairs compare to leg hair. He would set up pupils as electrons running around circuits in the classroom, tell amusing stories of how his own gut digests food, and take spontaneous trips outside the lab to see, touch and hear science at work in the real world.

Great teachers are endlessly curious about learning and how it works. They never stop asking questions, seeking out understanding from the kids so that they know learning is taking place. They patiently probe and prod the thinking of their charges to carve out new tentative neural pathways: “What makes you think that? Can you add to that, Megan? How could you use that again? How does that link with what we learnt last week? How will you make sure you remember this?

There is no tick list for great teachers. In my opinion, it is more a case of ‘being’ (believing, valuing, caring) rather than just ‘doing’ (planning, marking, testing). But this means we can all ‘be’ better teachers – if we have the highest expectations of ourselves and our pupils, and make sure learning and caring drive everything we do in our classrooms.

Jackie Beere’s new book, The Perfect Teacher (Independent Thinking Press, 2014), is part of the Perfect series that explores various aspects of school improvement and outstanding teaching.

About the author

Jackie Beere OBE is a consultant trainer and school improvement partner. She spent three years as an AST and was headteacher at Campion School, Northants.