by Kristen Weatherby
Senior Analyst, Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS)
Teachers are the focus of media attention in many countries these days. Governments want to see increases in the achievement levels of their students, so naturally the discussion turns to the quality of the teaching and learning in schools and with that, the effectiveness of teachers.What does all of this focused attention–and the accompanying reforms to teacher qualifications, evaluations, and often their pay structure–mean for today’s teachers and for the future of the teaching profession? Last Thursday and Friday, I attended a conference at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom to discuss those questions and others. The conference was organised by Leadership for Learning in the Faculty of Education at Cambridge, together with Education International (the global federation of teacher organisations, the OECD, and the Open Society Foundations. It included representatives from government, academia, unions and schools from 28 countries.
- Opportunities and threats to the teaching profession, which included coming up with a shared definition of teaching as a profession;
- Getting a measure of teaching, which included a discussion of what international policy says about teacher evaluation;
- And looking toward a professional future for teachers.
For more on the OECD Teaching and Learning International Survey: www.oecd.org/edu/talis
Creating Effective Teaching and Learning Environments: First results from TALIS
Follow TALIS and Kristen Weatherby @Kristen_Talis
Photo credit: ©Royalty-free/ Hemera/Thinkstock
