Allowing Strong Teaching Strategies to Make a Difference for Student Learning

I have been very fortunate over the past several weeks to meet personally with some really outstanding professional educators who shared with me their passion regarding the way to reach our students through research-based instructional strategies. I learned a great deal about Project Based Learning and Thinking Maps from true professional educators. I know that if these educators were given the opportunity to work with school staff using their hands on active approach to professional development, we would see some outstanding teaching going on beyond what we can already see in many classrooms.

These discussions allowed me to reflect on my own thinking and to delve deeper into my beliefs about the strategies necessary for changing the instructional programs that we too frequently find taking place in our secondary schools. The discussions we had began around conversations of instructional strategies, but quickly turned to the need to look at many issues existing in our secondary schools if we wish to make real instructional change. We discussed how and why most teachers teach the way they do; the influence of peer pressure on teachers to conform in their teaching style with their colleagues; the need to provide professional development that allows the teachers to be active learners, not passive listeners; the hope that all higher educational institutions would someday come to the experienced educators and ask for teacher preparation advice; and we discussed the importance of strong leadership if we want real reform in our schools.

So, what did I take from these productive conversations? I came away believing that we know a lot about our profession and our work, but what we know to be successful has not been shared in a widespread way. I believe even more strongly now that we have to find ways to reach the mind and hearts of educators if we expect any change in school practice to occur. I believe that we can make big differences for students when the environment and learning conditions we create are supportive of the needs of our students. I have reinforced my belief that we can succeed with our students, but to do so, we can never settle for good enough, we have to push ourselves, our community, our institution and our students to be the best that they possibly can be. We may not succeed with every child, but we have to go into our job believing that we will succeed with every child. If we do not have this belief, it is too easy to say that some kids are “throw away” students because we can never reach them, no matter what we do. Administrators can’t settle for good enough. Teachers can’t settle for good enough. Parents can’t settle for good enough. Students can’t settle for good enough. Our society won’t succeed if we allow a good enough attitude to be pervasive in our educational system.

I know that strong teaching practices and the use of powerful teaching strategies are the only way to raise the level of academic achievement for our students, but I also know that these great strategies and practices will not make the difference for enough students unless other teaching and learning conditions are also in place. Kids need to be motivated to learn; and frequently the motivation needs to come from an adult that shows they care. Kids need to be shown a relationship between the content and their life goals and personal experiences. Schools need to feel safe for students and parents. Supports have to be put into place in order for these wonderful strategies to have a chance of succeeding with our students.

The conclusion I have come to is that educators are participating in a wonderful and noble profession. It is never boring and it is never easy. If it were not for the truly talented educators in our world, many people would be living with greater hardship than they already have. We have to find ways to succeed with all of our students. We know the difficulties and we have to work together to reach out to share or our society as we now know it may become a society that we don’t want for our children and grand children in years to come. We have the power to make a difference, but none of us can make a difference by ourselves.