Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Why is continuous improvement important?
Consider this: The best teachers are very good. There is a large difference between student performance and teacher quality The students of the best teachers learn 1.5 years of material in a school year The students of the worst teachers learn 0.5 years of material in a school year
Teacher improvement doesn't just happen Improved student performance correlates with completion of the first year or two of teacher experience Student performance shows little or no improvement with teacher experience after 2 years Student performance does not correlate with teacher education
How do good teachers get good? Performance improves through deliberate practice Practice with high focus and concentration Practice specific to improve performance Continue for long periods of time Must be repeated Requires continuous feedback Requires goal-setting Involves self-observation and self-reflection Involves careful reflection after practice sessions
Continuous improvement is a set of practices for conducting deliberate practice on processes such as teaching. Teachers don't get great just by teaching Improving student performance requires better teaching Improving student performance by improving teaching requires deliberate practice Improvement requires sustained practice and focus on improvement
Continuous improvement of teaching must become as high priority as teaching itself.
Posted at 12:00 AM
Keywords:
continuous improvement
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