Student-Identified Exemplary Teachers:

Insights from Talented Teachers1

Marcia Gentry, Ph.D.Professor, Educational Studies

Director, Gifted Education Resource Institute

Purdue University

1In press, Gifted Child Quarterly.

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Exemplary Teachers

Who are they? How do they work? What distinguishes them? How do they reach their students? What can we learn from them?

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Background: How we came upon this study.

In 2 previous studies developing instruments to assess student attitude towards school…

My Class Activities (Gentry & Gable, 2001) Student Perceptions of Classroom Quality (Gentry & Owen,

2004)

…some teachers were rated especially high by their students on dimensions associated with learning and school satisfaction.

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Background

Dimensions of Positive Classroom Environments Measured:– Appeal (SPOCQ)

– Challenge (MCA & SPOCQ)

– Choice (MCA & SPOCQ)

– Enjoyment (MCA)

– Interest (MCA)

– Meaningfulness (SPOCQ)

– Self-Efficacy (SPOCQ)

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Background

MCA & SPOCQ each use a 5-point response scale

MCA– Sample included 163 teachers from 23 schools

teaching 3rd through 6th grade students SPOCQ

– Sample included 241 teachers from 26 schools teaching 7th through 12th grade students

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Sample Selection

We aggregated the dimension scores Identified those who scored .75+ SD higher

than others in the sample This yielded 31 teachers (from the 404

teachers) 8 from MCA, 23 from SPOCQ We eliminated 3 teachers who had fewer than

10 student respondents

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Sample Description

We were unable to locate another 10 teachers, leaving…

18 teachers in our sample, all of whom consented to participate in our study

These teachers come from 9 schools in 8 districts and 4 states (CO, MI, MN, TX)

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Sample Description Rural MN HS #1, Mr. Lee, Social Sciences, Now a principal Rural MN HS #2, Mr. E., Art, Now retired; Ms. SG,,

Agriculture Education Urban TX HS #3, Mr. Bret, G/T Humanities; Ms. SP., G/T

Humanities; Ms. B., G/T Language Arts, now a district g/t coordinator

Rural MI Elementary #4, CC, 3rd grade, now kindergarten Urban MN Elementary #5, Anastacia, 4th grade Rural MI Jr.Hi. #6, Mr. Jeff, Social Sciences Urban MN Elementary #7, Ms. O., 5th grade, g/t, now a HS

reading specialist Suburban CO Elementary #8 Ms. Abby, 4th grade

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Sample Description

Rural Career & Technical Education HS Center #9Mr. Earl, NRAT;

Mr. Leo, Auto-Diesel;

Mr. L., Welding;

Mr. Fredrick, Criminal Justice,

Mr. Tom, Building Trades;

AJ, NRAT, Now retired;

Mr. Bear, Early Education, Now retired.

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Research Design

Mixed Method, primarily qualitative, with quantitative scores used for selection and to describe the teachers

Survey Interview Observations Comments from others

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Data Sources and Collection

Existing data bases from instrument design work

Written survey using e-mail and snail-mail Phone interviews using semi-structured

interview protocol with follow-up questions, taped and transcribed

Personal observations of a sub-sample of 9 teachers

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Data Analysis

Quantitative: Descriptive statistics Qualitative: Frequency of Thematic Responses Qualitative: open, axial, & selective coding

procedures (Strauss & Corbin, 1990) 5 member team independently analyzed data

developing initial codes, then discussed to develop axial codes, with selective codes determined

Member checking

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Results: Descriptive Demographics 61% men, 39% women 10 of 18 teachers held advanced degrees All of the CTE teachers (7) had professional

experience in their fields 16 White, 1 African American, 1 Amerasian 3 teachers had retired, 2 had changed grade levels

and 3 had taken new positions Experience ranged from 6 to 34 years with a

mean of 20.6 years 3 were able to retire but chose to continue

teaching

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Results: Descriptive Demographics Majority taught non-traditional content

– CTE n=8– Gifted/AP n=4– Art n=1– Social Studies/AP n=2– Elementary n=3

Most had “other” training and certifications that extended beyond just their grade level or subject requirements, e.g., EMT, CPR, administrative certification, reading, Ed.S., counseling, adult education, scuba instructor, firearms instructor, medical first responder, business owners, juried artist, wilderness tour guide, special education certified, gifted education.

