Another prominent feature in all the observations is her spirit of encouragement, be it praises for answering, commendations for getting good marks, or passing simple words of encouragement. She does not seem to have much negativism in her class. One student says she always “...says nice thing to us”. She has an inbuilt quality that runs when she is in her class and likely when she is outside of her class. During the interview, she explained the power of encouragement. Her encouragements make the students feel valued and also make them feel that they belong to the class. She is a great motivator as proven by Student B, who would continue to be the best even as she moved beyond this teacher; “Yes, because she tells us we must be the best even though she’s not there. Yes, be together as the best.”
Instead of penalising her homework dodger, she would praise him when the student finally handed in his homework to her. And when the same student did not pass up his work during the fifth observation, she attended to him one-on-one and helped him finish the work immediately after class. There was no shouting or yelling, nor would she send the student out of the class. She was in control. She embodied the Chinese saying “give the boy ‘face’ so as not to embarrass him.”
Though the competitive spirit was invoked during her lessons as well as in the distribution of games, she used competitiveness as points for rewards. Her rewards were abundant and generous. Pizzas, squash racquets, ice-creams, and sweets, were some of the prizes mentioned; “She gives us lots of presents; sweets, Pizza Hut, Dominoes pizza. She also uses her own money to buy stuff for the class. She also gives us things she doesn’t want.”
Points were also given for doing work on time, being honest, unusual answers and also group work rewards. Points were also used as her method of discipline. “When she wants to teach us from our wrong doing, she just minus marks, millions of marks. The most is grounding.” (Grounding is taking away the privilege of play time during break and lunch time.)
Her effective teacher characters were also noted when she does immediate remedial, gives immediate feedback, and does correction during almost every lesson. She always gives extra information on her subject matter. It is noted that in awarding points she makes use of her students’ opinions, demonstrating the skill of allowing student autonomy.
Below we will further discuss other characteristics and behaviour of this teacher that have not been or are seldom discussed in the literature on effective teachers.
First, she demonstrated her capability in using unplanned situations or recognizing helpful events as part of the lesson to remind the students about values. As Hattie (2003) mentioned, expert teachers are able to deal with the multidimensionality of the classroom. In the classroom, events cannot be predicted. It fascinates us that this teacher knows when to make use of those events and turn those moments into a teaching point. Recognizing helpful events requires a conscious effort to make those situations worthwhile. We realized that it is a unique ability that deserves deeper probing to understand how she manages to be conscious of such events while simultaneously managing the lessons as well.
From the interviews with her, her students and colleagues, we argued that the special ability in recognising helpful events is due to the fact that she loves teaching; she loves the children, the school and, most of all, she loves her profession as a teacher. To love one’s profession as a pre-requisite to being effective is seldom discussed in the literature. This finding has in fact given insight into what defines ‘teacher’s love for teaching.’ What type of behaviour or characteristics denote a ‘loving thy profession? Thus, we would strongly suggest that future research is needed to look deeper into this aspect. We believe that ‘loving thy profession’ characteristics could be an important predictor of an effective teacher. Such an endeavour could further determine whether ‘love for teaching’ is inert, nurtured or taught. It could also help policy makers and school administrators in deciding whether to make it into an important criterion for future teacher selection, thus solving the issue on the importance of loving your profession versus going into the profession because of economic circumstances.
Second would be her helpfulness, which went beyond the classroom hours. This was mentioned by the first interviewee, that she spot checks her class on cleanliness.
“She helps us a lot. She helps us do our duty, like sometimes she sweeps the floor, and arranges the books during break and lunch time. She will do that together with us after class. Sometimes she also spot checks after school. She also checks the tables, the floor (clean or not clean), and arranges the tables.”
The teacher explains that in doing so, she was inculcating team spirit among her students and that she is also a part of the team. Indirectly, her behaviour promotes togetherness, which strengthens kinship among the students.
Third is her effort in enhancing the physical appearance of the class. The windows were lined with pastel coloured butterflies so the students would not be distracted by the view outside. One of the door mirrors (small, rectangular shape) was covered with a semi large sheet of blue colour, so giving the room a calm feeling and also cutting down on the sunlight. There were two large green leafy plants in the front of the classroom. The trophy was kept at the far left end with a vase of flowers beside it. The notice boards were decorated with bright colours behind them, and the boards were divided for subjects and announcements. The boys and girls group marks were posted there for everyone to see. We noticed that everything in the classroom was decorated with the purpose of making the classroom bright yet comfortable and pleasant.
Fourth is her endless practice of the art of ‘scaffolding.’ Scaffolding means the poles and planks used to build scaffolds for construction work so that the workers can do the necessary labour. In this context, scaffolds means ‘to provide support.’ (McNeil, 2012). We acknowledged this teacher’s frequent use of her skills and the art of scaffolding in her lessons and realized its impact on her students. She gives clues when the child gets stuck in providing answers and provides more clues until s/he gets the answer. She did it so tactlessly, and this made the students feel it was all their own doing.
The fifth notable point in her teaching was the way she weaves values into her teaching. She indirectly teaches leadership qualities, encourages thinking skills, and incorporates values and school rules which she interweaves into her lessons. She delicately made suggestions to the students, giving examples, and surprisingly the students were able to pick up her thoughts.