What the heck is (Teacher) Cred?
Author: Tim O’Leary
Deep breath. Here goes.
It is time to be honest and lean into my vulnerability.
Credibility is something I lacked in the classroom at the beginning of my career.
There, I have said it. I think I feel better.
At the beginning of my career I assumed that my deep understanding of the content I was teaching was all I needed. I mean I had studied engineering for five years right before my teacher training. I knew my stuff!
And whilst subject matter knowledge does have an influence on student learning (effect size of 0.11) what I learned quickly was that just because I understood the content did not mean I knew how to get it across to my students.
At first, I thought the issue was a matter of power. I thought that by exerting or maintaining control in the classroom I would be successful. No doubt you can imagine that I continued to struggle and found my students (and their parents) often did not respond well. Fortunately for me, though, I had some good mentors during those challenging years who redirected my enthusiasm and supported me in learning how to better build and cultivate relationships with my students and become a much more effective teacher
It is my hope that, in turn, this blog can help support someone who is facing similar challenge to those I did.
So, Teacher Credibility, what is it? Perhaps it might be better to start with what it is not?
I can tell you categorically that it is not simply a matter of students ‘liking’ their teacher; this pathway is dangerous.
Teacher Credibility is about students' beliefs that they can learn from a given teacher. Key to this is if they perceive a teacher to be "believable, convincing, and capable of persuading students that they can be successful" (Fisher & Frey, 2018). This is about whether students perceive a teacher as being someone who will enhance their learning and it is of critical importance. The research shows us that maximising Teacher Credibility is a vital in ensuring student learning. In fact, with an effect size of 0. 9 (Hattie, 2016), there is clear evidence that if students see their teachers as a credible, they are more likely to succeed. The alternative is also unfortunately true. If a teacher is not perceived as credible their students switch off (Hattie) and perhaps worse such an erosion of a teacher’s credibility can quickly spell disaster for learning (Haskin, 2000).
The history of Teacher Credibility research dates to the 1980s and the work of Dr James McCroskey, an expert in the field of communication studies. Since this time, the concept of Teacher Credibility has evolved to include four key factors related trust, competence, passion/dynamism and immediacy.
Trust
Like in any human relationship Trust is fundamental to teacher-student relationships. Improving students' relationships with teachers can have important, positive and long-lasting implications for students' success. Indeed, teachers who foster trusting relationships with their students create classroom environments more conducive to learning and meet students' developmental, emotional and academic needs.
Competence
Teacher competency is about much more than knowing your stuff. For a teacher to be perceived as competent by their students then a teacher must have mastered their subject area and be capable of delivering it in a meaningful and engaging manner. Also fundamental to this is having great classroom management skills and routines, the ability to answer questions and a capacity to breakdown and explain complicated topics and concepts into ways students can understand.
Passion/Dynamism
Teacher Passion or Dynamism is focussed on the passion and enthusiasm teachers bring to the classroom and content and their ability to communicate this enthusiasm to their students. This does not necessarily mean that a teacher must always display a high level of energy. Dynamic or teachers are those who appear to take charge of the situation at hand and are expected by their audience to take the lead (Haskin, 2000).
Immediacy
Social psychologist Albert Mehrabian is credited with defining the concept of immediacy in terms of his "principle of immediacy, "which states "people are drawn toward persons and things they like, evaluate highly, and prefer; and they avoid or move away from things they dislike, evaluate negatively, or do not prefer" (Mehrabian, 1971). In the context of the classroom and immediate teacher is one who leans in to help their students and is related to student perceptions of their teacher’s capacity to break down barriers between themselves and their pupils and the accessibility and relatability of their teacher.
Now that you understand what Teacher Credibility is what to do?
Over the next four weeks we are going to release a set of hints and tips to enhance each of the four aspects of your Teacher Credibility.