Belief in Teaching Energizes Great Teachers

In this four-part series, we examine Gallup's research on what great teachers do differently. Last week (see "Teachers Who Put the ‘A' in Caring" in Related Items), we explored "caring," the talent that great teachers use to build relationships that lead to learning. This week we examine one of the talents that explains the motivation of great teachers -- "belief."

Belief answers the question of why people become teachers, devote energy to teaching, and remain in teaching. Belief describes an overall system that guides decisions and behaviors. For great teachers, this system includes a need to help young people learn and grow. These teachers feel a true sense of mission in their work.

In other words, great teachers don't view their role as just a job or a means to achieving other goals. Amy Wrzesniewski, PhD, an organizational psychologist at New York University, describes three different work orientations -- jobs, careers and callings*. Teachers with strong belief talent feel called to teach. Teaching provides them with a sense of fulfillment. The contributions they make to individual students, the community, and the world, are significant motivators in deciding to teach and remain a teacher.

Teachers with strong belief talent:

• Make teaching part of their lives. In a 2001 Gallup focus group of highly rated teachers**, a participant said, "Teaching is a lifestyle. You're always thinking of students. You don't punch a clock." Teachers with this talent are never far from teaching, whether thinking about school or students over the summer, sponsoring extracurricular activities in the evenings, or reading a book on teaching in their spare time. They talk about teaching and students at school, at home and during social activities.

• Expend more time and effort preparing for class than others do. Gallup focus group participants stressed the amount of preparation time required to teach at the level they expect of themselves. They expressed concern that few parents or students understand how much preparation time is needed to motivate student learning. However, their belief in what they're doing makes the extra work worthwhile.

• Don't give up on students. They take ownership and responsibility for the teaching-learning equation. They possess a strong, passionate and pervasive desire to help students develop. They persevere with students when others do not, and students succeed as a consequence.

• Understand the importance of helping students to learn, rather than simply teaching content. A highly rated teacher suggests the best teachers "teach kids how to learn instead of shoving American history at them." They are passionate about their subject matter, but their ultimate goals are student learning and growth.

• Take pride in being teachers. They follow their students' progress and enjoy seeing the results of their efforts when former students return to visit. Principals and parents can raise these teachers' morale by talking about the students they touch. Teachers strong in this talent need principals who share, affirm and support a belief system about the importance of teaching and learning.

• Stay in the profession. They are resilient, even when times are tough. They have a reason for being teachers and could never gain similar job satisfaction outside of teaching.

Bending an old phrase, teachers with strong belief talent would say that those who can, teach; those who can't, go on to something less important.

*Creating meaning in work. The Gallup Review. 2001

**Focus Groups. National Teacher Study. The Gallup Organization. 2001.