Equipping teachers with an in-depth understanding of pedagogical content is a guarantee of success in primary schools, which are part of the most efficient education systems. This is one of the main conclusions of the report Not So Elementary: Primary School Teacher Quality in Top-Performing Systems recently published by the Center on International Education Benchmarking, a program of the Center on Education and the Economy The study’s lead author, Ben Jensen, finds that the most successful education systems, such as those in Finland, Japan, Shanghai and Hong Kong, use a variety of strategies to ensure that primary school teachers have in-depth knowledge and an acute understanding of how students learn this foundational knowledge — upon which equitable education systems are built. Quality teaching and learning in primary school provides a solid foundation for students and increases their chances of success throughout their schooling.
This work also shows that by focusing on the selection of high quality teachers, subject specialization ,initial training for teachers and in situ professional training systems , the most efficient education systems build successful training systems in order to provide the teaching body with the skills sought.,
Are all powerful vectors for improving student learning.
Selection
The most successful education systems rely on rigorous selection criteria to recruit their teachers so that only the most qualified enter a classroom. Each of the instances studied by the Not So Elementary reporthas set up a verification system, which operates throughout a teacher’s career, at various stages.
Some countries, such as Finland, set the bar high for the admission of future teachers into training institutions, on the threshold of their career. In Japan, a quality check of candidates is carried out during their recruitment, in the form of an employment examination. Only those with the highest marks who have the theoretical knowledge, skills and dispositions necessary to teach in elementary school get a job.
The specialisation
By specialization, we mean that primary school teachers specialize in a subject, during their initial and continuing training. It can also translate into fewer lesson hours: instead of teaching all subjects, teachers in schools have the option of studying and teaching one or more subjects, like in Hong Kong and Shanghai.
In Finland, Japan and the United States, primary school teachers are generalists: they study and teach all subjects. However, unlike their American counterparts, Finnish and Japanese teachers choose at least one major or minor subject, in which they specialize. In Japan, teachers provide professional training in the discipline in which they have specialized.
Initial teacher education
Initial teacher education programs developed within successful systems have three things in common, according to the Not So Elementary report .
Above all, they focus on the content that teachers will teach in primary school. Rather than taking advanced math courses, for example, elementary math teachers develop a fine-grained and in-depth understanding of the math topics they will cover in class
They focus on how students assimilate and understand the content being taught, not general didactic skills.
Finally, teacher training institutions endeavor to make their courses and programs coincide with primary education curricula.
Professional training
In many high-performing countries, new teachers are apprenticed to experienced colleagues in the first year or even the first two years of their career. This type of in-depth learning allows newcomers to learn their trade in a different way, which a traditional university course simply cannot offer. However, the growth and development of new teachers does not stop there. High-performing systems rely on professional development strategies and practices to support teachers throughout their careers.
In Shanghai, professional training is primarily designed to develop the teacher’s expertise in a specific subject, through mentoring, research and lesson preparation groups. In Hong Kong, new teachers are observed in their class and they can also attend lessons given by other experienced teachers in their specialty, with the aim of improving their skills even more in front of their students. They then take part in brainstorming workshops to put into perspective what they have learned from their colleagues.
A systemic approach
If successful education systems succeed in promoting quality primary education, it is because they have a systemic approach to training.
In Finland, Hong Kong, Japan and Shanghai, various components of the system stimulate and sustain the need to specialize in subject matter and to understand how children learn. The Not So Elementary report describes how each of the cogs fits into a system (selection, initial training, curriculum, school organization and teacher development) and works optimally to support teachers and students who are entrusted to them.
In addition to this report and the strategic dossier that accompanies it, the researchers have brought together authentic tools used by education systems, to make them available to policy makers and practitioners concerned with adapting proven methods to their context and culture. .