by Marie Fugl

The subject skills among primary school teachers have been a hot topic of debate in recent years. It turns out, however, that pupils do not benefit from a more skilled teacher, unless two other competencies are present as well: The ability to manage a class, and to establish a close bond with the individual pupil. This is the conclusion in a new report from the Danish Clearinghouse for Educational Research at the DPU, in which the Clearinghouse maps out and evaluates the entire range of national and international studies in the field.

"To put it bluntly, the recipe is very simple," says Professor Sven-Erik Nordenbo, Director of the Clearinghouse.

"You need three competencies to be a good teacher: Subject competence, relation competence and management competence. The last two are, however, completely inadequately represented in contemporary teacher education."

The report comprises the first ever systematic review of the past decade's research into the effect teachers have on pupil achievement. One surprising finding is the huge importance of the teachers' relational competencies, not just for the pupils' general well-being, but also for their measurable subject learning.

"We now have evidence that teachers who are able to enter into friendly, respectful and positive relations with the pupils generate far better pupil achievement."

When the pupils hate you

What does it mean to have 'good relational competencies'?

"That you can form a bond with the individual pupil. That you have and demonstrate a basic warmth, respect, trust and empathy. That you can see the bigger picture and read the pupils' signals. Some teachers are so preoccupied with themselves that they fail to see others signals. This competence also implies that you can deal with the pupils' reactions, even the ill-mannered ones', and that you are able to respond suitably, because one aspect of relational competence is to deal with someone who is not interested in having a relation at all - or who hates you, even. In other words, that you can deal with a seventh grader who hits you, or better yet, that you can prevent it from ever getting that far."

But being nice and understanding isn't enough. You have to be able to manage the children as well?

"Exactly. Just like every other production process, there is an element of management to teaching as well. Things have to be planned. That means there is a lot of logistics involved in being a teacher. It is, for instance, important that the teacher has decided on the objective of the teaching, and that the objective is communicated successfully. The aim with the teaching has to be spoken out loud. The more detailed the plan, and the better the teacher manages the class, the more they will learn. Management also means to establish a set of reasonable, unambiguous and understandable rules for the class."

Are you proposing a return to the authoritative teacher figure?

"Not at all. The idea is not to make the teacher like the captain of the ship, cracking his whip over the bare backs of slaves. No. The teacher must mark out the field from the outset, define goals and tell the pupils how to progress towards those goals. This is primarily the responsibility of the teacher, but part of the management competence is to gradually make pupils take over some of the planning."

Survival isn't enough

While there has been increasing attention on the competence to successfully manage a class in recent years, the relation competence has, according to Professor Nordenbo, largely been overlooked in teacher training. One possible explanation is that social competencies are considered 'inherent' or something that 'will come in time'. It is, however, highly important to address this issue in a systematic way:

"We know from another study that one in three teachers go to class with the sole aim to survive, or to avoid that the class becomes so noisy that the teacher next door will complain. This is the cold fact for a very large number of educators," professor Nordenbo explains, and continues:

"Teachers quite simply do not have the necessary tools to deal with their pupils."

Isn't this taught today?

"No, social relations are not systematically taught or 'coached'. Everyone agrees that of course you must have a positive relationship with the children, but when you ask how you get to that point, teacher training falls short and fails to provide an adequate answer. Some have that ability already when they enrol in teacher training, some learn along the way, and some never learn. Most gradually improve as they get to know a class better, but it is conceivable that this process could be better and speeded up if the teachers had some tools to use - if they were actually taught how to approach this particular issue."

Psychologists must educate teachers

How could that be taught?

"First of all teachers have to practice basic reflection on a given relation. When you are in a class, and try to teach a pupil something, you put the child under pressure. This means you have to ask yourself how much pressure you want to apply. How much to ridicule the child? Is it acceptable to ask questions that reveal that the child is ignorant? These are examples of moral reflections, but the psychological aspects must not be ignored. The teacher must be able to sense how the child experiences a given situation. Is the child getting desperate, or is (s)he exultant? What goes on in the child's mind?"

Can this really be learned from a book or a lecture?

"Not exclusively. This is why the relation competence should be taught by systematic coaching or supervision. During teacher training, the students are in in-service training, and they may or may not be lucky enough to come under supervision of a teacher that possesses both relation and management competence, or maybe there just isn't time to work on those aspects.

The only things that are systematically taught are subject skill and didactics. Something like an appointed coach, e.g. a psychologist, who could observe the teaching with an eye to the social and the psychological aspects of the teaching, might help the new teacher become aware of the relations to the pupils in a new way.

It also bears consideration whether philosophers and psychologists should be brought in on teacher training. We shouldn't consider pupils cases for therapeutic treatment, but why not learn from the therapists, who know how to interpret the psychological signals that pupils send out? Considering how much conflicts and noise dominate the classroom, it might be expedient to learn a few techniques to deal with stress and anger."

Get rid of anti-social teachers

But can anyone learn empathy and anger management?

"To be honest, we don't know for sure. Which is to say – there is no evidence either way. It should definitely be examined, and we have recommended that this should be the research question for a future research project. We know that some skills can be improved through practice, but if someone proves incapable of developing an adequate relation competence, I think that we should seriously consider whether anyone should be allowed to become a teacher."

Should teachers then be individually evaluated?

"Perhaps, yes. About forty years ago, we used to have a process of selection in the training of day-care professionals: at the end of the first year of studies, each student was evaluated by the teacher college according to a very simple question – would I let this person take care of my child? If someone said no, the student in question was dismissed. It was pretty tough, and the system was abandoned by the mid-70s on the grounds that it was discriminatory.

Nowadays we have something similar in the private sector, where personality testing is rampant. Certain character traits are screened for, and those who have them are turned down for jobs. It just might make sense to introduce something like that at the beginning of the teacher training, but let us start by determining exactly how much you can improve social competencies, because that is a key question." 

Facts

The study was funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research, in order to determine, through available evidence, which teacher competencies could be shown to have an influence on pupil achievement.

The study was conducted as a systematic review, which comprises a mapping, and subsequent analysis, of each and every study in the field by researchers with relevant professional competence.

They synthesise the combined findings and form a list of recommendations based on their findings. In other words, the present report sums up the past ten years' educational research.

The Danish Clearinghouse for Educational Research creates an overview of the current best knowledge of good educational practice and communicates it to practitioners and politicians.