Teachers nowadays are constantly faced with the issue of a secured teaching position. As more and more people aspire to the teaching profession, school administrators take into consideration a set of pre-requisites, as well as academic credentials and experience before recruiting teachers for their schools. If you are fortunate enough to be retained as the successful candidate for a teaching position, you will not be offered a continuing or permanent contract until you complete a probationary period successfully. In fact, the next step for a newly recruited teacher is to go through a probationary period of one or two years during which he/she has to demonstrate strong teaching skills and knowledge that makes him/her a successful classroom practitioner. During their probation period, newly recruited teachers are assigned a mentor with whom they have to work in close collaboration regarding the professional duties of teachers as well as the school’s working procedures. Depending on each school district, the most important condition for a teacher on probation is to be observed at least three times a year by the principal or a designated person. The inability to demonstrate effective and satisfactory teaching during the lesson observations will result in the termination of the probationary contract with no chance to come back to the same school or school district for the following academic year. Effective teaching and increased achievement of learning outcomes form part of school improvement plan.

After a careful self-reflection about a new colleague who could not be retained for the next school year due to ineffective or unsatisfactory teaching (failed probation) after his first year of teaching in our school, I was really concerned about the issue regarding successful and effective teaching capable of enhancing students’ academic achievement or attainment of learning outcomes. As a generalist French Immersion Teacher in an elementary school, I am committed to investigating and learning more about all that teachers can do to make their classroom practices effective in order to affect students’ learning outcomes positively. During my research for this literature review, my focus was about discovering the best possible approaches, strategies and methods that teachers should adopt in order to be able to demonstrate quality teaching at all times so that they can help their learners achieve higher and succeed effectively in their education. Another reason of my interest and motivation in my current topic is to develop a broad in-depth knowledge of the discussions and arguments prevailing about this area of inquiry so that I may focus my doctoral dissertation research on a similar or related topic.

The video below is about elements of effective teaching.

Video 1: Elements of Effective Teaching

In my continual endeavor to be considered in my school as a successful classroom practitioner, I regularly conduct research in order to learn and know the best possible approaches and techniques that can help me create an effective teaching and learning environment for all my students. There is a wide range of literature research regarding ways and methods that contribute to successful classroom practices as well as improved and increased learning outcomes attainment. There are different ways to make successful teaching happen and increase students’ learning outcomes by bridging the gap between their current level and the level where they are supposed to be. Jaquith (2013) in her article entitled “Instructional Capacity: How to Build it Right”, examines instructional capacity as the best way for teachers to ensure success in enhancing students’ learning outcomes. According to her, “Instructional capacity refers to the collection of resources for teaching that a district, school, or grade-level or subject-area team has to support instruction and, most importantly, the ability to effectively use these resources to engage students and deepen learning”. In the following paragraphs, I am going to explore, examine and analyze different possible ways to improve teaching so that proper learning conditions for increased learning outcomes or higher academic attainment are created for all students.

According to Wright (2018), there is a clear difference between teaching “materials” and “resources”. On one hand, teaching materials refer to different forms and sizes of tangible tools that teachers use to deliver instruction, to support student learning and increase success for all learners. On the other hand, teaching resources include “more theoretical and intangible elements, such as essays or support from other educators, or places to find teaching materials”. The author considers teaching materials and teaching resources as valuable and beneficial to both teaching and learning: they are helpful in adding detailed information to lesson structure and planning, they are supporting tools in the differentiation of instruction, and they increase learner achievement by supporting student learning.

Jaquith (2013) on her part believes that in every school, plenty of resources and materials are provided to support teachers in their daily instructional practices and the classroom activities of their students. The ideal way those resources and materials can be useful and valuable is to use them efficiently to improve teaching and learning. In many cases, there are ready-made materials such as curriculum guides, professional development resources, but some teachers are not even aware of their existence, or they do not use them at all. Most teachers do not make any use or a good use of the instructional resources and materials that are already available in their schools and they devote their time designing their own ones. This constitutes a waste of time because they could use the available resources and use the extra time to reflect on pedagogic strategies so that they can increase or improve students’ learning outcomes through successful and more effective teaching. Taking advantage of instructional resources and materials available in schools by making good use of them contributes to improved teaching and learning, which increases academic achievement in schools. To conclude, the author suggests that in order to build teachers’ instructional capacity, school administrators must create appropriate opportunities that allow teachers to work in close collaboration with colleagues to use key instructional resources and materials that are available in order to improve teaching and learning so that they can bridge the gap between students’ current and expected levels.

