Introduction
Recent years have seen increased focus by the government and other stakeholders on the outcomes of education. The government in conjunction with education policy makers has initiated a vast range of reforms that are meant to increase the outcomes of education. Some of these reforms are related to curricula, instruction design among other factors. However, there is one important lesson that has been observed within the education circles and this is that teachers have a very huge effect on a student’s education outcome. Effective teachers have an enrichment effect on the lives of students not only on their careers but also in all their other educational aspirations. Even more importantly, it has emerged that effective teachers significantly enhance a student’s daily learning. Research conducted to investigate the quality of teachers’ shows that effective teachers do not just make students feel good or positive towards learning and school, but in actual sense, they lead to increased student performance.
The observed pattern has however given birth to new questions of how exactly teachers become effective. In the article titled “A New Perspective on the Effects of First –Grade Teachers on Children’s Subsequent Adult Status”, Pedersen et al (1978) uses a case study to show just how effective teachers include overall student performance. A teacher labeled Miss A is used to show the impact that an effective teacher can have in student’s overall achievement.
Miss A is a classic sample of an effective teacher whose contribution is clearly visible in her student’s overall results. Perhaps even more interesting is the fact that most of her students are disadvantaged. Her school is located on an inner city section characterized by crime and poverty and a general disinterest in education (Pedersen et al. 1978). This is perhaps the last place one would expect students to show seven marginal achievement or progress in terms of education. Many would just go to school to acquire basic skills that can help them to get with daily life but in the case of Miss A, this is not the case. In a given range of time to their adulthood, Miss A is able to transform her students from almost a state of education oblivion towards a state of great education achievement and improvement. This was not the case in students in other teachers’ classes in the same school whose in their adulthood did not exhibit much education achievement. The research raised the question of whether the student’s in Miss A received students of higher quality that other teachers and was this reason they showed better outcomes in their adulthood (Pedersen et al. 1978). The answer is a resounding question and the main question, therefore, is; how did Miss A do it?
Marva Collins is also another educator whose effectiveness is exhibited through the high education achievement of students from school. Just like Miss A, Marva Collins effectiveness as a teacher was clearly visible from the education outcomes of her former students (Marva Collins 60 minutes, 1979).
Effectiveness as a teacher that leads to greater student achievement involve a combination of various factors. The first of these has to be the nature of the teacher and student interaction. Most of the students are naturally unmotivated education wise, and it is up to the teachers to find means and ways of motivating these students (Wenglinsky, 2002). This is perhaps one area where Miss A and Marva Collins have excelled. By inculcating the desire and motivation of education in students from early on, it perhaps becomes relatively easy to improve and enhance their overall education performance and achievement
Effective teacher such as Miss and Marva Collins do not just try to teach students in the conventional way where they just go to class and act as vessels of disseminating knowledge without showing actual concern for student’s interest in what they are learning. It all commences by teaching students from early on to appreciate and love education and this.
The above aspects are just some of the standard tools that are utilized by teachers such as Miss A and Marva Collins to have such a groundbreaking education effect on disadvantaged students. These are however not the only tools, and when it comes to the influence of a teacher on a student’s education achievement, there are other personal and individual tools that teachers can utilize to actualize this. In actual sense, an effective teacher is able to identify the needs of a particular class or group of students and consistently work to fulfil these needs and by doing this, education progress and high achievement is inevitable on the student’s part (Wenglinsky, 2002).
Simply put, the success exhibited by Miss A and company can be attributed to several key things that may include but not limited to; strong verbal ability and general intelligence, strong content knowledge, adequate knowledge on how to teach on a particular area (content pedagogy) accompanied with knowledge on how to effectively use hands-on teaching techniques, proper understanding of the students, their learning and their development and finally expertise on adaptability that enables an educator to formulate effective judgments about the things that are likely to work for a given context and in response to the needs of the learner (Wenglinsky, 2002).
This then brings forward another question. Can the effectiveness exhibited by teachers such as Marva Collins and Miss A be taught to other teachers or is a natural thing that exists in a teacher and can consequently not be taught? Can the success exhibited by Collins and Miss A be replicate on a national scale? The answer to this is a big and resounding yes.
As part of education transformation that is meant to improve teacher’s effectiveness and enhance overall education outcomes, it is possible to train teachers on how to get the best out of their students and enhance their adulthood achievement from education. At the forefront of achieving this is the development of new means of evaluating or recognizing the effectiveness of a teacher throughout their careers for various purposes including hiring, licensing, giving tenures for the provision of professional development as well as recognizing those effective and expert teachers who deserves to be rewarded.
Mentorship can play a role in training teachers to become effective in their teaching endeavors and to improve student outcomes. People like Marva Collins whose effectiveness in the teaching profession has been proven should be used to mentor upcoming teachers so that they can grasp what essentially being effectiveness teacher means. It is therefore possible to develop a new brand of effective teachers by first of all identifying the ones that are currently in the field, formally recognizing and rewarding them and attempting to keep them within the teaching profession. This will then be followed by their utilization as coaches, mentors and even as teacher’s leaders’ who develop the curriculum based on their experience and expertise as well as professional learning guidelines and opportunities for other teachers to also become effective in this discipline of education.
Therefore, the training of teachers should adopt a completely new design that emphasizes on teacher's effectiveness. In addition, steps should be taken to preserve or to maintain the already existent brand of effective teachers such as Miss A and Marva Collins who also be splendidly used as mentors and coaches to prospective teachers who desire to exhibit the same brand of effectiveness that they have exhibited. Teachers in the field also needs to be given the autonomy to fit their teaching needs with the background or the setting of their classroom. Marva Collins and Miss A were able to assess the settings and background of their classroom and come up with effective strategies that could improve their education achievement. Granting teachers an autonomy to make such decisions will probably lead to greater effectiveness on their part. The final result of the mentioned endeavors will greater student achievement and improved national education outcomes.
References
Black, P., & Wiliam, D. (1998). Assessment and classroom learning. Assessment and Education: Principles, policy and practice, 5(1), 7-75.
Marva Collins 60 minutes [Documentary]. (1979). USA: CBS.
Pedersen, E., Faucher, T. A., & Eaton, W. W. (1978). A new perspective on the effects of first-grade teachers on children’s subsequent adult status. Harvard Educational Review, 48(1), 1-31.
Ripley, Amanda (September 23, 2014) “What Makes a Great Teacher”. The Atlantic.
Wenglinsky, H. (2002). The link between teacher classroom practices and student academic performance. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 10(12).