14 teachers had won or been nominated for teaching awards Tables 1 & 2 depict the mean scores on the SPOCQ & MCA

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Participant Appeal Challenge Choice Meaning Self-Efficacy

Aggregate

Mr. Lee n=35

3.75 (.59) 4.00 (.65) 4.09 (.53) 4.43 (.43) 4.11 (.46) 4.08 (.48)

Mr. E. n=17

4.08 (.51) 4.38 (.54) 4.53 (.36) 4.07 (.70) 4.19 (.50) 4.25 (.47)

Ms. SG n=10

3.79 (.62) 3.72 (.56) 4.08 (.46) 3.94 (.50) 3.99 (.57) 3.90 (.48)

Mr. Brett n=18

3.98 (.59) 4.16 (.55) 3.96 (.46) 4.06 (.53) 3.82 (.81) 4.00 (.54)

Ms. SP n=18

3.98 (.59) 4.16 (.55) 3.96 (.46) 4.06 (.53) 3.82 (.81) 4.00 (.54)

Ms. B. n=16

3.72 (.82) 4.01 (.64) 4.24 (.53) 4.06 (.63) 3.93 (90) 4.00 (.66)

Mr. Earl n=58

3.67 (49) 3.92 (.34) 4.22 (.38) 3.95 (.34) 3.85 (.49) 3.92 (.34)

Mr. Leo n=19

3.66 (.68) 4.02 (.49) 3.86 (.48) 3.87 (.45) 3.77 (.50) 3.84 (.46)

Mr. L. n=23

3.68 (.54) 4.00 (.65) 3.97 (.53) 3.90 (.50) 3.93 (.62) 3.90 (.51)

Mr. Fredrick n=43

4.22 (.43) 4.12 (.48) 4.25 (.41) 4.28 (.35) 4.30 (.41) 4.25 (.33)

AJ n=22

3.81 (.48) 3.90 (.52) 4.14 (.33) 3.95 (.36) 3.82 (44) 3.92 (.37)

Mr. Tom n=29

3.91 (.49) 4.10 (.45) 3.84 (.54) 3.91 (.43) 3.86 (.50) 3.92 (.40)

Papa Bear n=63

3.81 (.54) 3.84 (.51) 4.10 (.41) 3.98 (.39) 3.95 (.45) 3.94 (.39)

Total Sample N=7254

3.06 (.83) 3.41 (.72) 3.43 (.69) 3.43 (.71) 3.44 (.70) 3.35 (.62)

Table 1. SPOCQ mean scores

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Participant Challenge Choice Enjoyment Interest Aggregated CC n=20

3.63 (.58) 3.29 (.50) 4.41 (.69) 4.20 (.51) 3.88 (.47)

Anastacia n=18

3.85 (.39) 3.53 (.67) 4.45 (.38) 3.82 (.62) 3.91 (.42)

Mr. Jeff n=20

3.64 (.46) 3.59 (.52) 4.39 (.48) 4.02 (.31) 3.91 (.34)

Ms. O n=22

4.06 (.33) 3.84 (.44) 4.27 (.46) 3.99 (.45) 4.05 (.37)

Ms. Abby n=22

3.69 (.47) 3.55 (.53) 4.34 (.56) 3.89 (.46) 3.87 (.37)

Total Sample N=3806

3.53 (.58) 3.05 (.68) 3.64 (.89) 3.45 (.68) 3.42 (.56)

Table 2. MCA mean scores

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Results: Content Analysis

After identifying major themes we checked for prevalence of the themes among participants’ responses

These results are shown in Table 3. Theme 2 was most frequently counted with 148 incidences, and Themes 1, 3, & 4 with about 100 occurrences

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Themes

These Teachers… know and take a personal interest in their students set high expectations for themselves and their

students make content and learning meaningful and

relevant to the future and respect students’ choices have a clear passion for their students, teaching,

and for their content

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Pseudonym Theme 1

Theme 2 Theme 3 Theme 4

Mr. L 6 15 8 7 Mr. E 7 10 4 3 AJ 8 9 6 7 Mr. Jeff 7 9 6 11 Ms. B 6 7 6 4 Anastacia 7 14 6 9 Mr. Earl 13 10 8 7 Mr. Brett 2 11 3 7 Mr. Lee 4 5 7 6 Ms. Abby 9 6 1 13 Mr. Tom 5 13 14 5 Ms. SP 2 8 1 1 Ms. SG 8 1 7 4 Ms. O 4 2 1 4 CC 7 9 6 5 Mr. Leo 5 9 6 3 Mr. Fredrick 7 6 5 6 Papa Bear 2 4 2 1 TOTAL 105 148 97 103

Table 3. Frequency of themes

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Emergent Themes

1. These teachers know and take a personal interest in their students

– Beyond school involvement

– Outside/personal knowledge of students

– View/treat students as individuals

– They don’t give up on individual students, try different approaches

– Find their students motivating

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1. These teachers know their students“I know my students. I can tell you any student, what their hobbies are, what they do, what they’re involved in…I genuinely know my students. (Mr. L., Welding)

“I love my kids and I let them know it. I let them know I am here for them.” (CC, 3rd grade).

