Effective Teachers

Teacher Knowledge and Enthusiasm

Researchers' assumptions about how these characteristics affect a child's education have proven to be incorrect, but have provided some important lessons about teacher characteristics. Teachers who are more knowledgeable may give clearer presentations and explanations which in turn could benefit their students' ability to learn more effectively. They may also be more organized and recognize a student's difficulties more easily; this shows that knowledge is necessary but not alone a sufficient condition for effective teaching. A correlation has been found between teacher enthusiasm and student achievement gains, but it can not be found that this actually is the cause for higher achievement.

Teacher Expectations

There are two kinds of expectation effects that can occur in classrooms: the self-fulfilling prophecy and sustaining expectation effect. The self-fulfilling prophecy states that a teacher's expectations about a certain students' improvement somehow bring about the very behavior that is expected. The sustaining expectation effect is when the teacher is moderately accurate in their his/her expectations about various students with higher abilities; they tend to give these students extra attention when needed, but when "slower" students are improving, they are not given more attention.

Direct Instruction

Direct instruction may also be refered to as explicit or active teaching. It consists of the following six teaching functions: (1) reviewing and checking the previous day's work, (2) presenting new material, (3) providing guided practice, (4) giving feedback and correction, (5) providing independent practice, and (6) conducting weekly and monthly reviews. Direct instruction models apply best to the teaching of basic knowledge and skills and is not necessarily appropriate for helping students write creatively, solve complex problems, or become more emotionally mature.

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