For four decades, a body of research in the field of education was able to confirm the intuition of many parents: the progress of their children depend significantly on the talent and skills of their teachers.
Taking into account the influence of other explanatory variables, including the initial level and the professional category of parents, 10% to 15% of the variation of results observed at the end of the year between students can be explained by the teacher to which the child was entrusted.
These studies provide other interesting results:
- the magnitude of the "teacher effect" is greater than that of the "school effect": the teacher has more weight on students' progress during a given year that the establishment in which they are enrolled ;
- the scope of increasing the teaching effectiveness of a teacher is potentially superior to that of reduced class size;
- the effect of the teacher has had a student one year fades rather quickly once the student transfers to another teacher, but teachers successive impacts may be cumulative.
If the existence of "teacher effect" is now well supported, the fact remains that the effectiveness of a teacher can not be easily predicted by elements such as objectively the level of initial training or seniority. It is in the interaction with students that is played most of the differences.
Taking into account these results, this paper presents and discusses several ways that could facilitate the ability of all teachers to advance their students.
Contents:
- How do they put the researchers demonstrated the influence of the teacher on pupil learning?
- A very significant teacher effect, at least in the short term
- What are the characteristics of a "good teacher"?
- What levers mobilize to improve teacher effectiveness?
- Author: Pierre-Yves Cusset, Dept. Social Issues
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