A new study based on evaluations of 25,000 novice teachers in Tennessee finds the best predictor of a new teacher’s effectiveness and likelihood to remain in the profession is how quickly they learn classroom management skills, including managing student behavior, according to an Education Week article.
“Classroom management has spillover effects in how it shapes the overall classroom dynamic,” says Brendan Bartanen, an assistant professor of education leadership at the University of Virginia and co-author of the study. “If you do not have a classroom that is orderly, in which most students can think and learn without distraction, you’re going to be hard pressed to see substantial improvements in student learning.”
For classroom observations, administrators must detail one focus area for improvement involving 19 instructional skills, including questioning, presenting content, behavior management, and problem-solving.
Administrators were most likely to point to weak behavior management, followed by lagging content-presentation skills for new teachers who received the lowest evaluations.
The highest-performing new teachers, by contrast, looked more like veteran teachers when it came to these skills.
“Overall improvement among new teachers is likely driven by improvement in those two skills in particular—among the teachers who stay,” Bartanen says.
Teachers struggling with behavior problems may be transferred, encouraged to leave, and also are more likely to burn out. “If I as a teacher am having difficulty managing the classroom, my day- to-day life as a teacher is likely to be not ideal, and that might lead me to leave,” Bartanen says.
One immediate way for principals to support teachers is to provide more effective feedback for teachers after observations.
Nearly half of teachers receive no actionable or goal-setting feedback at all, a 2022 study also using Tennessee data found.
Researchers in that study recommended that administrators give feedback that:
- Is aligned with the skills a teacher needs most for improvement;
- Is based on and justified by evidence;
- Sets clear and specific goals; and
- Plans the next steps the teacher should take.
“School leaders shouldn’t forget that novice teachers who come in with foundational teaching skills [such as class management] should have opportunities to develop as well,” Bartanen says, “and that means they’re probably going to need a different set of supports around a different set of higher-order teaching skills.”
There is a need to continue focusing on more than just novices because, on average, teachers improve rapidly their first few years on the job and more slowly after that.
“Five years is not all that long when you think about a 35-year teaching career, and the fact that we’re not seeing consistent improvement after those first few years, means I think we’re potentially leaving a lot on the table in terms of helping teachers become even more effective,” Bartanen says.
Education Week
