Educational Practices in Effective Schools

Kellough (2007:62) highlights some of competent teaching practices that educators implement among effective secondary schools, thus making teaching and learning fruitful. The following are:

 The educator understands the processes of learning: Learners must feel welcomed in the classroom and be involved in learning activities and have control over the pace of their own learning. When the educator prepares for lessons:

 the unique learning characteristics of each learner must be considered;

 the content must be reasonably presented in small pieces and in a logical and coherent sequence. Visual, verbal, tactile and kinaesthetic learning activities should be used, including opportunities for coached practice and reinforcement; and  the learning must be scaffolded by checking for learner understanding.

 The educator is knowledgeable about the subject matter: The educator is expected to have historical understanding and current knowledge of the structure of the subject content, as well as the principles, concepts and skills needed for the subject matter.

 The educator makes specific and frequent efforts to demonstrate how the subject content may be related to the learners’ lives: A potentially dry and dull topic can be made significant and alive when it is taught by a dedicated and competent educator. Regardless of the topic, competent educators’ characteristics of effectiveness usually make the topic “alive” and relevant to themselves as well as to their learners. Attending workshops, communicating with co-workers either personally or through websites and e-bulletin boards, and using project-based and interdisciplinary thematic instruction are ways of finding how to make a potentially dry and boring topic interesting and alive for both the learner and the educator.

 The educator is non-discriminatory towards gender, sexual preference, ethnicity, skin colour, religion, physical disabilities, learning disabilities, socioeconomic status, national origin or any other personal characteristic: This suggests that there can be no sexual innuendoes, ethnic jokes, racial slurs or religious jokes. It also suggests being sensitive regarding the ways in which educators (male, female, white, black, homosexual, heterosexual, Christian, knowingly, unknowingly) have historically mistreated certain learners and recognising how to avoid these same errors that may still exist in their own teaching. This means learning about and attending to the needs of individual learners in the classroom. This further means maintaining high expectations for all learners. Whether the educator realises it or not, teachers’ behaviour will send to the learners important messages which complement curriculum content. The educator will then serve learners well through modelling inclusive and collaborative approaches to learning. Thus, the significance of effective modelling should be one of several recurring themes in the resource guide.

 The educator is open to change, is willing to take risks and is willing to be held accountable: If there were no differences between what can be done and what is being done, then formal schooling would be of little value. The educator who is competent knows not only about historical and traditional values and knowledge, but about the value of change as well. The educator is willing to plan and experiment carefully, to move between that which is known and that which is unknown. The educator realises that little of value has been achieved without a certain amount of risk and without employing personal strength of conviction. A competent educator stands ready to be held accountable as he/she prepares to take these risks.

 The educator is a capable communicator: The educator who is competent uses selected words when communicating carefully planned questions, expressive voice inflections, useful pauses, meaningful gestures and productive and non-confusing body language. Some of these expressions are planned carefully and thoughtfully

during the proactive phase of instruction, while others are learned through practice and reflection, as well as becoming second-nature skills.

 The educator functions effectively as a decision maker: The competent educator is able to be in control of classroom events rather than reacting to them. The educator is proactive and hence in control of interactions, and learns to manage time in such a way that he/she is able to analyse as well as to develop effective interpersonal behaviours.

 The educator shares a healthy sense of humour: The positive effects of appropriate humour (namely humour that is not disrespectful of others) based on learning are well established. Humour is a stimulant not only to healthy living, but to creativity and higher-level thinking (Hoy and Hoy, 2006:225). Learners appreciate and learn more from an educator who shares a sense of humour and laughs with them. In addition, evidence exists to show the importance of a healthy sense of humour to the development of educators’ resilience and career longevity (Hoy and Hoy, 2006:229).

 The educator is reliable: A competent educator can be relied on to fulfil professional responsibilities, commitments and promises. The educator who cannot be relied on is thus quick to lose credibility with co-workers, learners and administrators. The educator who is unreliable is incompetent as well, irrespective of his/her qualifications and/or potential for effectiveness.

Gultig and Stielau (2004:391) indicate some effective teaching practices that are practised at secondary schools. The following are some of the effective teaching practices:

 the educator prepares the lesson with a clear purpose which extends beyond the objectives of that particular lesson;

 lessons are introduced within a context and linkages are made between the materials used and the content to be learned;

 classroom materials are selected and used as a vehicle for the specific lesson objective and content;

 the educator sets tasks where learners work together and alongside each other. The outcomes are predictable;

 learners are reminded to read and take note of instructions before completing a task;

 classroom materials are selected and used to facilitate understanding;

 the educator checks learners’ understanding of the lesson content and ensures that errors are corrected. However, these are not systematically used as part of a continuous assessment record;

 skills and understanding of the work covered in the classroom are assessed;

 classroom materials are selected and used to encourage the development of broad knowledge and conceptual skills, such as analytical skills or problem solving skills; and

 the learners are encouraged to understand the content of literature and to enjoy reading.

The following section highlights the effectiveness of participative management leadership styles on schools.