Quality teaching

Alton-Lee, A. (2003) says that quality teaching is identified as a key influence on high quality outcomes for students. She argues that the evidence reveals that up to 59% of a variance in student performance is attributable to differences between teachers and classes.

The ten research-based characteristics for quality teaching that she points to are:

1. Quality teaching is focused on student achievement (including social outcomes) and facilitates high standards of student outcomes for heterogeneous groups of students


2. Pedagogical practices enable classes and other learning groupings to work as caring, inclusive, and cohesive learning communities


3. Effective links are created between school and other cultural contexts in which students are socialised, to facilitate learning


4. Quality teaching is responsive to student learning processes


5. Opportunity to learn is effective and sufficient


6. Multiple task contexts support learning cycles


7. Curriculum goals, resources including ICT usage, task design, teaching and school practices are effectively aligned


8. Pedagogical scaffolds and provides appropriate feedback on students’ task engagement


9. Pedagogy promotes learning orientation, student self-regulation, metacognitive strategies and thoughtful student discourse


10. Teachers and students engage constructively in goal-orientated assessment