Amadioha (2009) also considers instructional materials as very important tools in teaching and learning. He believes that they “constitute alternative channels of communication, which a teacher can use to convey more vividly instructional information to learners. They represent a range of materials which can be used to 'extend the range of vicarious experience' of learners in a teaching-learning situation”. He then adds: “Instructional materials refer to those alternative channels of communication, which a classroom teacher can use to concretize a concept during teaching and learning process. Traditionally, classroom teachers have relied heavily on the 'talk-chalk' method during their teaching. But recently, instructional materials help to provide variations in the ways in which messages are sent across”.

The following video shows how teachers can select engaging instructional materials for students’ active learning.

Video 2: Teacher selects engaging instructional materials - Example 2

When it comes to teachers’ effective classroom practice and students’ maximized learning, teacher collaboration should not be neglected. McClure (2018) examines the benefits that collaboration between teachers and school administrators brings to teaching and learning. According to her, “schools and teachers benefit in a variety of ways when teachers work together”. She sees a close relationship between teacher collaboration and improved teaching, and between improved teaching and student high achievement. The later then contributes to school improvement.

Jaquith (2013) too, considers teacher collaboration as a necessary way to improved teaching, which leads to increased student achievement. She therefore encourages teachers to work collaboratively in the best way so that they can strengthen their instructional capacity. In her article, she analyzes the impacts of the collaborative practice on instructional capacity after a research conducted in two different schools: Liberty Middle School and Cedar Bridge Middle School. At Liberty Middle School, she notices that there is no effective public learning community (PLC). Though teachers there meet to discuss issues relating to their instructional practices by suggesting instructional strategies, they do meet as grade-level and subject-area partners. They also ensure that they create caring and respectful student-teacher relationships to ensure their learners’ success. A particular striking remark of the author is that in that school, administrators try “to create organizational structures for teacher collaboration and provide many opportunities for professional development - then stay out of the way and let teachers do their job”. This type of collaboration does increase instructional capacity effectively.

At Cedar Bridge Middle School however, the level of collaboration is completely different. Their PLC meetings are based on the entire staff (teachers and administrators) gathering in the library on Monday afternoons to work together in small groups. Their gathering is informed by the four essential questions for professional learning community suggested by Richard DuFour which they display in the library:

• What do we want students to learn?
• How will we know if students have learned it?
• What will we do if students don't learn?
• What will we do if they do?

In each group, teachers joined by their school’s management team discuss non-summative assessments to see what and how students are learning. They work together to assess the efficacy of a reading strategy called “the talking-to-the-text strategy” that they use (which had been introduced to teachers of both schools in a professional development program). Unlike the first school, the teachers in the second school try to support the use of that strategy in their reading instruction. Finally, the teachers Cedar Bridge Middle School improve their instructional capacity by analyzing common lessons to be taught every week at the same grade-level in the same subject area, developing common lessons while using instructional conversation to inform their lesson planning. They also adopt common criteria for assessing in order to decide on the next instructional moves.

As we can see in both schools, there are different ways to make teachers work collaboratively, but not all ways of collaboration contribute to an increase or improvement of instructional capacity. The approach regarding teacher collaboration at Cedar Bridge Middle School is more effective than at Liberty Middle School.

The next video is about the importance and the benefits of teacher collaboration.

Video 3: Teacher Collaboration: Spreading Best Practices School-Wide

Jaquith (2013) is convinced that in order to increase student learning outcomes, it is important that school administrators ensure that their teachers work collaboratively to build the proper instructional capacity needed. They need to define joined tasks for teachers and provide enough time for them to work together regularly to improve their students’ learning. If the level of teacher collaboration and the tasks are not well defined, they will not effectively create instructional capacity. Therefore, Jaquith suggests four types of instructional capacity and exhorts school leaders to consider them and ensure that they create opportunity for teachers to use these resources to improve teaching and learning so that they can consequently improve students’ learning outcomes. Below are the four types of instructional capacity that the author recommends:

• Instructional knowledge (knowledge of content, pedagogy, and students).
• Instructional tools or materials (curriculum, teaching materials, and assessments).
• Instructional relationships characterized by trust and mutual respect.
• Organizational structures that promote the use of various instructional resources, such as common learning time for teachers and formal instructional leadership roles.

