Build authority!

It is the key to raising student engagement

To ensure students acquire twenty-first century skills and the subject knowledge and procedural skills to become effective adults, teachers need to be effective teachers of their subject areas and have appropriate levels of ‘teacherly authority’.

Schools habitually focus on developing curriculum and effective pedagogies so helping staff further acquire and grow their ‘teacherly authority’ comes down to the senior leaders of the school modelling this. Obviously, these leaders would model that being a teacher means being fully engaged and continually learning new skills. Being passionate and committed to one’s profession is a given. Modelling to teachers and other leaders would also include displaying high degrees of self-management, the ability to consider and choose a constructive response when challenged – indeed to face challenges with equanimity - and the ability to listen carefully to others so that they, in turn, feel listened to, feel heard and valued.

I have pointed out in Why We Teach, there are only a small number (about 5%) of teachers who can cause students to present consistently their best selves and willingly do their best work, and that such teachers have a life-long impact on their students.

I quote in the book “I have often asked principals: “What would your school be like if, rather than having five percent of Enlightened teachers, you had 25 per cent?” The answer has always been the same: it would transform their school for the better.”

There is now a pathway to get there.

I am presenting a webinar on Thursday 3rd March at 12 pm AEDT (click here to register) which will consider why the collection and use of student feedback is such an important tool for managing engagement.

In anticipation of this event if you would like a complimentary copy of my book Student Feedback, please email me with your postal address.

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.

• To purchase a copy of Red Brain Blue Brain, Student Feedback or Why We Teach go here