Skills IDENTIFIERS *Reflective Thinking

This report argues that the most effective way to raise academic achievement is for teachers to become inquiring professionals with action-research and reflective-thinking skills. The report defines effectiveness and examines the views of various stakeholders about what qualities they value in school, arguing that effectiveness is a complex concept and only researchers can measure it correctly. Other stakeholders are concerned with different qualities and not with effectiveness. The paper argues that teacher effectiveness must be improved in order to help children achieve more. Teachers are distracted by pressures put on them by other stakeholders with different priorities. The report examines literature on school effectiveness stability and concludes that effectiveness is unstable. It discusses different ways to restore effectiveness and notes a lack of convincing evidence for the effectiveness of externally generated initiatives. The report argues that a significant element of efforts t