Ten Tips for Becoming a More Effective Teacher

Barak Rosenshine is professor emeritus in the College of Education at the University of Illinois-Urbana- Champaign. In 2010, professor Rosenshine authored  “Principles of Instruction,” which was published by the International Academy of Education. A synopsis of that article  recently appeared in the spring issue of America  Educator. Rosenshine developed a list  of ten principles that are critical  for those wish to become successful teachers.  The contents of this list are:

1)      A teacher should begin every new lesson with a review of the previous lesson

2)      Present any new material in small bits so a student can practice this information as each bit is acquired.

3)      Ask many questions.

4)      Guide the learning process as students practice the new learning

5)      Be sure that your students fully understand what they are being taught.

6)      Strive for attaining a high success rate.

7)      Provide stages of learning for the more difficult tasks

8)      Monitor independent practice of material learned

9)      Develop weekly and monthly reviews of the material taught

10) Provide models for the student in your classroom

 While this list many seem very elementary and should have acquired by teachers in their college preparation programs, there are many educators we ho do not utilize these guidelines. It is important to not overwhelm your students with new material in large segments at one sitting.

The time spent on introducing new material depends on the difficulty of material and the subject that is being taught. Mathematics in particular is a subject that require a great deal of introduction, demonstrating, questioning and providing examples. 

There will be times where the classroom teacher will have to reteach a lesson. There are a number of reasons why this may occur. It is possible that the students’ general fund of knowledge was not strong( enough to grasp a new concept. (See E.D. Hirsch’s book- Cultural Literacy) There may be a wide variety of learning styles present in the classroom (there usually are). It may also be that theteacher did not do a good enough job preparing  for the lesson and presenting it in a way that was understandable to the students. One key to determine if the students are having success with the lesson is by the number and type of questions a student may ask. The effective teacher will be able to sense if the material has to be presented again or in a different way so as to obtain a more effective result.  Another suggestion in the Rosenstine article is to use student tutors. We know from experience on the classroom that sometime a fellow student can get a concept across to a classmate where the teacher has not been successful.

Teachers need to provide students the opportunity to be successful as they practice what they have learned. This should include allowing the students work independently  solving problems or  writing to demonstrating that they have mastered the topic presented in the lesson. Rosenstine concludes that from his research material that is not adequately presented and practiced may end up being forgotten.

From. Barak Rosenstine” Principles of Instruction: Researched based Strategies that All Teachers Should Know.”pp12-19,39. American Educator. Spring 2012, vol.36 No.1.