Love this concept. Teaching is such a complex thing. It's all about context, and there is no one right way. Even "wrong ways" often have a lot good about them.
I've been in a strange position this year. I come from teaching in private schools, where I was a teacher and later a program coordinator. This year, I am at a public school, working as a coach. One difference between public and private I've noticed is that the public schools use rubrics for teacher performance. The term "look for" was not in my vocabulary until recently. In the past, I might have walked into a classroom trying to understand how the teacher goes about creating a safe environment, or how students are supported when they struggle, etc etc. But this year, I might walk in looking for the number of times teachers create intentional opportunities for peer conversation with full sentences. Much more specific.
This specificity gives me a robust collection of teacher moves that I can suggest. I have rubrics that lay out the various aspects of education, and suggest best practices in each. In a way, teaching is more scientific, more structured. And frankly, I see more when I walk into the room because I have more understanding about what I might be looking for.
But I keep wondering about what is lost. I think the push towards rubrics and accountability have broken teaching into tiny chunks, but the real understanding lies in the larger picture, with all the complexity and contradictions. Thanks, Dylan, for finding a way to talk about that.
As for the Systems Thinking you bring up at the end of your post -- so important and interesting! I started to put together some Causal Loop Diagrams (https://thesystemsthinker.com/fine-tuning-your-causal-loop-diagrams-part-i/) at work a few months ago. I was not focused on teaching, though. I was thinking about how our school initiatives for Standards Based Grading and Competency Based Learning were affecting the culture of the school. And I can't share it right now, because it's at my desk, and we are on vacation this week.
Let me see if I can come up with any ideas to share ...
I've had a similar experience working at both private and public schools. I'm not opposed to look-fors, though I agree they can narrow what we see as good teaching and become reductive. What I've observed is those look-fors being chosen haphazardly, not based on any real understanding of the school's strengths and weaknesses. That, and the look-fors being changed over and over again so that teachers become jaded.
Thanks for sharing the instructional triangle! I think a key to all this that you get across is how lots of parts of teaching lead to feedback loops. A affects B, which affects A, and so on. That's an important example of one way teaching is complex.
I love this Quincunx metaphor for teaching and student learning!! (And I love this post.)
I've always believed, strongly, that the #1 MOST influential and important peg is high-quality instructional materials (HQIM) - the daily notes, examples, practice, projects, homework, tests the teacher uses.
In 2013, I read Beverlee Jobrak's "Tyranny of the Textbook", where she critiques American curriculum materials and the Ed publishing industry, and what she wrote resonated with me SO STRONGLY that I hand typed 15 pages of quotes and excerpts.
"In a meta-analysis conducted by Robert Marzano of the factors that have the most impact on
student achievement, a guaranteed and viable curriculum was number one; Marzano states 'I want to be as emphatic as possible: the impact of the actual, taught curriculum on school quality, on student learning, is indescribably important.' Robert Marzano did a meta-analysis of in-school factors that affect student achievement. Coming in the top - first place - is what gets taught, what he calls the "guaranteed curriculum." that is, if teachers can lay out a sound - a viable - set of standards and can then guarantee (more or less) that these standards actually get taught [using High-Quality Instructional Materials], we can raise levels of student achievement immensely."(p.166, Marzano 2003)
My #2 most influential peg will always be the Teacher's Content Knowledge (which of course influences their Pedagogical Content Knowledge as well.)
Marzano explains more about HQIM, and he mentions several other important pegs, that no doubt are high up on the quincunx also.
"Teacher expertise, however, is centered on content knowledge, classroom management, lesson planning, teaching methods, and understanding how children learn. Not curriculum development. 'Quality curriculum is development is a very different art form. Standards, even rigorous, high-quality standards, are not a curriculum. Quality curriculum presents thorough and accurate content that has been carefully reviewed. Quality curriculum translates standards into lesson objectives, organizes the lessons into a logical sequence that supports how students learn, and provides lesson plans, activities, and materials with concept introduction, development, practice, and assessment using effective practices." (169)
Anyway, check out the book if you're passionate about curriculum and instructional materials.
