Teacher effectiveness hampered by lack of incentives and bad behavior in the classroom (17/06/2009)
Three out of four teachers feel that they lack incentives to improve the quality of their teaching, while bad behavior by students in the classroom disrupts lessons in three schools out of five, according to a new Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) report prepared with the support of the European Commission.
The report is based on the new Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) and provides, for the first time, internationally comparable data on conditions affecting teachers in schools based on survey findings in 23 participating countries (Australia, Austria, Belgium (Flemish Community), Brazil, Bulgaria, Denmark, Estonia, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Korea, Lithuania, Malaysia, Malta, Mexico, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain and Turkey).
The report «Creating effective teaching and learning environments» reveals the following:
- in Australia, Belgium (Flanders), Denmark, Ireland and Norway, more than 90% of teachers say they don't expect any reward for improving the quality of their teaching;
- teachers are less pessimistic in Bulgaria and Poland, but still almost half of them see no incentive to improve;
- in Estonia, Italy, the Slovak Republic and Spain, more than 70% of teachers work in schools where it was felt that classroom disturbances hinder the teaching process «to some extent» or «a lot».
- on average, 38% of teachers surveyed worked in schools which suffered from a shortage of qualified staff. In Poland, the problem affected only 12% of schools. But in Turkey, 78% of schools were suffering from such shortages;
- on average, teachers spend 13% of classroom time maintaining order. In Bulgaria, Estonia, Lithuania and Poland, less than 10% of classroom time is lost in this way.
- aside from classroom disturbances, other factors hindering instruction included student absenteeism (46%), students turning up late for class (39%), profanity and swearing (37%), and intimidation or verbal abuse of other students (35%).
- along with the lack of incentives for improvement, teachers in some countries do not even undergo any systematic appraisal or receive any feedback on their work. This is the case for more than 25% of teachers in Ireland and Portugal, 45% in Spain and 55% in Italy.