Making the connections!

Student feedback, student engagement and ‘teacherly authority’

I presented a webinar last Thursday where I made the linkage between student feedback, student engagement and ‘teacherly authority’ (you can replay the webinar here).  The key connection is made through the image below which shows the average student feedback for three different teachers, in the same school, across a range of their classes.  The higher the response, the more engaged are the students.  What I assert in the webinar (and which I will further explore in two following webinars*) is that what determines the range of responses are the relative levels of ‘teacherly authority’ that each of these three teachers brings to their practice.

‘Teacherly authority’ is not positional authority but rather reflects that a teacher has capacities that students, intuitively, know that they need to acquire and therefore choose to pay attention to the teacher and to where the teacher is directing their attention. These capacities go well beyond subject knowledge and really speak to the core of twenty-first century skills.

For a long time, I have argued that as well as curriculum and pedagogy there is a third element to teacher professional practice which I would often characterise as “relationships”.  ‘Teacherly authority’ is a very particular and very valuable type of relationship that can exist between a teacher and their students leading to high levels of engagement, learning and outcomes (and as I will show in the next webinars, teacher wellbeing, as well).

I am excited!

The two follow-on webinars are as follows (both Thursdays and at 12 pm AEDT):

• Student Engagement - what is 'Teacherly Authority' in the modern world? 17th March (register here)

• Teacherly Authority - how do we strengthen and build it? 31st March (register 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.

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