School administrators are under the obligation to guide their teachers and support them so that they can make good use of the four instructional resources by “creating the right structures, conditions, expectations, kind of teams, and a learning focus”.

In her doctoral dissertation, Jackson (2010) examines how high school principal can develop teachers’ instructional capacity by using their leadership role to promote it. She believes that principals develop teachers’ instructional capacity in three different contexts: whole school, grade-level team and individually. She analyzes each of the three contexts to see how principals can help teachers build their own instructional capacity by affecting their classroom practice so that they become better teachers. In the context of whole school instructional capacity building, the author considers school-wide professional development as a way to make teachers become better classroom practitioners. She also suggests that principals can help teachers develop their instructional capacity by making them work as effective partners in their own grade-level teams. Finally, the author encourages school principals to work individually with teachers on their own instruction practice such as observing their lessons and providing them with useful feedback, by evaluating and coaching them.

When it comes to how to improve teaching and increasing student academic achievement, Khattri et al. (1995) consider that performance assessments are the best model. They refer to performance assessments as the way of measuring instruction by judging and monitoring students’ progress through observations, experiments, written assignments, and research projects without multiple-choice tests. According to the authors, performance assessments have positive influence on teaching and learning as they “provide pedagogical templates that help teachers to develop effective instructional techniques; and provide comprehensive information about student progress, including students’ strengths and weaknesses”. Khattri et al. sustain their viewpoint about the benefits of performance assessments and argue that these types of assessments inform effective teaching as they offer teachers different instructional strategies, and help them develop effective planning for teaching. They state: “In general, performance assessments have had a significant impact on instruction. Teachers are using a wide array of instructional strategies modeled on the performance assessments that their states, districts, and schools have developed”. As teachers improve their teaching with the use of different instructional strategies informed by performance assessments, it consequently has positive impacts on students’ learning and achievement as well. The authors conclude that performance assessments affect learning and teaching because they motivate students to learn and be engaged actively with project-based activities than with other forms of assignments. Khattri et al. however admit that performance assessments present some limitations such as how “a lack of time and poorly defined content and performance standards hindered teachers’ efforts to adopt performance assessments”.

Research shows that there is a wide interest in formative assessments. Many advocates of this type of assessments believe that they have many benefits with regard to teaching and learning. The works of following authors provide more information about the benefits of formative assessments on student academic achievement: Andersson and Palm (2017); Black and William (1998); Dodge (2009); Havnes, Smith, Dysthe and Ludvigsen (2012); and Keeley (2008). Popham (2008) in the first chapter of his book entitled “Transformative Assessment” considers that “… formative assessment is a potentially transformative instructional tool that, if clearly understood and adroitly employed, can benefit both educators and their students”. Drawing historical background information from Michael Scriven’s (1967) work about formative evaluation, Popham (2008) makes a clear distinction between formative assessment and summative assessment. He therefore views “formative assessment as a way to improve the caliber of still-underway instructional activities and summative assessment as a way to determine the effectiveness of already-completed instructional activities”. The author then provides the following definition that was suggested for formative assessment by a twined US educational organization called FAST SCASS (Formative Assessment for Students and Teachers & State Collaborative on Assessment and Student Standards): “Formative assessment is a process used by teachers and students during instruction that provides feedback to adjust ongoing teaching and learning to improve students’ achievement of intended instructional outcomes”. In consideration of this definition, Popham suggests a more succinct definition: “Formative assessment is a planned process in which teachers or students use assessment-based evidence to adjust what they're currently doing”. The author comes to a simple conclusion that classroom assessments should have a “formative improvement mission” where classroom assessment activities must focus on improvement instead of being grading focused. For this reason, he recommends that teachers must conduct plenty of formative assessments in order to improve instruction and impact positively on student achievement of the learning outcomes.

The figure below illustrates the proportion of formative assessment in classrooms.

Figure 1: Illustrative Proportions of Formative Assessment in Classroom (excerpt from James Popham, 2008)

With the advance of computer systems and the rise of Information and Communication Technology (ICT), educators increasingly use multimedia for the design and implementation of effective teaching and learning activities. Many teachers believe nowadays that the integration of educational technology in teaching and learning are the best methods of teaching and learning because it creates opportunities for improved teaching as well as increased learning outcomes.

