Today Femi and Matt discuss teacher effectiveness vs years of service and some issues with the word ‘experience’ which is generally used as a proxy for competence. As is increasingly the case the discussion is pertinent to all subjects and is not by any means maths-specific. There’s a lot of thinking out loud here and, unusually(!), the boys actually managed to land some insight and conclusions that both found helpful.

The conversation covers:

• The will-skill matrix

• Possible reasons why some people move sideways whereas others move up

• Role models, and the power of colleagues to either inspire, or depress

• The ability to receive and act on critical feedback,

• Self-reflection and taking responsibility for continuing development

• Insecurity and the tying self-worth to the role of teacher

• The possibility of having grades of teacher based on competence

• The importance of success, praise, encouragement and recognition

• Scaffolding support for less skillful teachers

• Natural ability

• Sporting backgrounds

• Direct instruction and the support of a mentor, and the idea that our actions should be designed to move people to the right on the will-skill matrix (that is the increasing will dimension), so that they can drive their own movement up the increasing skill dimension .