Download - A funny thing happened
A funny thing happened....
Why did the students prefer their own teacher over a relief teacher?
Why would they have preferred to work for a whole period than get a free?
What did the students get from this teacher that made the hard work so worthwhile?
The Nature of Caring Teachers
and the factors that impact on their caring
High educational
care
High personal
care
Low educational
care
Low personal
care
Do category A teachers exist? Are you one? Do you need to be one? What makes the caring teacher ‘tick’? How do these teachers sustain what they do?
The first study Three secondary schools All teaching staff surveyed N = 178 Demographic questions A few open-ended questions Completed two measures:
SCTI – student-content teaching inventory (Spier, 1974)
Teacher Efficacy scale (Tschannen-Moran & Woolfolk Hoy, 2001)
Questions in the study How would you define a caring teacher?
Definitions of caring teachers showed that: 88 teachers believed caring teachers
showed educational care 121 teachers believed caring teachers
showed personal care
The Student-Content Teaching Inventory
(S-CTI)
GenderGender n Mean
StudentOrientation
Female 114 13.39
Male 63 12.95
Content Orientation
Female 114 11.42
Male 63 9.94
Subject Area There were 176 teachers who provided their main
teaching area and completed the S-CTI Teaching areas were grouped under the following
headings:
Humanities 76Maths & Science 41Creative Arts 16Technical and Practical Studies 24PDHPE 13Other 6
Subject AreaStudent Orientation Mean
Humanities 12.57Maths & Science 13.20Creative Arts 14.00Technical and Practical Studies 14.17PDHPE 12.85Other 14.20
Subject AreaContent Orientation Mean
Humanities 11.19Maths & Science 10.85Creative Arts 11.56Technical and Practical Studies 10.17PDHPE 10.31Other 10.20
Years of Teaching Experience There were 177 teachers who provided their years
of teaching experience and completed the S-CTI Years of teaching were grouped under the following
headings:0 – 3 years 314 – 7 years 488 – 15 years 3816 – 23 years 2724 – 30 years 2930+ years 4
Years of Teaching ExperienceStudent Orientation Mean
0 – 3 years 13.224 – 7 years 12.948 – 15 years 13.4516 – 23 years 13.1124 – 30 years 13.2130+ years 13.00
Years of Teaching ExperienceContent Orientation Mean
0 – 3 years 11.094 – 7 years 10.718 – 15 years 10.2616 – 23 years 11.0724 – 30 years 9.2530+ years 10.85
Conclusions about content and student orientation
We need to remember that: The S-CTI simply shows an orientation
towards students and content It would appear that:
Men in these three schools are less oriented towards content than the females
Years of experience and the subject one teaches has little bearing on how important one sees the content or the students.
Teacher Efficacy Scale (2001)The final measure used measured teacher efficacy
In particular, with regard to: Instruction
Engagement Management
There were 12 questions and teachers were asked to respond using a Likert scale measure
Results of the Teacher Efficacy Scale No significant differences were found between
teachers on the basis of gender, school, teaching areas or years of teaching experience
As a point of comparison for you the means overall were as follows:
Efficacy Measure MeanTeacher efficacy 7.24Instruction 7.46Engagement 6.76Management 7.48
Studies two to five Peer nominations in study one Observations of caring teachers Interviews with caring teachers Group interviews with students Colleague questionnaires
Key results from study two Painstaking instruction & careful scaffolding Organised High expectations Gave students choice where possible Lots of praise Courteous and polite Patient Encourages participation Comfortable atmosphere in classrooms
Two things stood outWithitness
Looked for where students were struggling or not on task Noticed haircuts and mood changes
Commented on poor wearing of the school uniform
Relationships Took time to work with individuals
Recalled previous events, issues or personal things to draw on as a way of involving students
Tactile with students Looked for non-contributors to encourage them to take part
Key results from interviews
Interviews were conducted with the ten caring teachers to discover:
1. How they demonstrated care to their students2. What they considered to be the personal factors
that contributed to their caring3. What factors supported and/or hindered their
caring
MindsetsPersonal mindsets Do all you can /try to
solve the problem Be fair Good outcomes often
require hard work and/or time
People can change for the better
Everyone matters
Teacher mindsets Make a difference Work with the whole
student Have boundaries Enjoy teaching and like
kids Be concerned for both
content delivery and student well-being but student well-being is more important
At the root of the personal mindsets is optimism Do all you can /try to solve
the problem Be fair
Good outcomes often require hard work and/or time
People can change for the better
Everyone matters
Problems can be solved
Being fair will level the playing field
You will reap benefits in the long term
Therefore it is worth putting in the effort
It doesn’t matter who you help, if you can help, do it
Their caring behaviours were characterised by:
Relational behavioursCommitment
Recognition of own limitationsEducational care
CompassionFlexibility
PersistenceEmpathy
Attentiveness
What sort of teacher are you? Do you care for students educationally and
personally? Where do you view relationship with the
students in your teacher role? How do you actively build relationships? How ‘withit’ are you? What do you remember about students? How will you balance care and control?