And hmmm I'll go with the teacher have a "Warm-Demanding" demeanor as my #3 peg. This would encompass and assume this teacher can build quality relationships to motivate and encourage students, while also giving that consistent challenge, structure, accountability, and push forward. As we know, this peg has a such a strong influence on classroom culture and student relationships.
Instructional materials feels tricky for me. On one hand, I've seen huge variation in how any given curriculum is used. You might hear from a school leader all the teachers teach a certain way using common curriculum, then see totally different things happening across classrooms.
On the other hand, curriculum is one of the few reliable levers that can have an influence across a school. Lots of PD is ignored, but when the materials change it has to affect teaching in some way. And done well it can create a large shift.
The other issue is that (in the US) "HQIM" has grown to mean any curriculum that gets green on EdReports, which includes lots of garbage.
I do think curriculum matters, but curriculum matters most with strong leadership and a strong vision around teaching. In too many places that is absent.
Gah - the thing that really grinds my bones is when the consultants who are supposed to teach us how to "teach better" just... lectures for the whole time (except for the obligatory "fun" icebreaker at the beginning).
Speaking of systems, I think that some of the factors that are important and interrelated - but can't explain or solve everything on their own - would be:
- the CONTENT (i.e. what we're trying to/hoping to teach the students by the end of the year)
- prior knowledge
- student confidence
- forming connections with the student, family
- family support/environment
- classroom management (including routines)
I also made the list above from thinking back at all of the PDs that I've been to and what they focused on as the "silver bullet" for fixing our classrooms 🤣
This is a good perspective from the other side…. https://www.ascd.org/el/articles/five-myths-about-teacher-professional-learning
I hadn't seen that before. Good reminder that not all consultants are terrible.
Love this concept. Teaching is such a complex thing. It's all about context, and there is no one right way. Even "wrong ways" often have a lot good about them.
I've been in a strange position this year. I come from teaching in private schools, where I was a teacher and later a program coordinator. This year, I am at a public school, working as a coach. One difference between public and private I've noticed is that the public schools use rubrics for teacher performance. The term "look for" was not in my vocabulary until recently. In the past, I might have walked into a classroom trying to understand how the teacher goes about creating a safe environment, or how students are supported when they struggle, etc etc. But this year, I might walk in looking for the number of times teachers create intentional opportunities for peer conversation with full sentences. Much more specific.
This specificity gives me a robust collection of teacher moves that I can suggest. I have rubrics that lay out the various aspects of education, and suggest best practices in each. In a way, teaching is more scientific, more structured. And frankly, I see more when I walk into the room because I have more understanding about what I might be looking for.
But I keep wondering about what is lost. I think the push towards rubrics and accountability have broken teaching into tiny chunks, but the real understanding lies in the larger picture, with all the complexity and contradictions. Thanks, Dylan, for finding a way to talk about that.
As for the Systems Thinking you bring up at the end of your post -- so important and interesting! I started to put together some Causal Loop Diagrams (https://thesystemsthinker.com/fine-tuning-your-causal-loop-diagrams-part-i/) at work a few months ago. I was not focused on teaching, though. I was thinking about how our school initiatives for Standards Based Grading and Competency Based Learning were affecting the culture of the school. And I can't share it right now, because it's at my desk, and we are on vacation this week.
Let me see if I can come up with any ideas to share ...
-Debbie
https://openset.blog/
Okay, I can't add diagrams in the comments section here. So I put it in a blog post instead. https://openset.blog/2025/04/24/instructional-triangle-one-line-at-a-time/
I've had a similar experience working at both private and public schools. I'm not opposed to look-fors, though I agree they can narrow what we see as good teaching and become reductive. What I've observed is those look-fors being chosen haphazardly, not based on any real understanding of the school's strengths and weaknesses. That, and the look-fors being changed over and over again so that teachers become jaded.
