Synopsis:
At the end of every week many teachers leave school exhausted. In an era when responsibility for exam results lies with them and not their students it's time to redress the balance so that students take more of the responsibility for their learning and progress. A class can be skilled and motivated to learn without a teacher always having to lead. Engaging learners in this way unpicks intrinsic motivation, the foundation that underpins a productive learning environment and helps to develop independent learning, creativity and improved behaviour management. Based on five years of intensive research through Osiris Education's award-winning Outstanding Teaching Intervention programme, during which the authors have trained more than 500 teachers to teach over 1,300 lessons in schools nationwide, this book is packed with proven advice and innovative tools developed in these successful outstanding lessons. Written in the same humorous, thought-provoking style with which they both teach and train, Andy and Mark aim to challenge all who teach, from NQTs to seasoned professionals, to reflect on their day-to-day practise and set an agenda for sustainable teacher and leadership improvement. Outstanding Teaching: Engaging Learners was short listed for Educational Resources best Educational Book Award 2013
Review:
Books in education tend to be dry academic tomes or full of anecdotes usually premised on `do what I did`. Outstanding Teaching is neither it is based on a rich analysis of thousands of videos of successful teachers, is imbued with a sense of fun, but has some very serious messages. What a treat Outstanding Teaching an engaging book emphasising the core qualities of teaching while making it sound fun. Griffith and Burns emphasise the Big Four; Challenge, Autonomy (but they mean students having the space in classrooms to learn), feedback (to teachers), and engagement (full absorption in learning). To link these, they use the notion of flow, which requires that the tasks are appropriately challenging, teacher input is minimal, the class have the necessary learning skills, success criteria or goals are clear and worthwhile, feedback is immediate, and tasks are intrinsically motivating. These are among the top influences that I also found in my synthesis of meta-analyses. Many have become upset with my own comments about the power of teacher quality, so if only they read this book to see what quality looks and feels like. They spare no punches about what is in the power of teachers: not only the choice of curricula but the management of classrooms, the skill of listening not speaking, the placing of student learning at the centre, receiving feedback about their impact, and taking responsibility for triggering engagement by students in learning whilst enjoying it all. They emphasise rapport, imagination, competence, choice, curiosity, relevance, challenge, and fun. [With two exceptions I agree (I see little evidence supporting student choice teachers need to lead in progressing students upwards in their learning and not leave it to students otherwise the rich can get richer and the poor stay poor) and would argue that some of these triggers come from being successful engaged (not as precursors to successful engagement).] I understand Outstanding Teaching is the first book in the planned Outstanding Teaching series bring `em on. --John Hattie, Director, Melbourne Education Research Institute
There are many outstanding teachers ... and some of them are recognised. Most teachers would seek to be the best they can in order to help the pupils that they teach become the learners we would want them to be. This book will help teachers to bring together the art, the science and the craft of teaching. Andy and Mark have managed to distil the work they do alongside teachers on their course programmes into print in a way that is readable and practical: no mean achievement! It is a book full of suggestions, ideas and techniques which are grounded in a coherent outlook on what makes outstanding teaching. It will help with inspection ... and it is much more. Reading this book will shed light on the work we do in classrooms and the way we engage with youngsters and will also make us think about the very purpose of teaching. --Mick Waters, Professor of Education at Wolverhampton University
Outstanding Teaching reflects Andy and Mark`s views that all teachers can be enabled to improve with the right support and guidance that is tied to clear criteria that allows them to see how to move forward. The strength of the book comes from the number of strategies that are included, alongside real-life examples that can support classroom teachers in engaging students. To learn, students have to be engaged this book gives a route map of what engagement is, what it looks like and the strategies needed to achieve it. Teachers need to do this before anything else, such as learning and progress, can happen in classrooms this is what makes this book a valuable tool to classroom teachers. --Ian Young, Principal, Rainford High Technology College
There are many outstanding teachers ... and some of them are recognised. Most teachers would seek to be the best they can in order to help the pupils that they teach become the learners we would want them to be. This book will help teachers to bring together the art, the science and the craft of teaching. Andy and Mark have managed to distil the work they do alongside teachers on their course programmes into print in a way that is readable and practical: no mean achievement! It is a book full of suggestions, ideas and techniques which are grounded in a coherent outlook on what makes outstanding teaching. It will help with inspection ... and it is much more. Reading this book will shed light on the work we do in classrooms and the way we engage with youngsters and will also make us think about the very purpose of teaching. --Mick Waters, Professor of Education at Wolverhampton University
Outstanding Teaching reflects Andy and Mark`s views that all teachers can be enabled to improve with the right support and guidance that is tied to clear criteria that allows them to see how to move forward. The strength of the book comes from the number of strategies that are included, alongside real-life examples that can support classroom teachers in engaging students. To learn, students have to be engaged this book gives a route map of what engagement is, what it looks like and the strategies needed to achieve it. Teachers need to do this before anything else, such as learning and progress, can happen in classrooms this is what makes this book a valuable tool to classroom teachers. --Ian Young, Principal, Rainford High Technology College
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