people and planet

10
PROCESSES: CLASSROOM OBSERVATIONS OF
EFFECTIVE TEACHING PRACTICES
Studies of the impact of good teaching practices on
learning outcomes in high income countries indicate that
teachers who improved learning ‘built relationships with
their students … helped students to have different and
better strategies or processes to learn the subject … and
demonstrated a willingness to explain material and help
students with their work’ (Hattie, 2009, p. 108). Teachers
also improve learning when they set high expectations
for students, do not discriminate among them, ask them
to learn from one another and provide feedback.
Similar results are emerging from low and middle income
countries. In rural India, teachers asking questions, using
local examples to explain lessons and having children
work in small groups were positively correlated with test
scores in grades 2 and 4 (Banerji et al., 2013). Studies in
South Africa identified a focus on reading and writing
text and the adjustment of pace to pupil ability as critical
for learning, though most classrooms were lacking in
these factors (Hoadley, 2012).
A systematic review of 54 empirical studies highlighted
group and pair work, student questioning, use of local
languages, the planning and varying of lesson sequences
and the use of a range of learning materials as effective
pedagogic strategies. It argued that ‘future research
designs could fruitfully combine qualitative with
quantitative studies, for example with both baseline and
post-tests measuring student attainment as a result of
an intervention or reform, and systematic, structured
classroom observation’ (Westbrook et al., 2013, p. 65).
Classroom observations are routinely conducted to
inform teacher education and professional development
and to evaluate interventions. Could they also be used
for monitoring? If so, how much has been done and
what methodological issues were raised? Such studies
have so far served to measure availability of teaching
and learning materials (see previous section), assess
instructional time and its use in lessons, and confirm the
use of effective teaching practices (Box 10.2).
A survey of 15,000 classrooms in Brazil, Colombia,
Honduras, Jamaica and Peru showed that teachers
spent between 60% and 65% of their time on academic
instruction, well below the recommended 85%. Even
during instruction, the entire class was engaged only
one-third of the time. In the Federal District, Mexico,
teachers spent almost 40% of their time managing the
classroom (Bruns and Luque, 2014).
BOX 10.2
Collecting comparable classroom observation data in
sub-Saharan Africa
The Service Delivery Indicators programme aims to develop a
standardized approach to measure the quality of health and education
services in sub-Saharan Africa. It was launched in 2010 as a partnership
between the World Bank, the African Economic Research Consortium
and the African Development Bank, with core funding from the Hewlett
Foundation. Nationally representative surveys of primary schools,
typically between 200 and 400 per country, have been done in Kenya,
Mozambique, Nigeria, Senegal, Togo, Uganda and the United Republic of
Tanzania (2 rounds), and are in process in the Democratic Republic of the
Congo, Madagascar and Niger.
As in other studies, teacher absenteeism, which combines absence from
school with absence from the classroom while at school, was typically
between 40% and 50%. It was more than 55% in Mozambique, where if
time lost within the lesson is also taken into account, the average child
experienced just 1 hour and 40 minutes of actual daily teaching time.
Such data call for attention to governance, management and oversight.
Classroom observation also captured the nature of interactions. Across
countries, about 30% of teaching and learning time was spent interacting
with students (either as one group, several small groups or individually);
another 30% was spent either writing on the blackboard or reading and
lecturing to students (an activity negatively associated with learning
outcomes); 22% of classroom time was spent waiting for students to
respond to a question or listening to student responses; and 6% was
devoted to testing.
Observers were asked to identify whether certain types of teacher
practices were deployed during the lesson. While 84% of teachers
introduced the lesson, only 43% summarized it at the end of class. Most
of the questions asked were related to memorized information. It was
observed that only 61% of teachers had smiled at pupils and 29% had
used negative reinforcement. Such information provide insights into
how pedagogical teacher training could focus more strongly on practices
associated with better learning.
Further analysis of data from Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, Togo and
Uganda shows that classroom effects – a combination of teacher
knowledge, time allocation and teaching practices – explained roughly
15% of the total variance of student achievement, three times more than
in high income countries. Positive reinforcement and frequent formative
assessment were most strongly associated with increased student
achievement, while mistreating students had a negative effect.
Source: Filmer et al. (2015); Filmer (2016).
2016 • GLOBAL EDUCATION MONITORING REPORT 191