The most effective teachers may not be those with the most experience, a ground-breaking study has found. Up to 30 per cent of the differences in pupil attainment can be attributed to the impact of teachers. Whether individual teachers are effective is crucially linked to their commitment, the research found. But teachers with 16 to 30 years' experience tend to be less committed than staff with fewer years of teaching, especially in secondary schools. Professor Christopher Day of Nottingham University, who led the study, said: 'This was a surprise. Until now there has been a theory that when you enter teaching you are a novice and you move through stages until you become an expert. 'This rather explodes that theory because it means teachers do not necessarily translate that experience into pupil attainment,' said Professor Day, who is also adjunct professor at Chinese University of Hong Kong. 'Pupils are more likely to have high attainment in the early and middle years of your teaching than in the later years.' The study of the effectiveness of teachers in seven local authorities in England was carried out by Nottingham University and London's Institute of Education and funded by the British government. It claims to be the most large-scale and extensive study of teachers' work and lives undertaken globally. Carried out over three years, it provides new insight because it investigates teachers' experience in the classroom and the influences on their effectiveness in different phases of their lives, using value-added measures of pupil progress. Teacher influence was found to be far stronger on pupil progress than that of pupils' background characteristics such as age, gender, their English as an additional language status or low income. While poor leadership, adverse personal events and work-life-tensions were key factors undermining teachers' commitment and motivation, they had a greater negative impact on longer-serving teachers. One in four teachers who had served eight to 15 years were beginning to feel detached from their commitment due to heavy workloads, while one in two teachers with 16-31 years' experience were struggling with work-life management issues as a result of difficulties in their personal lives and additional responsibilities. Gordon Stobart, one of the researchers and a reader in education at the London Institute of Education, said the findings showed a one-size fits all approach to professional development did not work because teachers faced different pressures from home and work at different times in their career. 'We asked people about critical incidents in their teaching life and often it wasn't the incident that was important but the lack of support they got to deal with it,' he said. Mr Stobart suggested schools should look at how industry provides more tailored support, particularly to teachers in deprived areas. Variations in Teachers' Work, Lives and Effectiveness: www.dfes.gov.uk/rsgateway/DB/RRP/u013380/index.shtml