Educational technology experiences unprecedented sophistication and as a result, has many positive impacts on education in general. Spector (2016, p. 10) considers the positive impacts of educational technology as he states: “Educational technology involves the disciplined application of knowledge for the purpose of improving learning, instruction, and/or performance”. The author is convinced that the digital design of teaching and learning materials and activities offers the opportunity to easily incorporate self-accessible learning resources and activities, created to be used by learners independently, that is, without access to a teacher or classroom. Spector encourages classroom practitioners to efficiently incorporate educational technology in instructional activities in order to enhance student learning outcomes.

Research shows that students who achieve better are those who are often more engaged in their learning. Wardlow (2016) believes that integrating technology in teaching and learning contributes greatly to students’ engagement in the learning process and she adds: “Technology may be one of the keys to increasing the number of engaged students in America’s classrooms”. She analyzes educational technology’s effects on education and finds out that one of the positive benefits of its integration in the classroom is student engagement. The author discovers that the use of technology tools to plan instructional activities allows teachers to create activities and materials that are more relevant and interesting. Moreover, when the learning is relevant and interesting, learners become engaged and active learners. The author finally refers to other strong research results and concludes: “And, with increased student engagement, comes increased learning. There is a strong research base that describes how technology strengthens student engagement and learning. For example, active learning is associated with improved student academic performance, and increased student engagement, critical thinking, and better attitudes toward learning”.

The following video talks briefly about stronger student engagement.

Video 1: Stronger Student Engagement

We all agree that there is a wide range of ways to improve teaching and increase learner achievement. However, there are challenges and limitations to any tools or strategies that can help create an effective and successful learning environment for both educators and students. Wright (2018), Jaquith (2013) and Amadioha (2009) all believe in instructional resources and materials to build instructional capacity and support teaching and learning. Jaquith on her part suggests that instructional knowledge (knowledge of content, pedagogy, and students) is one type of instructional capacity and she exhorts school administrators to facilitate collaboration with teachers to build instructional capacity successfully. She then encourages teachers to make good use of resources and materials available in their schools so that they can be beneficial to their teaching and to the students’ learning and contribute to a higher achievement of learning outcomes. One important issue regarding resources and material available in schools is that not all of them are useful and up-to-date. It is therefore important that teachers select resources and materials that are appropriate and useful otherwise, they will not be helpful even if they use them. Jackson (2010), McClure (2018) and Jaquith (2013) consider that collaboration among teachers strengthens their instructional capacity building and contributes to improved teaching as well as increased learning outcomes. While Jaquith supports the public learning communities (PLCs), she prefers that school administrators join teachers in order to make the collaboration stronger and more effective. Jackson also encourages whole-school professional development to improve instructional capacity for all teachers in order to enhance student learning outcomes. In my opinion, school administrators should support teachers’ collaborative work, but they do not necessarily need to join in if they have no expertise that could be helpful for the groups they work in. Regarding assessments as ways to improve teaching and learning, Khattri (1995) suggests performance assessments while Popham (2008) believes more in the effectiveness of formative assessments. Whatever the type of assessment adopted, the most important thing is that it should help bridge the gap between the students’ current level and the level where they are expected to be. As far as integrating educational technology into the classroom to create effective teaching and learning environment in the classroom is concerned, Spector (2016) and Wardlow (2016) are greatly in its support. They both strongly believe in how it helps teacher design relevant and interesting learning materials and activities, which contributes to learners’ active engagement in the learning process, thus enhancing their achievement of the learning outcomes. Spector and Wardlow however miss to point out the necessity for teachers to have enough and adequate training in how to integrate technology efficiently so that it can be beneficial to students’ learning experience.

There are also some other weaknesses in the literature regarding effective teaching and enhanced learning outcomes. In one hand, all the authors forget or neglect subject matter knowledge, another important factor for effective teaching and increased learning outcomes achievement. Although subject matter knowledge alone is not a determining factor in becoming an excellent classroom practitioner, it is needed in order to get the message across and help learners achieve learning outcomes better. For instance, despite my sound knowledge in all aspects of the subjects that I teach, it is clear to me that additional skills and knowledge are needed in order to raise my students’ academic achievement. In fact, I notice that my students achieve far better if I implement effective pedagogical skills in my teaching. Koponen et al. (2019) also shares the same viewpoint and says: “The first step is subject matter knowledge, the second is pedagogical knowledge, and the last is knowledge of effective teaching”. In the other hand, none of the literature talks about classroom management as another important factor for effective teaching and increased achievement of student learning outcomes. However, Smith (1995) believes that when teachers’ classroom management skills are poor, successful teaching and learning cannot take place. He therefore stresses this point by saying: “Managing and controlling all that happens inside the classroom is perhaps the key issue for all teachers. How successfully a teacher can do this will influence the effectiveness of the teaching and learning that can and does take place.” (Smith, 1995). Finally, a differentiated instruction is also important to enhance student learning outcomes, but none of the literature has made a reference to it. In fact, learners bring different levels of ability and experiences to the classroom so it is important to provide a differentiated instruction in order to meet every learner’s needs. There is no single factor that contributes to effective teaching and improved attainment of student learning outcomes. Each factor is important and complementary.

