Dr Kerry Hempenstall

The belief that education could influence a student's life trajectory was once seriously questioned. The 1966 Coleman Report and the work of Christopher Jencks deflated many in the educational community when they reported that what occurred in classrooms had little impact on student achievement. It was argued that the effects on educational outcomes of genetic inheritance, early childhood experiences and subsequent family environment vastly and inevitably outweighed school effects.

There is now strong evidence that the quality of teaching makes a great difference in educational outcomes, particularly for low-performing students. This research is exemplified in the finding that such students who were in classes with effective teachers for 3 years in a row achieved 50% more learning than those in classes with poor teachers over the same period. A recent year-long study noted that the best 30% of teachers evoked in their students six times the learning growth as did the lowest 30% of teachers. Similar research has highlighted the cumulative nature of these effects and their presence regardless of student background or attainment levels. So, the effects may extend beyond only the students who are struggling. Based upon his analysis of empirical findings available since the 1970's, Christopher Jencks has altered his earlier influential view that other issues, such as SES, were overwhelmingly powerful in determining educational attainment. He now argues for the pre-eminent role of effective teaching in significantly reducing inequality in student achievement.

Recent research has indicated that the heritability of IQ at the low end of the wealth spectrum is very low; whereas, it is quite high for families of high socioeconomic status. This occurs because genes can influence the effects of life experiences, and those life experiences can influence the manner in which those genes are expressed. This is a surprising finding as one would imagine heritability of such qualities is reasonably similar across the population. In disadvantaged families, 60% of the variance in IQ is accounted for by the environment. This, of course, makes high quality teaching a much more important requirement for such students than for children from more advantaged backgrounds. Sadly, the opposite scenario is more likely to be found. On average, advantaged students are more likely to receive higher quality teaching than are those in disadvantaged areas. In general, advantaged students participate among studious peers in more orderly classes in which learning is thereby more likely to occur. They also enjoy teachers who are able to produce their best because they are not continuously distracted and exhausted by discipline issues.

Despite the evidence for the pre-eminent link between student achievement and classroom practice, a great deal of policy continues to be devoted to issues outside of the classroom (for example, salaries, higher degrees, class size). Of course, there are also other important elements in building successful schools.

The Report of the Education Trust in1999 described the characteristics of schools that were successful in the difficult job of improving the achievement of disadvantaged children. A critical feature of successful schools was that above the usual amount of time was devoted to reading and math. Such schools also recognise that many teachers have had little training in effective teaching practice, and they make funds available to enable carefully focused professional development. To enable school and district accountability, comprehensive monitoring of student progress and consequences for inadequate teaching are incorporated. The provision of additional school and home-based student support helps ensure that identified students at risk do not remain unassisted. The power of these elements of school reform lies in ensuring effective practices are employed in the classroom.

In the USA and Great Britain, an increasing number of schools are taking advantage of the research into effective teaching practices for basic skills - adopting programs incorporating elements such as systematic direct instruction with clear demonstration, correction of errors during guided practice, and adequate practice spaced over time to promote retention. In one area of extreme disadvantage, only 18% of Year 3 students were at or above grade level in reading comprehension, yet within 5 years that proportion had increased to 85%. Similar outcomes have been reported from other low SES schools that have taken advantage of research-supported teaching practices.

Of course, not everyone favors the concept of effective teaching, nor are they comfortable with the practices emanating from the research. Some argue that differences in motivation or maturation are the major influence on student educational progress. Adding to the research referred to above, a recent study cast further doubt on that assertion in noting that different patterns of motivation arose as a function of students' reading careers. That is, before the early success or failure in reading occurred there were no clear motivational differences among students. Motivation was enhanced or attenuated by the literacy consequences of early instruction. Other recent research has reported that by Year 3 the rate of behaviour problems among those with reading difficulty is three times the normal rate. In another study, young boys with reading problems were three times more likely to report high levels of depressed mood than their peers. Many children with difficulty in learning to read develop a negative self-concept within their first two years of schooling. This further hinders their chances of catching up, and less than one quarter of such students ever catch up. Interestingly, the approaches with most success for those struggling students with low self esteem are not self-esteem programs but academic interventions. As one effective teacher commented "When a child is struggling in my class, I don't alter the way I smile, I alter his curriculum."

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