The Best Teachers in the World Book Event Clip 1

In Education Sector's November 1 event, John Chubb discusses his book The Best Teachers in the World: Why We Don't Have Them and How We Could.

(ESTV - The Best Teachers in the World Clip 1)

[Jeff Selingo] In chapter 1 (?) in the book, between recruiting better teachers

and better students to become teachers and training of teachers,

and talking about quality instructors, what's more important?

Is it recruiting the best person upfront or does training matter just as much or even more,

in terms of that, in terms of that would-be teacher?

[John Chubb] Well, the evidence - the evidence on what drives teachers' quality

is essentially - and this is the first great part - is essentially

that most of the skills that teachers demonstrate in the classroom tend to be learned in the classroom, right?

So - so, selection matters, aptitude matters, certain affective predisposition,

emotional affective attributes matter.

And there has been a lot of research on this, and there are screening tools

that school districts can use to identify people who have a higher probability of success.

But in the end, the dominant explanation of success is what teachers learn on the job, right?

So - so training is critical - training is critical.

Most of it right now is done pre-service and what's done in-service leaves a lot to be desired.

And there's a tremendous amount of research on professional development,

which I review in the book, and it's overwhelmingly negative.

And in school districts, people who are responsible for professional development understand this,

but there hasn't been a lot of improvement.

But the evidence suggests that teachers do learn on the job, they learn differentially.

So not - by the time teachers are four years on the job, some of them are unbelievably great

and some of them really haven't made it. So -

[Selingo] So then, why do we need training programs at all,

why don't we just pick the best students from

- in some ways, like Teach For America, pick the best students,

put them through a short training program ..... to learn more on the job?

[Chubb] Because what - well, what matters is how the experience -

whether the experience on the job is structured or not, right?

So, and I - sorry - one of the chapters in the book and one of the main recommendations

is to take a look at leadership, right?

I don't want to get ahead of the questioning

but there is a huge variation in teacher improvement on the job.

And it's very strongly associated with the kind of context

that the school leaders provide for teachers who are on it (?).

So, does the school principal create a culture in which - a culture and structure

in which teachers have an opportunity to work with one another, to learn with one another,

is a reform of mentoring structure set up,

is there a structure of teams ...... teachers that's effective,

does the principal himself or herself really know what good instruction looks like,

so that the principal can identify the right people to be the mentors,

the right people, the right people to structure that,

does the principal know what kind of training is really needed?

It's not that external training and professional development is inherently bad.

That's not - that's not it.

It's that if it's applied across the board without sensitivity to what teachers need, when they need it,

how it's going to be followed up upon, then it is a waste, you know,

it's the so-called "drive by" professional development.

Somebody comes in, does a workshop in the cafeteria, leaves,

and then it's supposed to make a difference.

Well how, you know, how could it?

(This has been a production of EducationSector Independant Analysis. Innovative Ideas
www.educationsector.org)