Thanks for sharing the instructional triangle! I think a key to all this that you get across is how lots of parts of teaching lead to feedback loops. A affects B, which affects A, and so on. That's an important example of one way teaching is complex.
I love this Quincunx metaphor for teaching and student learning!! (And I love this post.)
I've always believed, strongly, that the #1 MOST influential and important peg is high-quality instructional materials (HQIM) - the daily notes, examples, practice, projects, homework, tests the teacher uses.
In 2013, I read Beverlee Jobrak's "Tyranny of the Textbook", where she critiques American curriculum materials and the Ed publishing industry, and what she wrote resonated with me SO STRONGLY that I hand typed 15 pages of quotes and excerpts.
"In a meta-analysis conducted by Robert Marzano of the factors that have the most impact on
student achievement, a guaranteed and viable curriculum was number one; Marzano states 'I want to be as emphatic as possible: the impact of the actual, taught curriculum on school quality, on student learning, is indescribably important.' Robert Marzano did a meta-analysis of in-school factors that affect student achievement. Coming in the top - first place - is what gets taught, what he calls the "guaranteed curriculum." that is, if teachers can lay out a sound - a viable - set of standards and can then guarantee (more or less) that these standards actually get taught [using High-Quality Instructional Materials], we can raise levels of student achievement immensely."(p.166, Marzano 2003)
My #2 most influential peg will always be the Teacher's Content Knowledge (which of course influences their Pedagogical Content Knowledge as well.)
Marzano explains more about HQIM, and he mentions several other important pegs, that no doubt are high up on the quincunx also.
"Teacher expertise, however, is centered on content knowledge, classroom management, lesson planning, teaching methods, and understanding how children learn. Not curriculum development. 'Quality curriculum is development is a very different art form. Standards, even rigorous, high-quality standards, are not a curriculum. Quality curriculum presents thorough and accurate content that has been carefully reviewed. Quality curriculum translates standards into lesson objectives, organizes the lessons into a logical sequence that supports how students learn, and provides lesson plans, activities, and materials with concept introduction, development, practice, and assessment using effective practices." (169)
Anyway, check out the book if you're passionate about curriculum and instructional materials.
And hmmm I'll go with the teacher have a "Warm-Demanding" demeanor as my #3 peg. This would encompass and assume this teacher can build quality relationships to motivate and encourage students, while also giving that consistent challenge, structure, accountability, and push forward. As we know, this peg has a such a strong influence on classroom culture and student relationships.
Thanks again for sharing, Dylan. Great stuff.
Thanks for the comment!
Instructional materials feels tricky for me. On one hand, I've seen huge variation in how any given curriculum is used. You might hear from a school leader all the teachers teach a certain way using common curriculum, then see totally different things happening across classrooms.
On the other hand, curriculum is one of the few reliable levers that can have an influence across a school. Lots of PD is ignored, but when the materials change it has to affect teaching in some way. And done well it can create a large shift.
The other issue is that (in the US) "HQIM" has grown to mean any curriculum that gets green on EdReports, which includes lots of garbage.
I do think curriculum matters, but curriculum matters most with strong leadership and a strong vision around teaching. In too many places that is absent.
Gah - the thing that really grinds my bones is when the consultants who are supposed to teach us how to "teach better" just... lectures for the whole time (except for the obligatory "fun" icebreaker at the beginning).
Speaking of systems, I think that some of the factors that are important and interrelated - but can't explain or solve everything on their own - would be:
- the CONTENT (i.e. what we're trying to/hoping to teach the students by the end of the year)
- prior knowledge
- student confidence
- forming connections with the student, family
- family support/environment
- classroom management (including routines)
I also made the list above from thinking back at all of the PDs that I've been to and what they focused on as the "silver bullet" for fixing our classrooms 🤣
Agreed about the mindless lectures from consultants. Wild how they can't practice what they preach.
Like the ideas! I think routines are especially important, in a way that can be hard to appreciate if you only see any given classroom once.