You’ve been teaching for years. You’ve refined your content, built routines, and faced tough classes. Still, there are times when lessons don’t land as you expected, or students seem disengaged in ways you didn’t anticipate.
That’s not you failing. That’s changing: new student needs, evolving assessments, digital norms, shifting expectations from schools. What worked once may no longer be enough.
In this blog, you’ll find targeted, evidence-backed suggestions to improve the teaching-learning process, not just theory, but things you can test in class tomorrow. We’ll also outline strategies to foster longer-term growth through feedback cycles, reflective practices, and professional development.
After a decade or more, many teachers feel their toolkit is complete. But data suggests the pressures only grow:
A RAND study noted that teachers report working 53 hours per week on average, which is seven hours more than the typical working adult. Over 25% of that work is beyond contract hours.
In 2024, RAND found the same pattern, teachers still report working long hours, low pay, and rising stress.
Regions worldwide are also facing major shortages. UNESCO’s Global Report projects a global deficit of 44 million primary and secondary teachers by 2030.
What does this mean for you?
- Schools will increasingly favour teachers who show ongoing growth and flexibility.
- Pedagogical shifts (inclusion, technology, assessments) demand fresh skills.
- Career paths like leadership, global roles, curriculum design, expect more than classroom seniority.
So, even as a seasoned educator, developing teaching skills is no longer optional but directly related to your survival, relevance, and impact.
Below are four concrete strategies to refine your day-to-day teaching. Use them as experiments. Keep what works, discard what doesn’t.
Chunk Lessons Using the ADEPT Method
Long lectures often lose students. You can preserve attention by breaking content into digestible segments:
- Analogy – start with a familiar comparison
- Diagram – show visual structure
- Example – work through a real case
- Plain English – explain steps straightforwardly
- Technical definition – end with formal terms
Say you're teaching ecosystems. You might compare it to a neighbourhood (analogy), draw food chains (diagram), walk through a species interaction (example), describe the process plainly, then name the scientific terms.
By varying modes, you let students breathe and catch up mentally.
Apply Universal Design for Learning (UDL) with Technology
Not all students learn the same way. UDL helps you design lessons that allow for multiple ways to engage, represent ideas, and express understanding.
Consider offering:
- Captioned or narrated videos
- Choice of project types (essay, oral, multimedia)
- AI-generated quizzes or scaffolded templates to reduce your prep time
Schools that adopt UDL report gains in student participation and readiness for advanced work.
Build Stronger Student Relationships
You already know this matter: students are more responsive when they feel seen. But relationships are not just warm gestures, they can be deliberate practices:
- Revisit expectations often (don’t assume prior agreement)
- Hold quick 1:1 check-ins during class or before/after
- Give frequent micro-feedback, not just end-of-term remarks
One teacher shared that asking “What helped you today?” at the door led to more questions and more engagement in the next class.
Involve Parents as Partners
Parents are allies in learning when they know how to support their children. Your role: guide them in actionable ways.
Keep parent communication short and clear:
- Weekly note: What was taught, how students responded, and one thing parents can do
- Portals/dashboards with student progress updates
In Dubai, introducing weekly parent updates significantly improved homework completion.
Classroom growth also depends on what you do off the clock. These practices help maintain momentum and perspective.
Use Feedback That Leads to Action
Feedback is useful only when it points to fundamental changes. Here’s a simple cycle you can adopt:
- Choose one teaching focus (e.g., questioning, transitions)
- Ask a trusted colleague to observe with a short rubric
- Debrief for 15 minutes with one concrete next step
Also, consider short student surveys such as “Which part of this lesson helped you most?” These insights often reveal unexpected gaps.
Join Professional Learning Communities (PLCs)
You don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Join or form a small group of teachers united by one learning goal. Meet regularly to discuss challenges, share quick experiments, and reflect on what worked.
These groups create accountability and reduce isolation, two things every teacher needs to stay motivated outside the classroom. They also give you a safe space to test ideas, get constructive feedback, and learn new strategies from peers who face similar realities.
If you’re looking to connect with like-minded educators, explore Suraasa’s Teaching Community, a space built for teachers to exchange ideas, share reflections, and grow together.
Reflect with SMART Goals
Reflection is powerful only when it’s structured. SMART goals help:
- Specific: “Improve wait time after questioning.”
- Measurable: Record seconds waited per question.
- Achievable: Add 2 extra seconds per class.
- Relevant: More wait time often yields deeper responses.
- Time-bound: Try for four weeks, then review and reset.
Reflect weekly for 10 minutes. Note what changed and plan next steps.
Protect Your Well-Being
No growth is sustainable under burnout. The RAND surveys cite chronic stress, low rewards, and long hours as key pressures.
Steps you can take:
- Set a hard stop to your workday when possible
- Use brief mindfulness breaks mid-class or during planning
- Lean on a small circle of peers to share frustrations and strategies
Your presence matters. A worn-out teacher struggles to teach well.
Improvement doesn’t always come from big reforms. Small, daily habits compound into real change. For example, research shows that using short, formative checks during lessons helps students retain and transfer knowledge better.
Here are some strategies you can try:
- Begin each class with a quick 3-minute recap of the previous lesson to reactivate prior knowledge.
- Use exit tickets, two questions at the end of a lesson to spot gaps in understanding before students leave the room.
- Collect student feedback weekly with a simple prompt like: “What part of today’s lesson worked best for you?”
- Focus on one improvement area each week, such as allowing more wait-time after asking a question.
Improving teaching skills isn’t about fixing a deficit. It’s about adapting a strong foundation to new contexts.
Smaller shifts like chunked lessons, exit tickets, clear feedback, parent involvement can revitalize your daily practice. Outside class, focused feedback, reflection, and community help you grow steadily. And thoughtful PD courses, credentialing, mandated training, add structural weight to your evolution.
If you’re ready to take a step:
- Explore the Professional Graduate Certificate in Teaching & Learning (PgCTL) to deepen your pedagogy with global recognition.
- Use teacher training courses to sharpen one skill right now.
You’ve already built a strong foundation, now it’s time to strengthen it.
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