ABSTRACT
It is easy to bewail the negative impact politicians, the world over can have on their education system. Confident subject knowledge frees up a teacher to concentrate upon how the students are learning, and this has a lot of value. Crucially, however, it isn't the singular factor in making a confident teacher. It is not enough. Indeed, once you reach a certain degree of subject knowledge expertise, beyond what the students are required to know, the returns in the classroom begin to diminish. Clearly, confident teaching requires such subject expertise. The 'Pareto Principle', otherwise known as 'the law of the valuable few', is simple. It proffers that roughly 80 per cent of an effect comes from 20 per cent of the causes. By surveying the best evidence, developed over decades by researchers and teachers alike, they can be more confident that, by careful application, they can make significant improvements to their teaching practice.
