Research report - Institute of Education, University of London

When talking about teachers that had been particularly helpful to these children three
patterns of teacher characteristics emerged. Firstly, teachers were perceived as being
particularly helpful when they were sensitive to the child‟s particular needs and responding to
the child in accordance to these needs 17 . These teachers, for instance, provided the children
with extra help when needed but were also willing to offer additional, more difficult work to
challenge children to stretch their development.
Yeah, Miss McDonald. I don‟t know, she had a personality that, and she was always
willing to help me, and that, if I don‟t understand something, and then I told her, “I
don‟t understand it”, then she would just have a good attitude about it. I can‟t explain
it to be honest. It would just be the way that she was willing to help. Because there
is some teachers who some would prefer and they would help you in the end but it‟s
their attitude they‟ll have about it, but with her, she would always give me answer
straight, not the answer but help me figure things out straight away.... Hmm
punctuation, because she really helped me with it. Just the exercise. She‟d give me
separate exercises as well with it, because I was already good at the stuff that we
were doing in the class, she‟d give me separate exercises from other children so that,
instead of spending time doing things like reading notes, I did work on the
punctuation. Shaquille, boy, Group 1 (low SES, attainment higher than
predicted).
The second pattern showed that teachers who were perceived to have helped the students
do well, were characterized as being „strict‟ and „in control‟, but simultaneously as „calm‟
„nice‟, „enthusiastic‟ and „friendly‟ 18 . By being authoritative, rather than authoritarian or
permissive in the way they approached and taught students these teachers inspired students
to apply themselves during the lessons and in their school work. The following example was
given by a 15 year old girl when asked how the teacher would help her do well in school.
She refers to the Religious Education teacher in her secondary school:
She can be strict but she is very calm and relaxed about everything and she will let
you say what you think and she don‟t criticize you for it because it is your own opinion
and it is what you believe in. She tries to give constructive criticisms but she also
really praises you if you are doing really well. And she‟s see your reports and after
the exams she will come up to you and say, “You have done really well”. [It‟s
important] because instead of that negative criticism all the time, like, “You have to do
this and that”, like, “You don‟t understand that”, you can like work at it. Natalie, girl,
Group 1 (low SES, attainment higher than predicted).
The final teacher characteristic that was mentioned was the teacher‟s use of interactive
teaching 19 . According to the students the use of ball games to learn about numbers and
Maths, films to illustrate social and moral dilemmas during religious education or attending
the theatre to learn about English literature made lessons „less boring‟ and easier to „pay
attention‟ but also made it easier for the student to recall what they had learned later on, for
instance during a test or exam.
17 Sensitive responsiveness was mentioned for seven boys and nine girls from Group 1 and for three boys and
two girls from Group 4.
18 References to authoritative teaching as a „protective‟ factor were made for five boys and seven girls from
Group 1 and for all six students from Group 4.
19 Interactive teaching as a „protective‟ factor was mentioned for five boys and six girls from Group 1 and for all
three boys and one girl from Group 4.
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