This chapter begins by describing the circumstances and challenges faced by teachers working in the global South, including challenges the learner faces, challenges the teacher faces, challenges within the school environment and challenges of the wider education system, to provide a rounded account of the characteristics that often typify educational systems in low-income countries. It also defines ‘effective teaching’ for this book. The chapter then provides a second detailed literature review, in this case documenting the findings of prior research into effective teaching in low-income contexts worldwide in an attempt to make sense of what research to date seems to tell us about appropriate good teaching practices in the South. It offers observations on aspects of teacher knowledge and beliefs, teacher professionalism and a number of areas of pedagogic practice reported from this body of literature. This review is then briefly compared with the expertise review in Chapter 3. The chapter closes with a critical conclusion, observing that the majority of research into teacher effectiveness in low-income countries either reports on the introduction of exogenous innovations and reforms or focuses on problems and inefficacies in existing provision, rather than attempting to seek out endogenous effective practice.

No two teachers go about teaching in the same way, which is to say that each teacher’s way of teaching is unique. The Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (APST) require that teachers not only know the content and how to teach it, but also know their students and how they learn. This chapter introduces the concept of pedagogy and the centrality of relationships between teacher, student and content, as a defining feature of one’s pedagogy. Pedagogy is the most outward expression of how a teacher considers that teaching and learning best take place. Teachers should always base their decisions on ‘how’ to teach on their understanding of how their students learn best. This will involve considerations such as their stage of development (physical, cognitive and social) as well as their individual interests and preferred ways of learning. A number of different pedagogical frameworks are explored in the chapter, which concludes with a discussion of some of the key elements of exemplary teaching and how these are embedded in pedagogy. As you read this chapter it will be important to reflect upon the age of the students and the subjects that you will be teaching.

This chapter expands on the principles of planning for teaching introduced in Chapter 7. Chapters 7 and 8 link together to interrogate what needs to be considered in planning for effective teaching and learning. Within this chapter, you will consider the processes and preparation undertaken by Hannah (a secondary pre-service teacher) and Matthew (a primary pre-service teacher) as they consider the learning needs of their students, select a suitable lesson plan template to guide their thinking, enact their lessons and reflect on practice. Hannah and Matthew are passionate and inspired pre-service teachers focused on making a commitment to challenge themselves and their learners to achieve success (Hattie, 2011). Factors related to effective teaching and learning, such as sound curriculum, knowing your students, selecting a range of teaching strategies, differentiation and embedding assessment to inform practice, are all considered within this chapter.