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Teacher Effectiveness

Cuttance, P. (2001). 'The impact of teaching on student learning.' In K. J. Kennedy (Ed.), Beyond the rhetoric: Building a teaching profession to support quality teaching. College Year Book 2001. Deakin West, ACT: The Australian College of Education.

Cuttance provides evidence of the effect of teaching practices on student learning. He states that results from a number of research studies show that schools contribute 8-19% of the variation in student learning outcomes, with classrooms within schools contributing up to a further 55%. Thus, up to 60% of the difference in student learning outcomes lies between schools or between classrooms, leaving 40-50% of variation due to personal characteristics of students and random effects.

In order to achieve the national goals for schooling (MCEETYA, 1999), Cuttance argues for a three-way interaction for school reform through professional development: a top-down approach that can apply pressure to move beyond superficial change; bottom-up support in order to avoid alienation and withdrawal; and continuous renegotiation between the two. He draws from the work of Cuban (1988) and Fullan (1991) to advocate second-order change that 'aims to alter the fundamental relationships of a school, creating new goals, reorganising structures and creating new cultures' (p. 39).

Cuttance argues that much teacher professional development is based upon a transmissionist model of teaching and learning, 'in which teachers are provided with the information and the opportunity to engage with that information, but it is then left to the teacher to integrate any new understandings into their teaching practice' (p. 39). He compares this with professional development where teachers learn through active engagement, working with new knowledge and integrating it into their existing mental models.

Cuttance lists key principles for school improvement, such as developing frameworks of teachers' beliefs and efficacies. He also lists key characteristics of effective and ineffective schools. He points out that different schools will be at different stages of development, ranging from a need to interact at a high level with the research community in order to develop teachers' intellectual capital, to the development of a defined repertoire of effective teaching and learning strategies.

References
MCEETYA (1999). The Adelaide declaration on national goals for schooling in the twenty-first century. Adelaide: MCEETYA. http://www.mceecdya.edu.au/mceecdya/publications,11582.html