Evidence-based teaching : effective teaching practices in primary school classrooms : Teach classroom observation tool background paper

After spending five to six years sitting in a classroom almost every day for anywhere between 4 to 7 hours a significant share of students in low and middle-income countries are not able to read, write or do basic arithmetic. What is going on inside these classrooms? A growing body of evidence provide evidence of poor teaching practices and little to no learning going on inside the classroom. As such, the learning crisis is a reflection of a teaching crisis. What can teachers do inside the classroom to tackle this teaching and learning crisis? This paper systematizes the evidence on what are effective teaching practices in primary school classrooms, with special focus on evidence from low and middle-income countries. By doing so this paper provides the theoretical and empirical foundations for the content of Teach classroom observation tool. Implication for teacher education and evaluation are discussed