What is effective teaching?
The expansion of education in Zambia has offered an opportunity to consider what effective teaching looks like. , In 2017, only 2 per cent and 5 per cent of 15-year-olds in Zambia reached proficiency levels in mathematics and reading respectively.(1) Furthermore, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, primary school enrollment rates had stagnated since 2014, and had not kept pace with Zambia’s population growth.(2) Although the Zambian government has made quality…, In response to rising enrollment rates, the Zambian government embarked on the largest teacher recruitment initiative in the country’s history, employing nearly 35,000 new teachers in efforts to combat staffing shortages and reduce high pupil-teacher ratios.(4), Education officials in Zambia face an increasing need to consider how best to prepare new teachers and take on an unprecedented influx of both students and educators. Since 2021, Zambia’s Ministry of Education (MOE) has partnered with UNICEF’s Data Must Speak research team to identify positive deviant (PD) primary schools (those with top…, Evidence shows that highly effective schools in Zambia practice more teacher-directed instruction., Over 300 classroom observations were conducted to understand the pedagogical differences between classroom practices in PD and comparison schools. Preliminary evidence found that classes in PD schools are statistically significantly more teacher-directed than other schools. These classes tend to begin with teacher-directed instruction, followed…, The effectiveness of teacher-directed instruction has been evidenced elsewhere. , A balance of pedagogies in which teacher-directed instruction is the main (but not sole) mode of instruction has been found to positively correlate with learning outcomes in mathematics and science in 2012 and 2015, respectively, on the international PISA (Program for International Student Assessment). In 2012, PISA consolidated student survey…, What does teacher-directed learning look like? , In Zambia, teachers at PD schools tend to spend more time at the front of the classroom, introducing new academic content or reviewing past material that connect to a subsequent learning activity, such as a hands-on experiment or practice problem. In contrast to traditional lecturing, students are more likely to actively listen in these moments,…, What does this evidence mean for teachers in Zambia, and in other comparable contexts? , For Zambia, the MOE must now consider how to best prepare new teachers, and support current teachers, to effectively lead classroom instruction and know when to turn the focus of the lesson to student practice. With a growing evidence base, a structured pedagogy program could serve as cost-effective option for supporting teachers in Zambia’s…
Innocenti – Global Office of Research and Foresight