Ms. O. “ I believe very strongly that you need to build relationships with the students before you’re going to get high academic achievement…classrooms where students are successful are the ones in which relationships are built from the start.”

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1. These teachers know their students “I go into the classroom and really care about kids. I am interested in them, not just about them learning the subject matter, but actually having a connection with them, the people who they are, and I have an interest in their lives in and outside of school.”

“When I ask students what their best experience is in a class, they indicate a teacher who is engaged, and who has taken the time to connect to them as people, and sometimes I think that is what comes first.” (Mr. Lee, SS & Principal)

Whether it was Mr. Earl going to the jail or hospital to help one of his students or Mr. Jeff serving as a sounding board, these teachers connected to their students.”

“I’ve never given up on any child, ever.” (Abby, 4th grade)

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Emergent Themes

2. These teachers set high expectations for themselves and for their students.

– Respect for their duty as teachers – Respect for their students– High personal standards of performance in the

classroom– Support students so they can meet the high

expectations– Competitive and continually improving

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2. High expectations for self & students

“If you expect kids to succeed they will.” (Anastacia, 4th grade)

“There is a misconception that students like easy teachers and classes…I have found that students like to be liked and respond to challenges when they first know that their teacher respects and likes them.” (Mr. Lee, SS/principal)

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2. High expectations for self & students

“I believe that teachers should teach their class like it is the most important class that students will ever take. I take my responsibilities to motivate and to show enthusiasm for the subject matter very seriously.” (Mr. Lee)

“My students realize that I make them work to ‘perfect practice makes perfect’ because the work they need to do on the project requires [high level] skills.” (Mr. Tom, Building Trades)

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2. High expectations for self & students

“My greatest challenge is my competitiveness with myself and how I can do more for my students at school.” (CC)

“This program was closed down because of lack of enrollment, and I told [the administration] that in 5 years I would have the program at capacity, and I do.” (Mr. L., Welding)

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2. High expectations for self & students

“I’m very demanding, extremely demanding, I’m very blunt, I’m very honest. I don’t settle for inadequacy.” (Mr. Brett, SS)

I don’t’ care if it was the best essay I had ever read, it would be covered in red pen, so that they would know that there is always something to go back and make better.” (Ms. B., G/T Language Arts)

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Emergent Themes

3. These teachers make content and learning meaningful and relevant to the future and respect students’ choices

– Pose real problems

– Relate it to the real world and to students’ futures

– Use hands on, active learning

– Offer students a voice, input, and choices

– Develop a welcoming classroom

– Use humor, enjoyment, and fun

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3. Meaningful, relevant content & learning“Building a house that will become someone’s home brings real meaning to their lives. Some wish they could live in a house as nice as the one we’re building.” (Mr. Tom)

“Everything studied in class was directly related to the work the students did at their work experience job sites. I kept showing them how what they were learning in class could be used to help educate and protect young children.” (Mr. Bear, Early Education)

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3. Meaningful, relevant content & learning

“I want the students to recognize that what they do today has a drastic impact on their future…When I teach my students, I teach them from experience and with true feeling.” (Mr. Fredrick, Criminal Justice)

“Students see American Chopper on TV and relate it to what we’re doing in class. Plus they get a skill that they can use to make real money when they graduate.” (Mr. L.)

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3. Meaningful, relevant content & learning“I love to take a kid who doesn’t like history, that’s my passion, I try and convert them. I believe in positive feedback, if they give an answer, I’ll say, ‘Hey, this is a pretty tough question, lets see if anyone can do it.” And if they do, I’ll go crazy, no literally, I do. The kids laugh at it and part of that has to do with the fact that I’m the football coach and I co-direct the musical here every year. So I know a lot of show tunes apply to things we’re studying. And I have 3 sons, two teenagers, so I’m up on the lyrics. So I break into song. They appreciate it, and I think humor keeps interest, too. They think I’m crazy.” (Mr. Jeff, AP Hist)

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3. Choices

Advanced study, independent study, self-pacing, mentorships, apprenticeships, curriculum compacting, acceleration.

Mr. Earl had a “no hats in class” rule, until one day…

These teachers acted as developers of talent using skilled/expert instruction in which they focused on individual strengths and interests, while encouraging students to reach their potentials and assisting them with future plans.

