Abstract:

Education is one of the top priority policy areas of governments around the world and it is often viewed as an essential element in global economic competition. Teaching is a very demanding and complex activity and teaching quality is one of the most important factors that determine the student learning and development.

The teacher's qualities and the use that he makes of various techniques of teaching can have a profound effect on student learning and achievement, and some teachers are clearly more effective than others in promoting desirable educational outcomes. The potential that a highly effective teacher has to significantly upgrade the performance of their students makes it a priority that researchers and policymakers truly understand the factors that contribute to a teacher’s effectiveness. With the ultimate goal of improving education, identifying the attributes contributing to teacher effectiveness has been and continues to be critical.
Accordingly, this study aims to identify which dimensions are most determinant for the teacher's effectiveness. To do so, an extensive literature review was performed, considering the personal teacher characteristics, instructional practices and institutional variables that are associated to teacher's effectiveness. The analysis includes the most recent articles (since 2015) published in the Scopus and Web of Science Network. A conceptual framework was designed, organized into these three variables: teacher personal dimensions, instructional practices (teaching-learning process) and institutional factors.

The results show that the most common characteristics which influence the teacher–student learning experience are communication, accessibility and knowledge of the teacher about subject matter. On the other hand, instructional factors focusing on class time, student choices, game time for students and personal adjustment were sufficiently effective to influence the student’s achievements and interests.

Institutional dimensions, such as school climate, shared vision and goals, school management and leadership, appear also as predictive factors of a highly effective teacher.

In line with these results, some implications to the practice will be outlined, highlighting the multidimensionality inherent to the teacher effectiveness. High quality teacher implies a dynamic and interactive process of creating, fostering, adapting, and negotiating learning environments in which all students are supported in activities and all have a good chance of improving learning.

Keywords:

Teacher effectiveness, teacher personal characteristics, instructional practices, institutional variables.