Quality teachers are key for the disadvantaged (The Sydney Morning Herald, 14 Jun 2011, Page3)

THE GILLARD government plans to reward Australia’s best teachers with bonuses, but what makes an outstanding teacher?

A team of researchers from the University of Western Sydney has spent more than two years finding out, as part of a study into how teachers can boost students’ opportunities for success.

The teachers they looked at were creative in the classroom. They saw no limits to what their students could learn or how much they could achieve, and believed teaching was most effective when it related to students’ interests and experiences.

Thirty ‘‘exemplary’’ teachers working in areas of low socioeconomic status in NSW were studied for the Teachers for a Fair Go research project, run jointly by the university and the NSW Education Department’s Priority Schools Program.

Recognising that quality teachers are the key to closing the achievement gap between students from disadvantaged backgrounds and their more privileged counterparts, the project identified what these teachers had in common and, crucially, how they engaged students in their learning to improve their social and academic outcomes.

The project leader at the university, Associate Professor Geoff Munns, said research ‘‘consistently shows that teachers are the most valuable resource the kids can have in a classroom, and that’s particularly the case for kids from low socio-economic status backgrounds’’.

A fellow university researcher, education lecturer Joanne Orlando, said the research could guide the teaching that takes place at schools in underprivileged communities, helping to overcome problems with student achievement.

‘‘[It] helps to chip away at these cliches that good teaching doesn’t happen in poor areas, but only happens in middle-class or private schools,’’ she said.

‘‘[Our findings] give a sense of hope that students can achieve in these areas, given the right sort of learning environment.’’

Dr Orlando said teachers in the study worked hard to instil in their students a desire to learn and succeed, and ‘‘were so passionate about learning, it was catching’’.

The teachers were also flexible, offering variety in their lessons and tailoring lessons to suit the students’ progress and abilities. Children might choose what materials they worked with, where they sat, or tackle handson lessons.

‘‘The children in their classes told us how happy they were, how much they were learning, they showed lots of confidence in their problem solving and learning new things independently,’’ Dr Orlando said.

The research could affect concepts of teachers and teaching practice. ‘‘It’s much broader than teaching the children the correct answers to tests,’’ she said.