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Emergent Themes

4. These teachers have a clear passion for their students, teaching, and for their content

– Believe they make a difference in students’ lives

– Open door communication

– High teaching efficacy, confident, not overstated

– Describe greatest accomplishments in terms of the students whose lives they touch

– Students return

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4. Passion for students, teaching & content

“When children succeed or feel they are part of our school family, the joy they have cannot be described. Here we don’t get a lot of praise or gifts, but the smiles and the happiness the children feel are the greatest gifts. (Anastacia)

Mrs. O described a student “who started his own business in his 20’s. He credited me for where he was today because I helped him to learn to read.”

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4. Passion for students, teaching & content

“My love of English pushed me into an English degree and all of my friends got sick of me talking about it, so they told me to go teach.” (Ms. B.)

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4. Passion for students, teaching & content

AJ an electrical technologies teacher described “seeing kids learn, the light go on when they understood the concept or idea. Seeing kids excel and improve themselves because they want to be better. Parents asked me not to retire until after their child had been in my class.”

Mr. Lee stated simply that his greatest achievement was “Connecting with kids.” He is now a HS principal, who still teaches a class each day.

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4. Passion for students, teaching & content

“Working with former students who have gone on and received their teaching degrees and who are now working as teachers in the schools where we placed them for work experience. I can identify 15 former students who are now working in schools as educators.” (Mr. Bear)

Mr. Fredrick described his greatest achievement as a teacher as “the first student who graduated from the program to be sworn as a full-time law enforcement officer.”

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4. Passion for students, teaching & content

“I truly believe that I was put on Earth to do what I am doing. Therefore, I better do my best at it.” (CC)

“I have a true passion for the occupational field that I teach. So much so that I still work part-time. I still get excited on Friday afternoons about going to my other job. The only job better than the occupational field in which I work, is teaching the occupation itself.” (Mr. Fredrick, Criminal Justice)

Rabbit trail…

67% of these teachers described positive relationships with administrators, with 7 of 9 administrators agreeing that the student-identified teachers were, indeed exemplary.

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Discussion & Implications

Confirms previous findings related to teacher effectiveness– Teacher enthusiasm– Content knowledge– Positive & Supportive teacher/students

relationships– Teachers’ beliefs

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Discussion & Implications

Defines attributes of gifted teachers, thus providing exemplars for practicing and aspiring teachers– Passion– High expectations of self and students– Sense of humor– Depth of knowledge in content and of students– Connections and involvement with students– Help students find meaning in learning and prepare for

the future

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Discussion & Implications

Raises the importance of career education and elective, or non-mainstream, courses

Provides lessons for general education on teacher excellence and student satisfaction or attitudes

How might these attributes inform pre-service and in-service teacher education and retention efforts?

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Future Research

Can teachers be taught how to develop positive relationships with students?

What role does humor play in teaching and learning in a broader context?

What might CTE and teachers who have professional experiences offer education in general?

Can the attributes of the gifted teachers by used to develop better in-service teachers?

How can passion for content, kids, and teaching be assessed and used to recruit and retain quality teachers?

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Limitations

No comparison group In general, these teachers teach non-

traditional subjects or students Unable to locate one-third of the teachers

who had similarly high scores

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“It is on the seniors’ last day that I take them one at a time to the door and tell them that they are no longer welcome to pass through this door as a student, BUT PLEASE KNOW, that they are always welcome to return as a friend. My door is open! The adventure of life is just beginning and I wish their spirits well…” (Mr. Earl, NRAT)

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ReferencesGentry, M., & Gable, R.K. (2001). My class activities: A survey instrument to assess

students' perceptions of interest, challenge, choice and enjoyment in their classrooms. (Instrument). Mansfield Center, CT: Creative Learning Press.

Gentry, M. & Hu, Saiying, Peters. S., & Rizza, M.G., (in press). Gifted students in an exemplary career and technical education center: A qualitative inquiry. Gifted Child Quarterly.

Gentry, M. & Owen, S.V. (in press). Student perceptions of classroom quality: Instrumentation for assessing secondary student perceptions of appeal, challenge, choice, meaningfulness, and self-efficacy. Mansfield Center, CT: Creative Learning Press. (Instrument).

Gentry, M., Rizza, M.G., Peters, S. & Hu, S. (2005). Professionalism, sense of community, and reason to learn: Lessons from an Exemplary Career and Technical Education Center. Journal of Career and Technical Education Research, 30, 47-85.

Strauss, A. L. & Corbin, J. (1990). Basics of qualitative research: Grounded theory procedures and techniques. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications.

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Questions