Becoming a Master Teacher: Five Phases of Teaching

By Deborah Kline, Ed.S.

Education is full of assessment. It is the means by which we measure progress. We are all familiar with the traditional methods of assessment – paper-pencil tests, portfolios, and even those wonderful standardized tests.

However, we often neglect assessing the quality of the learning our students are experiencing. Simply because qualitative measurement is somewhat of an abstract, fluid idea.

But what would it look like if we included qualitative assessment in our instructional practices as well?

Let’s First Look at the Phases of Teaching

Phase 1: The Content Distributor. This is the newer teacher. He or she knows her content well. The teacher remembers how he/she connected with and learned the content his/herself in the past and teaches it how he/she learned it. This teacher distributes the information then assesses the information strictly based on the teacher’s understanding of the topic… and the teacher’s finite understanding of diverse learning processes. Many teachers stay in this phase for the duration of their career. This will work for some students, but they miss connecting with those who do not learn the way the teacher learns.

For home educators, this is simply going through the curriculum exactly as it is dictated by the authors. Some kids do fine with this approach – some flounder because the content has no personal relevance.

Phase 2: The Investigator. The “distributer teacher” realizes not all students are regurgitating and mastering the concepts the same way he/she did back in school. They are not all scoring As and Bs on quizzes and exams. This teacher stops to investigate why this is happening. Phase 2 teachers become a “student of students” or the “investigator teacher.” Questioning “why” the learning is not happening helps the teacher understand the students and builds empathy, but it is only when the teacher moves into phase 3 that he or she puts the investigative research into action.

Phase 3: The Explorer. Exploring teachers take the investigation a step further and explore ways of connecting the learner with the content in more meaningful ways. This teacher is willing to adapt his or her teaching style, try new methods, switch curriculums even if something is not working. We get on Teachers Pay Teachers for supplemental material and follow other teachers to glean ideas to try. These teachers become “students of students” and “students of learning.”

Phase 4: The Involver. In Phase 4, teachers recognize learning isn’t just a teacher directed activity, true learning must involve the student in the process. We realize learning isn’t just about the student mastery the content material, it’s about the soft life and study skills the student is developing.

These teachers include the student in the self-learning process, helping them develop their own metacognitive strategies: note-taking, organizing materials and time, summarizing, studying, researching, creating learning routines. It can take more time at first because it is not scripted in a curriculum; however, once the student learns the process, he/she engages in self-learning more regularly.

This is the level of teaching that scaffolds and trusts the students to learn the material on their own – maybe not every child is there yet, but the “involver teacher” teaches the skills for him/her to get there… and some kids, especially our neurodivergent friends, definitely need more guidance and extrinsic motivation at first.

Phase 5: The Inspirer. This is the teacher who looks beyond the content, beyond the traditional assessments, even beyond the study/learning skills… and connects with the soul of the student. Sounds deep, but it’s not as illusive as it sounds.

These are the teachers who recognize the affect of learning is as important as the effect.

How is WHAT the student is learning connected with WHO the student is becoming?

This is the teacher who shows a student athlete how throwing a ball or jumping a hurdle are a combination of parabolas, force, and velocity. It’s the teacher connecting writing and grammar with creating engaging social media content. It’s showing a student that even if they never use algebra beyond high school, the skill of grit and working through difficult problems will. Every skill leads students towards the people they become. This is the teacher who finds what inspires the individual and connects the content with his/her heart.

Let’s Talk About Effect vs. Affect

These are two very confusing words for many. Even as a doctoral student, I struggled to remember which word do I use in which connotation.

In education research, we use the term “affective assessment” to evaluation the impact of learning on the students’ emotional well-being.

Our school system, however, focuses heavily on the effect – most of which can be measured quantitatively. I.e. We taught this lesson and the effect was 80% of students passed the test.

Quantitative assessments can be diagnostic, but they are not holistic and rarely prescriptive. The qualitative affect are just as important to consider, if not more.

How does the material change how the student feels about his or her self… and the world in which we live? Does the student feel introspective, inspired, and even empowered to take action?

Teach with that goal in mind… not just getting through the content… and you’ll find you will become a master teacher.