Some teachers are clearly more effective than others, but academic ability is not a clear indicator of the difference. Even good teachers often struggle to explain how their techniques differ from those of less able teachers. What are the factors that enable a teacher to make a significant impact on students? Sandra J Balli, an associate professor of education, sets out to answer that question in her book Making a Difference in the Classroom: Strategies that Connect with Students.
To help her in writing the book, the author asked her teaching students to write essays reflecting on the characteristics of the best teachers they had encountered. Each of the chapters of the book contains brief excerpts from those essays, bound together by the author’s observations and reflections from her own experience. The book is divided into three parts: building relationships, building a learning community, and building authenticity.
At first it took me some time to adapt to the book’s style. There are no empirical studies of the relative effectiveness of different teaching techniques; instead, the content is presented by way of anecdotes and reflections. However, once I became accustomed to the style, I found the content useful and persuasive. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to become a more effective teacher.