Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Why is continuous improvement important?

Consider this:

The best teachers are very good.

• There is a large difference between student performance and teacher quality
• The students of the best teachers learn 1.5 years of material in a school year
• The students of the worst teachers learn 0.5 years of material in a school year

Teacher improvement doesn't just happen

• Improved student performance correlates with completion of the first year or two of teacher experience
• Student performance shows little or no improvement with teacher experience after 2 years
• Student performance does not correlate with teacher education

How do good teachers get good?

Performance improves through deliberate practice

• Practice with high focus and concentration
• Practice specific to improve performance
• Continue for long periods of time
• Must be repeated
• Requires continuous feedback
• Requires goal-setting
• Involves self-observation and self-reflection
• Involves careful reflection after practice sessions

Continuous improvement is a set of practices for conducting deliberate practice on processes such as teaching.

Teachers don't get great just by teaching

• Improving student performance requires better teaching
• Improving student performance by improving teaching requires deliberate practice
• Improvement requires sustained practice and focus on improvement

Continuous improvement of teaching must become as high priority as teaching itself.

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Keywords: continuous improvement