In a webinar, Professor Rob Coe discusses his work developing the Great Teaching Toolkit, which seeks to raise the quality of teaching and leadership at schools by providing an evidence-based curriculum for teacher learning, and tools and instruments to provide feedback for professional development over time.

Here are some of the key insights that he shared:

Be flexible: There is a polarising debate in education about whether direct instruction or student-centred learning is the best philosophy to bring into the classroom. In fact, both are important. Building strong relationships and being explicit in your teaching practices are not mutually exclusive, and a good teacher will incorporate both at the appropriate moment. This flexibility is important in other ways, and to be truly evidence-based teachers must be prepared to change their minds as they see new evidence, as new research takes place, and as a result of their own classroom experience.

Focus on improving outcomes for student learning: Changes to teaching should have the express purpose of improving outcomes for student learning. This means that it is important to examine research to ascertain if the proposed intervention is causative or just correlative. Ask yourself if one of these things (for example, asking a lot of questions in class) actually causes the other (improved student understanding), or could it be the other way around? It is also essential to check if the proposed change actually results in better outcomes. For example, a teacher might spend some time improving student agency and assume this will result in better learning outcomes, but, perhaps surprisingly, while research does show that certain interventions can result in increased agency for students, there is no evidence that this has any impact on their learning outcomes. The aim of the Great Teaching Toolkit is not just to give teachers information, but to support them to change their teaching practice so they can be continually improving and searching for ever better outcomes for the students in their class.

Adapt ideas to your classroom: There are some limitations to the research that the Great Teaching Toolkit is based upon, so it is important for teachers to ask if there is a reason why the research might not be applicable in their situation. However, in most cases, the Toolkit will be a useful tool as it focuses on the big ideas behind what helps children learn, the implementation of which can be adapted across schools and cultures. All students need direct instruction, and all classrooms benefit from strong relationships. However, these need to be approached in a way that is appropriate for the students in the class.

Listen to student voice: Student surveys can provide insightful feedback for teachers, answering questions such as how often they do not understand in class when the teacher think they do. Sometimes this information can be confronting, but, with strong relationships, offers an opportunity for real improvement in the classroom.

Leaders, remove obstacles: There is very little good research into school leadership, particularly into leadership interventions that result in positive change to student learning. However, a school’s culture does affect teachers’ ability to make changes to their practice. Leaders should focus on removing obstacles from their teachers’ paths and do what they can to encourage collaboration, cooperation, and a culture of continued development. The Great Teaching Toolkit has identified 16 factors upon which leaders can act that seem to impact student learning, but the research is ongoing in this area.

Click here to learn more about the Great Teaching Toolkit.