Journal of Research in Innovative Teaching - National University

Combining Research-based Effective Teacher Characteristics with
Effective Instructional Strategies to Influence Pedagogy
Dee L. Fabry
Abstract
Nearly 7,000 students drop out of high school every day (Editorial Projects in Education, 2007). The reasons for
dropping out, according to the research, range from a lack of connection to relevance to boredom. Increasing
student-to-teacher connections and motivation through the implementation of effective instructional strategies has
been proven to be a successful solution that increases student engagement. This study reports on the application of
research-based effective instructional strategies by teachers in a high school setting.
Key Words
Research-based instructional strategies, solutions to high school dropout rates, high school teaching
Introduction
We know there is a crisis in United States high schools today. Evidence suggests that the current
system is an abysmal failure, with only 30 percent of freshmen reading at grade level (Lee,
Grigg, & Donahue, 2007) and nearly 7,000 students dropping out every day (Editorial Projects in
Education, 2007).
Teachers report their classrooms are filled with apathetic, bored, and passive students. At
the same time, teachers are pressured into superficially addressing content in order to cover the
required state standards and prepare students for the end-of-year tests. “I don’t have time to
really teach or reach my students” is lamented in teacher lounges across the nation.
“The mission of high school is not to cover content, but rather to help learners become
thoughtful about, and productive with, content. It’s not to help students get good at school, but
rather to prepare them for the world beyond school—to enable them to apply what they have
learned to issues and problems they will face in the future” (Wiggins & McTighe, 2008). Those
profound words should be engraved across the entrance to every classroom in every high school.
By extension, that concept also applies to teacher education today. Teachers can be one of the
solutions to the current dropout rate. If the classroom teacher is thoughtful and productive with
her/his own content and models it in the delivery of instruction, it follows that the students see
meaningful teaching and learning in action. They then become engaged in learning.
Overview
High school teachers, it is often said, possess some of the characteristics of their own students:
skepticism, doubt, distrust, and apathy. They need to be shown that how what they learn will
affect them and their own students. Coburn’s (2001) research on teacher learning tells us that
teachers respond to practices through a continuum of actions ranging from total rejection to
accommodation. Teachers need to experience success and to see changes in their own students’
learning. One of the keys in connecting to this kind of thinking is to create relevancy and results
in teacher education programs.
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