Good teachers, much like good football players, good executives, and even good mechanics, are very hard to find. They are tough to evaluate, and it is nearly impossible to predict whether they will be successful in the future. This has caused the difference between the most competent teachers and the worst teachers to be enormous. Often, teachers are not evaluated on their actual teaching skills and their ability to engage the students, but rather on how much education they have or simply how long they’ve been in the teaching profession. This is a critical problem, and must be changed in order to revamp education in the U.S. As Malcolm Gladwell states in his article “Most Likely to Succeed,” teachers in the United States must begin to be evaluated by different standards in order for our teaching and education as a country to become effective.
In high school, teaching styles vary and can often dramatically change how successful the students in the class are. A teacher with an engaging teaching style for instance, will make the classroom a lively and fun experience. Learning is expected, and active learning with participation is encouraged. However, a teacher who stands at the front of the class and lectures, including no class participation or relative examples pertaining to the students’ lives, will bore the students, and lead to a lack of interest in the class as well as the subject as a whole. Gladwell describes the “superstar” teacher as someone who constantly engages his students, helping them with problems and connecting with them. Bob Pianta, the dean of education at the University of Virginia, notices that the teacher’s “energy seemed to infect the class,” and that, “all the time he offered the promise of help.” These two important factors contrast sharply with the characteristics found in a poor teacher according to Pianta’s research. The poor teacher did not connect with her students at all, repeatedly failing to engage them in her lesson. She only gives examples that make sense to her, not the students. Pianta continuously suggests that she bring the students’ everyday lives into her lesson so that she can connect on at least one level, but she fails to do so, and therefore loses a chance to teach them effectively. Additionally, this poor teacher fails to grasp the difference between constructive learning and disruptive behavior. These good and bad teaching styles are difficult to pinpoint accurately, but by doing so we may be able to actually improve our educational system.
In order to even attempt to try to learn more about what makes teachers effective, we must continue to study what teaching activities most stimulate students’ brains. Even though this can still be difficult measurement to use to predict whether a teacher will be successful or not, it is our only tool. We must continue to study in order to hope to become even more advanced and have better, more professional teachers.
Currently, in order to attempt to make our teachers better, we simply require them to have more education. Teachers with more education, such as a master’s degree, are considered more qualified than one who has only obtained a bachelor’s degree. However, this does not encourage teachers to compete with varied and creative teaching styles, but instead to spend money at college for a higher salary. With more competition to make sure students are engaged, they will actually become engaged, and learning will increase. Test scores will go up, and some districts will meet their education standards for the first time in years. As Gladwell describes in his article, Ed Deutschlander, the co-president of the North Star Resource Group, has been using an effective system to hire resource agents that should translate well into the field of education. He narrows a thousand interviewees into only a few candidates based on simple things that usually predict success in the business world, such as daily routine and life variety. From this, he narrows it further until he has a small group of candidates, whom he watches perform their potential future job until he sees those who will be most capable of performing it day to day. This is a system that would effectively hire very capable teachers who can engage their students in a lesson, regardless of the students’ learning style. A system where hands-on evaluation occurs is the only way to ensure that a teacher is right for the school district. Through this, we can hire better and more effective teachers.
Finding good teachers is nearly impossible, but a necessary part of good education. While degrees and credentials may seem like the right thing to trend towards, really they mean nothing when learning actually needs to take place. Good teachers need to be hired, and from that we will be able to have a better education system as a whole. Much like finding the right mechanic or the perfect ballplayer, once you find the right teacher, success is right around the corner.
Strike the Pose 