A funny thing happened....

Why did the students prefer their own teacher over a relief teacher?

Why would they have preferred to work for a whole period than get a free?

What did the students get from this teacher that made the hard work so worthwhile?

The Nature of Caring Teachers

and the factors that impact on their caring

High educational

care

High personal

care

Low educational

care

Low personal

care

Do category A teachers exist? Are you one? Do you need to be one? What makes the caring teacher ‘tick’? How do these teachers sustain what they do?

The first study Three secondary schools All teaching staff surveyed N = 178 Demographic questions A few open-ended questions Completed two measures:

SCTI – student-content teaching inventory (Spier, 1974)

Teacher Efficacy scale (Tschannen-Moran & Woolfolk Hoy, 2001)

Questions in the study How would you define a caring teacher?

Definitions of caring teachers showed that: 88 teachers believed caring teachers

showed educational care 121 teachers believed caring teachers

showed personal care

The Student-Content Teaching Inventory

(S-CTI)

GenderGender n Mean

StudentOrientation

Female 114 13.39

Male 63 12.95

Content Orientation

Female 114 11.42

Male 63 9.94

Subject Area There were 176 teachers who provided their main

teaching area and completed the S-CTI Teaching areas were grouped under the following

headings:

Humanities 76Maths & Science 41Creative Arts 16Technical and Practical Studies 24PDHPE 13Other 6

Subject AreaStudent Orientation Mean

Humanities 12.57Maths & Science 13.20Creative Arts 14.00Technical and Practical Studies 14.17PDHPE 12.85Other 14.20

Subject AreaContent Orientation Mean

Humanities 11.19Maths & Science 10.85Creative Arts 11.56Technical and Practical Studies 10.17PDHPE 10.31Other 10.20

Years of Teaching Experience There were 177 teachers who provided their years

of teaching experience and completed the S-CTI Years of teaching were grouped under the following

headings:0 – 3 years 314 – 7 years 488 – 15 years 3816 – 23 years 2724 – 30 years 2930+ years 4

Years of Teaching ExperienceStudent Orientation Mean

0 – 3 years 13.224 – 7 years 12.948 – 15 years 13.4516 – 23 years 13.1124 – 30 years 13.2130+ years 13.00

Years of Teaching ExperienceContent Orientation Mean

0 – 3 years 11.094 – 7 years 10.718 – 15 years 10.2616 – 23 years 11.0724 – 30 years 9.2530+ years 10.85

Conclusions about content and student orientation

We need to remember that: The S-CTI simply shows an orientation

towards students and content It would appear that:

Men in these three schools are less oriented towards content than the females

Years of experience and the subject one teaches has little bearing on how important one sees the content or the students.

Teacher Efficacy Scale (2001)The final measure used measured teacher efficacy

In particular, with regard to: Instruction

Engagement Management

There were 12 questions and teachers were asked to respond using a Likert scale measure

Results of the Teacher Efficacy Scale No significant differences were found between

teachers on the basis of gender, school, teaching areas or years of teaching experience

As a point of comparison for you the means overall were as follows:

Efficacy Measure MeanTeacher efficacy 7.24Instruction 7.46Engagement 6.76Management 7.48

Studies two to five Peer nominations in study one Observations of caring teachers Interviews with caring teachers Group interviews with students Colleague questionnaires

Key results from study two Painstaking instruction & careful scaffolding Organised High expectations Gave students choice where possible Lots of praise Courteous and polite Patient Encourages participation Comfortable atmosphere in classrooms

Two things stood outWithitness

Looked for where students were struggling or not on task Noticed haircuts and mood changes

Commented on poor wearing of the school uniform

Relationships Took time to work with individuals

Recalled previous events, issues or personal things to draw on as a way of involving students

Tactile with students Looked for non-contributors to encourage them to take part

Key results from interviews

Interviews were conducted with the ten caring teachers to discover:

1. How they demonstrated care to their students2. What they considered to be the personal factors

that contributed to their caring3. What factors supported and/or hindered their

caring

MindsetsPersonal mindsets Do all you can /try to

solve the problem Be fair Good outcomes often

require hard work and/or time

People can change for the better

Everyone matters

Teacher mindsets Make a difference Work with the whole

student Have boundaries Enjoy teaching and like

kids Be concerned for both

content delivery and student well-being but student well-being is more important

At the root of the personal mindsets is optimism Do all you can /try to solve

the problem Be fair

Good outcomes often require hard work and/or time

People can change for the better

Everyone matters

Problems can be solved

Being fair will level the playing field

You will reap benefits in the long term

Therefore it is worth putting in the effort

It doesn’t matter who you help, if you can help, do it

Their caring behaviours were characterised by:

Relational behavioursCommitment

Recognition of own limitationsEducational care

CompassionFlexibility

PersistenceEmpathy

Attentiveness

What sort of teacher are you? Do you care for students educationally and

personally? Where do you view relationship with the

students in your teacher role? How do you actively build relationships? How ‘withit’ are you? What do you remember about students? How will you balance care and control?