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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.
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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 A B High personal care Low personal care C D Low educational 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
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:
Subject Area Student Orientation Mean
Subject Area Content Orientation Mean
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:
Years of Teaching Experience Student Orientation Mean
Years of Teaching Experience Content Orientation Mean
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:
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 out Withitness • 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: • How they demonstrated care to their students • What they considered to be the personal factors that contributed to their caring • What factors supported and/or hindered their caring
Personal 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 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 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 At the root of the personal mindsets is optimism
Their caring behaviours were characterised by: Relational behaviours Commitment Recognition of own limitations Educational care Compassion Flexibility Persistence Empathy 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?
