"Tell me and I forget."

"Teach me and I remember."

"Involve me and I learn."

But what do we REALLY know about

effective learning hundred years later?

Many respected economists and educators

from the world's leading universities

researched this topic.

They discovered that many things don't matter,

such as classroom size, new technology,

or fancy uniforms.

Their evidence suggests that the secret to thriving students

are amazing teachers.

Here's what they have learned.

First we have to acknowledge that teaching

is a highly complex skill.

It involves a deep understanding of the subject matter

and the ability to explain complex

issues in simple ways.

But it also requires an understanding of psychology,

pedagogy, as well as a wide range of management

skills in order to get the student's first

quiet and then excited.

Rob Coe, Professor at Durham University

reported that many widely used methods don't work:

for example grouping students by ability,

giving unearned praise,

or the idea that students can discover complex

concepts by themselves.

Instead, master instructors have high exceptions

and maximize the lesson time.

But most importantly,

they combine high quality instruction

with pedagogical content knowledge.

They don't teach a subject,

they teach their students

how to learn it for themselves.

In order to get it right,

we have to treat and train teachers like brain surgeons.

After all they also operate on human brains.

Like aspiring doctors,

they are best trained in the field

where they receive professional

feedback when they made mistakes.

Effective schools of education therefore,

train teaching like a craft,

rather than an abstract science.

At Sposato, a Graduate School of Education known

for creating effective teachers,

students spend a lot of their time

tutoring or assisting professionals.

Teachers who are already in the classroom,

need regular professional feedback on the job.

A vast study by Roland Fryer from Harvard

found that teachers who receive

precise instructions together with specific regular

feedback from a lead teacher,

will improve the most.

Other good ideas to improve teachers

are to ask the students for feedback

or to record lessons on video

and let the teachers watch themselves.

Doug Lemov, founder of UnCommon Schools

and author of Teach Like A Champion,

identified many methods that great teachers use:

they greet each student

at the door so students feel welcomed

and acknowledged of their existence.

Later they use a strong voice

and don't stop talking

until they have everyone's attention.

Plus, they teach for mastery learning

to ensure students get it 100%

right before they proceed.

But maybe most importantly,

great teachers first get their students excited

and then keep their attention through story-telling

and engaging activities that sparks their imaginations.

A paper published by Stanford in 2009

showed that leadership makes a big difference too.

At low performing schools,

principals hardly ever show up in the classrooms,

but instead spend most of their time on administration,

documents or finance.

Schools with better students,

have principals that get out of their office

and spend a lot of time in the classrooms,

supervising and developing the teachers.

Together, they can make a big different

in their students life

Economist Raj Chetty and his team,

analyzed the data of 2.5 million US students

and 18 million test results.

He thinks that instructors

who are good at teaching to the test,

have a big impact.

On average, having such a teacher for just ONE year,

raises the students test scores

and cumulative lifetime income by 14,500 - in 2011 dollars.

On early childhood education,

he has another hypothesis:

Great kindergarten teachers

help to develop social skills,

discipline and character.

Their impact does not improve test scores

during the school years,

but surprisingly reemerges years later,

when their former students apply those skills

to advance in their careers

and find meaningful and well-paying jobs.

Eric Hanushek, Professor at Stanford University,

computed how much good teachers really matter.

He found out that top teachers get students to learn

50% more each year than an average instructor.

Poorly trained ones, just half of the average.

That means that 10 years at school

can either result in 15 years of actual learning

or just a mere 5 years.

This is a massive difference

that mainly hurts children from low-income families

who can't afford extra classes

or changing to a better school.

American novelist Gail Godwin once wrote:

"good teaching is one-fourth preparation"

"and three-fourths pure theatre."

To see a great actors in action

watch Michael Sandel from Harvard teach Law,

Robert Sapolsky from Stanford teach Behavioral Biology,

Walter Michel from MIT teach Physics

or Mr. Hester managing a classroom of teenagers.

Links are in the description below

and other great instructors in our channel playlists.

Now please share YOUR favorite teachers

in the comments below!