Inspiring Teachers: Perspectives and Practices

N

143

Foreign Countries; Teacher Attitudes; Observation; Interviews; Instructional Effectiveness; Teacher Effectiveness; Teacher Characteristics; Classroom Techniques; Formative Evaluation; Feedback (Response); Positive Reinforcement; Classroom Environment; Elementary School Teachers; Secondary School Teachers; Principals; Teacher Student Relationship; Relevance (Education); Reflection; Educational Innovation; Occupational Aspiration; Job Satisfaction; Cooperation; Teaching Methods; Student Attitudes

978-1-909437-51-7

This research study investigates the notion of "inspiring" teaching through case studies of a purposive sample of 17 primary and secondary school teachers in England. The research was commissioned by CfBT Education Trust as part of a collaborative professional development initiative involving its schools. It arose from headteachers' suggestions that schools nominate a number of "inspiring" teachers so that their practice could be studied and the results shared across the participating schools to promote the professional development of staff and spread good practice through encouraging greater collaboration and learning across the CfBT family of schools. The purposive samples are thus viewed as exemplars of good practice by their schools by showing practice that is seen as "inspiring" for colleagues and students. The first section of this report is divided into two parts. The first contextualises the work in relevant literature, exploring gaps and definitions in the existing body of knowledge about inspiring teaching, and connecting the contribution of this study to these issues. The second outlines the aims and methods that guided the research. The findings reported in this document provide new evidence and insights about what inspiring teachers do (through observations), what they think (through interviews), and how their students think about their teachers and lessons (through questionnaires). The use of multiple observation instruments begins to address the gap outlined at the end of the previous section by providing measures of what inspiring teaching might "look like", i.e. what teachers do and what happens in their classrooms. The research had two complementary components--an investigation led by practitioners and another led by a team of academics from the Department of Education at the University of Oxford and the Institute of Education at the University of Worcester. Each study adopted different methods and a different approach to investigating what it is to be an inspiring teacher. This report presents a description of inspiring teachers--drawing exclusively on the academic study which focused on a sub-sample of 17 of the original 36 teachers. A complementary summary report based on both phases of the research is also available. [The University of Worcester contributed to this research project. For "Inspiring Teachers: Perspectives and Practices. Summary Report," see ED546803.]

ERIC

66

2014

ED546804