WARNING! This website is no longer actively maintained. It is an archive of 2 years work by Doug Belshaw who now blogs at dougbelshaw.com...
Before I begin, I don’t consider myself to be an especially ‘highly effective teacher’, nor do I think there’s any such thing as a perfect teacher. In fact, there’s so many variables to becoming even a ‘good’ teacher that the job of initial teacher trainer must be a very difficult one. What follows, however, are my musings on what I believe every highly effective teacher must wrestle with at some time or other.
1. Consistency
This is a big one, which is why I’ve put it first. To know where they are with you and their studies, students must know the framework. That means you have to be consistent. Certain things mean detentions, this is the way we set things out, these are the things I will allow you to do, etc. Some of this is set by school policies which you merely enforce, some varies teacher to teacher. Teachers new to the profession or to a job in a new school need to sit down and think about the framework within which their students will work. It’s very important to see things from the students point of view.
2. Treat students as individuals
I don’t know whose great idea it was for class sizes of around 30 to be the norm in western education, but it doesn’t exactly encourage close teacher-student relationships. This is a great shame as it’s only with effective relationships that true learning takes place. Try to find out as much as possible about your students. Knowing what they like and dislike, motivates them and demotivates them helps you use metaphor and simile in your teaching - always powerful tools. It also helps them take you more seriously as someone who is to be respected not just for your position of authority… 
3. Make your physical classroom environment as learning-oriented as possible
Having your tables/desks in rows works in some subjects; in many it doesn’t. To me, it smacks of the ‘teacher at the front who knows everything mentality’. Try having your desks in islands to encourage peer learning and experiment with where you put your teacher’s desk. Do you really need a ‘front’ to your classroom? Are the things on your walls interesting and colourful? Is your classroom well-lit? Are resources easy to get at? All these things matter to students.
4. Assess often, but for a purpose
Students like to know how they’re doing, especially on exam-related courses. Try doing some Assessment for Learning-related activities so that the testing contributes towards learning rather than just being numbers on a page. Use different kinds of assessments - creative tasks mixed up with essays and ICT-based activities. Variety is the spice of life! 
5. Get feedback on your ‘performances’
Performance management classroom observations only tell us so much about the way we teach. A far better barometer is to either see or hear yourself teach (via video camera or audio recorder). Another way would be to get some student feedback, although with the latter they tend to be far too polite! The advantage of video is that you can notice not only the effect your voice has on students but your body language as well. Remember, around 60% of communication is non-verbal, around 20% is tone of voice, and only 10% is what is said. That’s probably why you can remember a lot of how your teachers from school looked and sounded when they taught, but not what they actually said…
6. Connect with other teachers for informal professional development and sharing
I remember one person a couple of years ago remarking to me that teaching in the 21st century is less like McGyver and more like the A-Team. In other words, it’s about operating as a team even though at any given time you may be working as an individual. The fact that you’re reading this means that you’ve put at least one step inside the edublogosphere - a worldwide informal network of educators. Get involved, don’t just be a wallflower! A great place to start, even after the fact, is the annual K12 Online Conference.
7. Appeal to every facet of the learner
Although I think that Howard Gardner’s theory of Multiple Intelligences has some flaws, it’s still a very useful guide for educators as to how to hit every base with their students. Using (targetted, relevant) music for ‘accelerated learning’, role-play, word-play, group work, and so on is really just good teaching. But it’s good to be reminded of that every so often. 
What do you think are the habits of highly effective teachers?
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Mr. Belshaw,
I agree with the fact that teacher-student relationships are important. From past experience, the closer I was with the teacher the more I learned, the more I tried, and the more I didn’t want the teacher to be disappointed in me. Most of these close relationships took place in smaller classes but I do remember one class of over 80 students where I felt like I knew the teacher. He accomplished this closeness through his personal stories throughout the year. However, he never gave out family member names or shared information about them that they would not appreciate. The stories were funny, something everyone can relate to, and they illustrated the material covered in class. I thought it was an effective way to establish a teacher-student relationship in an oversized classroom.
Jessica
These are 7 very useful habits that will serve any teacher, especially someone new to a school or profession, well. I agree with your point on knowing your students, the whole idea that we need to focus on their needs first and then we can get around to the learning. I agree about the 30 in a class. Having had that a few times with middle years students, it was enough just to survive the body odor never mind the rest of the things going on! I would like to add to the 7th in that we not only need to know of these but we need to make sure our planning, teaching strategies and assessment are all aligned with this knowledge. Great post!
Perhaps inherent in your #7, but I reckon it’s worth a special mention that the effective teacher has a sense of fun.
I also think think it would be worth adding (or expanding from your #3) that the effective teacher is also an insatiable learner. Related to this is that the teacher facilitates opportunities for collaborative learning and does not exclude him/herself from the collaboration.
I can’t remember where I heard the (possibly apocryphal) anecdote about a pupil asking a teacher during a lesson if he were the best teacher in the school, to which the teacher replied, “I’m not even the best teacher in this room.” Yes, it’s cheesy, but it’s worth bearing in mind.
Hi Mr. Belshaw,
What I was drawn to the most was your belief in consistency. I agree with you fully on this. A teacher cannot except to be effective to any degree if he/she is not capable of remaining consistent in the classroom. This does not only involve the structure of the actual class time in terms of daily activities and expectations, but also the teacher’s ability to remain steady when dealing with discipline. I recently observed a 9th grade English class. While the teacher was very charismatic and had a lot of energy, she was not very consistent. Out of the entire fifty minute period, I timed a mere ten minutes that was actually devoted to teaching English. Throughout the period, the entire class was very rowdy and disrespectful (not only to the teacher, but also to fellow classmates). The teacher finally stepped up and began to track the amount of time it took the entire class to settle down. How ever long it took was the time the class had to stay after the bell. I thought this was a great idea and it appeared to work. However, when the bell rang, she let the class go on time. I was surprised and wondered how many more times she’d be able to use that strategy to calm her class if they knew she wouldn’t follow through with her threats. It is here that I realized the issue of consistency (or lack there of). Had this teacher remained consistent in her discipline, I honestly believe that the ten minutes spent teaching the subject would increase dramatically (over time) due to the fact that the kids would be more respectful and attentive. As a future educator, I will have to keep in mind the importance of consistency in my classroom for the sake of my students as well as myself.
-Caitlin Colins
@Jessica & Kelly: It can be done, but it depends very much on context. In an average situation, 30 children in a classroom is crazy, unless there’s more than one teacher of course! I have around 15 for one of my lower Geography sets and it’s so much better…
@Karyn: Cheesy Karyn, very cheesy.
I really should have put in that to be a good teacher one must be a good learner - but that too would have been somewhat cheesy (true, nevertheless…)
Caitlin: I’m glad you’ve learned that lesson early - it will stand you in very good stead.
Thanks for this post Doug! Really useful to hear the advice from someone with your experience and outlook.
I start teaching my first classes after half term and I am really taking to heart what you say on consistency and building relationships.
The necessity for an effective teacher to be an insatiable learner is only cheesy from where we sit, because it is so obvious to us. Sadly, it isn’t as obvious to everyone else!