Students’ learning achievement is a big concern for teachers, school administrators and parents. Creating an effective learning environment where students engage actively with the learning activities is the key to increased learning outcomes. To improve their classroom practice and make the students’ learning successful, teachers and school administrator need to work more collaboratively while using the materials and resources available in the most beneficial ways. They should use all types of assessments that inform improved teaching while students must use information from assessment evidence to change their way of engaging with their learning in order to achieve higher and succeed. Technology should also form part of the teaching and learning process in the most efficient way so that the students can enjoy their learning experience and engage well with it so that they can achieve high learning outcomes. Also, effective classroom management should not be neglected when it comes to improved teaching and increased learning outcomes achievement.

Amadioha, S. (2009). The importance of instructional materials in our schools: an overview. New Era Research Journal of Human, Educational and Sustainable Development. Vol. 2

Jackson, J. K. (2010). School Leadership that Develops Teachers' Instructional Capacity ProQuest LLC, Ed.D. Dissertation, University of Illinois at Chicago

Jaquith, A. (2013). Instructional Capacity: How to Build it Right. In Leveraging Teacher Leadership, Pages 56-61. Educational Leadership. Volume 71, Number 2

Khattri, N., Kane, M. B. & Reeve, A. L. (1995). How Performance Assessments Affect Teaching and Learning. Educational Leadership. Volume 53, Number 3. Retrieved in June 2019 from: http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/nov95/vol53/num03/-How-Performance-Assessments-Affect-Teaching-and-Learning.aspx

Koponen, M., Asikainen, M. A., Viholainen, A. & Hirvonen, P. E. (2019). Using network analysis methods to investigate how future teachers conceptualize the links between the domains of teacher knowledge. Teaching and Teacher Education 79 (2019) 137e152

McClure, C. T. (2019). The benefits of teacher collaboration. Administration District. Retrieved in June from: https://districtadministration.com/the-benefits-of-teacher-collaboration/

Popham, W. J. (2008). Formative Assessment: Why, What, and Whether. in “Transformative Assessment”. Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. Alexandria, VA. Retrieved from: http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/108018/chapters/Formative-Assessment@-Why,-What,-and-Whether.aspx

Smith, R. (1995). Framework Professional development: Self-study Modules for Teachers and Lecturers: Develop your Classroom Management Skills. Framework Press Educational Publishers Ltd. Parkfield, Lancaster, UK

Spector, J. M. (2016). Foundations of Educational Technology: Integrative Approach and Interdisciplinary Perspectives, Second Edition. Routeledge, New York, NY, USA

Wardlow, L. (2016). How technology can boost student engagement. in PreK-12 Education. Pearson. Retrieved in June 2019 from: https://www.pearsoned.com/technology-can-boost-student-engagement/

Wright, J. (2018.). The Importance of Learning Materials in Teaching. Retrieved in June 2019 from The Classroom: https://www.theclassroom.com/importance-learning-materials-teaching-6628852.html

Title icon: Teaching & Learning. Retrieved June 2019 from: http://www2.coloma.croydon.sch.uk/about/teaching.cfm

Video 1: Element of Effective Teaching. Retrieved June 2019 from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVH9PJLssM8

Video 2: Teacher selects engaging instructional materials – Example 2. Retrieved June 2019 from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2foLU9Zmnw8

Video 3: Teacher Collaboration: Spreading Best Practices School-Wide. Retrieved June 2019 from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85HUMHBXJf4

Video 4: Stronger student engagement. Retrieved June 2019 from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPHtNkdFFAE

Figure 1: Illustrative Proportions of Formative Assessment in Classroom (excerpt from James Popham, 2008)