KEY POINTS:
It doesn't matter how old you are, I bet you can still remember the name of your favourite teacher, that person who believed in you, who made learning enjoyable and who encouraged you to achieve more than you ever imagined.
It comes as no surprise then, that Professor John Hattie's definitive, 15-year study of the learning habits of more than 83 million students worldwide has found that student-teacher interaction in the classroom is the most important element in a child achieving at school.
Conversely, the number of students in a class did not appear to be a significant factor in a child's success or otherwise.
Class size, as we well know, is a hoary old chestnut that gets trotted out every election. And whenever New Zealand comes up short in OECD educational studies, the teachers' union will use class size or student/teacher ratios as an excuse. The prevailing orthodoxy is that smaller class sizes will ensure better education.
And now Professor Hattie's research, dubbed "teaching's Holy Grail" by the Times Educational Supplement, has turned that orthodoxy on its head.
Success, according to Professor Hattie's findings, is about teacher-student trust and interaction and, while that can be more easily achieved with smaller class sizes, hiring second-rate teachers simply to reduce the student-teacher ratio, is not the answer.
He says that good teachers need to be paid more to ensure they are retained within the profession, and that opens the door to a discussion about performance pay.
In the past, the PPTA has reacted with near hysteria to any suggestion that good teachers be paid more than poor ones. Too subjective, they say. How can a "good" teacher possibly be defined?
Coaching children to pass exams doesn't necessarily make for great teaching. It's all too hard, according to the PPTA and, to a certain extent, the teachers are right.
It will be extraordinarily difficult to come up with an independent set of standards that can be used to define excellence. One kid's favourite teacher will be another kid's nemesis.
But excellence isn't about popularity and Hattie's research will go a long way towards establishing a measure for excellence.
Education Minister Anne Tolley says the research will have a profound influence on how her government approaches education and she has invited Hattie to be involved in a cross-sector discussion on teaching, which will also cover performance pay.
Teaching's a difficult job at times and getting more difficult as the increasing violence in society filters into the classroom.
It's poorly paid, even if the holidays are good, and, given the diversity of employment opportunities for young people, attracting and then retaining top-quality men and women into the profession has proved difficult.
But, mercifully, teaching is more than a job and there are thousands of men and women who see it as a vocation.
They take pride in fostering the young people in their care and, just as they are remembered fondly by their pupils they, too, remember many of the students they taught.
Good, hardworking, caring teachers shouldn't see the findings of this groundbreaking study as a threat.
Not all teachers are created equal, just as not all students are similarly gifted. Surely paying the best better is a logical evolution in the profession?
* www.kerrewoodham.com
