Research in Action

Main Objective: Compare and contrast two newspaper articles that relate to classroom management. Illustrate it with a Venn Diagram. Summarize how the information will impact you in the classroom.

Bill Gates and his foundation is working to identify and support effective teaching practices. The objective is to determine scientifically what a good instructor does and how to measure it. In a July 2011 interview with the Wall Street Journal, Gates said, “It is a five-year, $335-million project that examines whether aspects of effective teaching —classroom management, clear objectives, diagnosing and correcting common student errors — can be systematically measured. The effort involves collecting and studying videos of more than 13,000 lessons taught by 3,000 elementary school teachers in seven urban school districts.”1 The foundation is analyzing the tapes to see how engaged the kids are and how quickly a class gets focused on a subject.

One of the country’s foremost experts on effective teaching acknowledges teachers must possess classroom management skills such as an ability to establish norms and routines for classroom discourse. At the same time, Deborah Loewenberg Ball says it is not enough to ensure good instruction. In a March 2010 article in the New York Times Magazine, Ball says, “Even teaching third-grade math, is extraordinarily specialized, requiring both intricate skills and complex knowledge about math.”2  Ball is more focused on identifying what good teachers know about the specific subjects they teach.

The articles reinforced my belief that effective teachers are both masters of the mechanics of teaching and content specific. My research helped me become more aware of the need to develop skills in both areas. To me, classroom management is the foundation, and lesson mastery is the framing. This assignment reminded me that effective teaching skills require a lot of deliberate practice and hard work. Great teachers are not born but made. 

1. Riley, J.L. (2011, Jul 23). Was the $5 billion worth it? A decade into his record-breaking education philanthropy, Bill Gates talks teachers, charters -- and regrets. Wall Street Journal (Online). Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/878691290?accountid=40965

2. Green, E. (2010, Mar 07). Can good teaching be learned? New York Times Magazine, 30-37, 44, 46. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/215467797?accountid=40965