ABSTRACT
It considers the importance of effective teaching and the ways in which school leaders can improve their performance.
INTRODUCTION
Let’s start this chapter by trying to recognise the broad differences between an effective and an ineffective teacher. This is important, because managing and controlling what happens in individual classrooms is vital to the success of the whole school. Teachers often view themselves and their skills in a negative light and it is a commonly held view that the skills that are necessary to teach well are natural and vocational gifts that you either do or do not possess. While this may be true of a small minority, it can be damaging to those teachers who are experiencing crises of confidence and are laying the blame on their own inadequacies rather than on the lack of particular skills, many of which can be learnt. All teachers have a fund of skills, expertise and knowledge, and developing these talents and thinking about which of them work best will not only help improve the skills, but will also develop new ones in a focused way.
