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A taxonomy to point us in the right direction

In my latest book Why We Teach, I introduce the idea of a teacher taxonomy, based on which student innate drives are being fully supported.  To meet current student and societal needs all three drives need to be properly supported.

The largest group (~60%) are Competent Teachers in the dual sense of focusing on supporting students’ innate drive for competence and of meeting system requirements i.e. they competently do their jobs.

Motivated Teachers support both innate drives for competence and for autonomy, empowering students to think and act more for themselves, this group is about ~35% of all teachers, by my estimation.

Enlightened Teachers support all three innate drives, the final one being the drive towards meaning and the shifts in consciousness that afford handling greater complexity.  They represent about ~5% of all teachers and these are the ones we remember our whole lives.

Teacher Taxonomy

A clear way forward to better meet student and societal needs is to help Competent Teachers move to the Motivated level and then all Motivated Teachers to the Enlightened level.  Each step involves a change in behaviour that can only occur through the individual teacher working on themselves, although collegial support helps a lot.  About 40% of staff have made the change to Motivated already so become a powerful resource in moving all staff.  This is why I recommend that my program Why We Teach: Step Back to Empower (9 weeks to build regular practice) is first completed by teachers already at the Motivated level and then by all staff with Motivated Teachers taking a leading role.

These are tangible, practical steps to raise student learning and outcomes.

My new book Why we Teach explains how we can move from Competent to Motivated to Enlightened.  You can download a pdf version of the book here.

John Corrigan is an expert in helping individuals to bring their whole of mind to their daily life and increase their effectiveness and the effectiveness of those around them. This expertise scales from the individual to the team to the organisation. At the core of this work is the practice of encounter.  Earlier blogs can be found here.

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