Paradoxes In Teaching

The other day, I stumbled across an article that addressed the issue of what is good teaching designed to raise scores versus good teaching designed to engage students and they are not the same.  Many people thing the best teachers are the ones who have students whose achievement scores go up every year, while others think a good teacher is able to fully engage their student but are either ones really the best?

To address the issue two researchers addressed the issue by examining 53 teachers in fourth and fifth grade classrooms across four districts along the East Coast. They looked at student achievement scores in math and compared them with the results of surveys filled out by the students. 

Students were asked to fill out a survey which asked them how satisfied they were with the class much like consumers do when they fill out surveys on their satisfaction. Students indicated if they enjoyed the class, found it a place that made them fill sad or angry, whether they enjoyed the teacher or the math class.  In other words how satisfied they were with the class itself.

Researchers discovered there was an interesting dichotomy with the results.  The teachers who helped students raise their achievement scores received lower student evaluations while the teachers who received high student evaluations were not able to raise student achievement scores.  So basically, the teaching methods that raise student scores are not the same ones used to engage students in the classroom.

No one is sure why this is. The people who studied this question, watched hours of videotaped lessons of these elementary teachers.  What they discovered is that the teachers who prepared and delivered lessons that were more cognitively demanding had students who had better results.  These cognitively demand lessons pushed students beyond processes into complex understanding results in higher achievement scores.  Unfortunately, many feel that the more cognitively demanding lessons often results in students who are not as engaged in learning.

Learning is hard work because students don't always like making mistakes and trying to figure out where they made the mistake. They are frustrated at the times when they are doing the most learning.  Few of the 53 teachers who participated in the study were able to combine cognitively demanding lessons with high student engagement.  These teachers had certain things in common.  They incorporated a lot of hands on activities with students often working together in collaborative groups of two or four. They also had students use tactile objects to help solve problems or play games.

In addition, their classrooms were filled with routines.  They set clear cut rules of behavior and expectations at the beginning of class, while using routines to maintain efficiency and order. Most of the time teachers did spend on misbehavior involved simple redirections which did not interrupt the flow of learning. Furthermore, they were able to pace the lesson while understanding the attention span of their students. 

This experiment took place in 2012 but they tracked students afterwards to see how they did in upper grades.  The students who had teachers who were able to engage them while raising achievement scores  did well much later in their educational career with fewer absences.  Those who had teachers who were less engaging but helped raise their scores also did well in the upper grades but the long term benefits faded more. 

I found this article really interesting because I've always wondered how to teach the way I want while engaging students and this article gave me some solid suggestions.  Let me know what you think and I hope you have a great weekend.