The Science and the Art of Teacher Effectiveness: An Examination of Two Research Traditions

Art, Imagination, and Teaching: Researching the High School Classroom

“…That, however, is precisely the case with some influential and long-standing empirical research into "effective teaching." The research in question is known as "processproduct" research, and its main objective is to identify teacher behaviours that bring about improvements in student learning (Westbury, 1988). O'Neill (1988) reviews over 150 primary and secondary sources of teacher effectiveness research to list "the 20 most promising instructional research factors" (p. 164), citing, for example, such things as "teacher organization," "instructional mode," and "teacher clarity."…”

“…Unfortunately, it is of very little use, inasmuch as no consideration is given to the specific demands of teaching art. Westbury (1988) notes, for example, that although teacher education programs emphasizing process-product approaches have successfully increased student achievement in areas requiring rule-following or step-by-step skills (as in arithmetic, vocabulary, grammar, algebra, and science facts), process-product paradigms have been least applicable to such ill-structured content areas as creative writing, problem solving, and the analysis and discussion common in literature and social studies classes. Teacher effectiveness training has limited value in teaching students to evaluate, to criticize, or to give creative or unique responses.…”