Book Review
Star Teachers: the Ideology and Best Practice of Effective Teachers of Diverse Children and Youth in Poverty

Dr. Martin Haberman
The Haberman Educational Foundation, Houston, TX: http://www.habermanfoundation.org/ 2005 Pages: 220 (ISBN: 0-9761856-0-6 Paperback)

Reviewed by Andrew Finch

Dr. Haberman has, in this seminal contribution to educational literature, written an exceptional book that has implications stretching across disciplines and national boundaries. Although not written as an EFL book, this detailed investigation of the qualities of star teachers and the conditions they have to overcome is extremely relevant to EFL instructors and program developers faced with test-driven, failing education systems. Star Teachers is an important read for EFL teachers and trainers, since it deals with all-too-familiar problems of teaching to the test, blaming the victims of high stakes testing, ignoring the development of higher-order thinking skills, focusing on punishment-based classroom control, and learning to live with self-perpetuating, inept bureaucracies.

   This book is not simply a statement of the problem(s). It is also a well-researched, longitudinal study, made doubly valuable because of the observations and recommendations that it makes. Having spent fifty years or so researching schools containing diverse children and youth in poverty, the author has produced a telling indictment of the education system in the U.S.A., and in doing this, has identified and addressed themes which are of universal relevance to all teachers. In addition, a very welcome aspect of the book is that makes its points without pulling any punches. The education system in the U.S. is failing by its own standards (the reader is given a wealth of statistics to support this statement) and there are no signs of it improving. Teachers who wish to follow their vocation in such an environment must therefore make their own way, and must develop strategies for survival. In this context, Dr. Haberman offers valuable insights into the ideologies and techniques of teachers who remain in such surroundings "because their focus is on the students. They devote their energies before, during and after school to their students" (p. 27).

   Part One of Star Teachers (Chapters I to VII) deals with the situation, and illustrates the appalling conditions facing teachers of diverse children in urban poverty in the U.S.A. This examines every aspect of the failing "pedagogy of poverty", including a description of a problem rarely identified in teacher-training programs - that of dealing with school bureaucracies. Part Two then goes on to contrast "Traditional Urban Teaching Practices" with "Good Teaching," since it is evident that the two are mutually exclusive. These traditional practices, identified by Dr. Haberman as underpinning the pedagogy of poverty, are based on four assumptions which can be found in TEFL reference books describing the propositional paradigm and teacher-centered instruction:

A) Teaching is what teachers do. Learning is what students do. Therefore, students and teachers are engaged in different activities.

B) Teachers are in charge and responsible. Students are those who still need to learn appropriate behavior. Therefore, when students follow teacher's directions, appropriate behavior is being taught and learned.

C) Students represent a wide range of individual differences. Therefore, ranking is inevitable, so that some students will end up at the bottom of the class while others finish at the top.

D) Basic skills are required for subsequent learning and living. Students are not necessarily interested in basic skills. Therefore, directive pedagogy must be used to insure that youngsters are compelled to learn their basic skills. (p. 50)

 Having read these two parts of the book, it becomes evident that "Urban youths are not just poorly prepared for work but systematically trained to be quitters and failures" (p. 59).

   Part Three (Chapters X to XVI) takes us into new territory by examining the characteristics of star teachers - people who teach successfully and meaningfully inside the system - people whose "raison d'etre is their students, first and last." (p. 17). In this section, we get to see how star teachers think about teaching and how they transform these ideas into action and effective teaching. The main assumption here is that "Schooling is living, not preparation for living. And living is a constant messing with problems that seem to resist final solutions" (p. 54). Following from this, we find that:

star teachers believe their students are not only as smart as they are but are more likely to learn more in the future than their teachers now know. This leads them to respond to students in ways which are not only respectful but highly motivational . and such behaviors also become a self-fulfilling prophecy. (p. 102)

   The reader is now treated to a number of measurable and non-measurable attributes and principles of start teachers. It is not possible to mention all of these in this review, nut a selection is offered below:

· Star teachers are obsessed with generating effort. (p. 106)

· Star teachers have extraordinary organizational skills. (p. 113)

· Stars interact with children as if the purpose of any activity is to get the children to do the work - the speaking, questioning, finding out, writing, measuring or constructing - while the teacher's job is to serve as a coach and resource to the children. (p. 115)

· Stars don't plan by focusing on what they will be doing but on what the children will be doing - alone, in groups or as a whole. (p. 118)

· Stars know that when they are able to motivate students that learning skyrockets and teaching becomes less stressful. (p. 119)

· Stars seek to create students who will be independent and not need them. (p. 177)

· Stars frequently model the acceptance of mistakes and on occasion use it as a teachable moment. (p. 189)

   This part of the book is very positive, since it offers hope for teachers in similar situations. It also points out that teachers are not born with exceptional skills. They have to develop and refine these through a continuous process of reflection and trial-and-error, based on a strong belief system. Just like effective learning, teaching results are directly proportional to the amount of effort put in, rather than to an imaginary "ability" that allows success without effort.

   Teacher trainers wishing to incorporate ides from this book into their programs will be glad to read that Dr. Haberman has made a questionnaire for applicants to teacher-training courses, and that this questionnaire is used widely in the U.S.A. Unfortunately, neither this questionnaire, not the Star Classroom Management Protocol is included in the book, though it is possible to go to the home page of the Haberman Foundation ( http://www.habermanfoundation.org/ ) and to play "The Protocol Game" (10 plays for $10). This game is an extremely interesting teacher-training resource. The player becomes a teacher in a classroom in which children are regularly misbehaving for reasons of attention seeking, power, revenge, or avoidance of failure. The task of the player is to choose appropriate actions to take in order to transform the misbehavior into on-task involvement.

In conclusion, Star Teachers is strongly recommended for educators in every discipline, since it details how and why professionals in exceptionally bad conditions manage to educate according to the principles that they know to be effective. For readers in Korea, it makes the important point that teaching to the test is not effective, and that the best way to get students through the high-stakes loop is to motivate them through project-based, student-centered learning: "Empowering students in decision-making and engaging them in learning activities" (p. 209). These are only some of the extremely relevant points made in a book that will enhance any TEFL collection. The reviewer can only hope that it will find its way to (and be read in) the various corridors of educational power.

The Reviewer:

Dr. Andrew Finch is assistant professor of English Education at Kyungpook National University. He was born in Wales and educated in England, where he had various middle school teaching positions before coming to Korea to learn Baduk. Andrew's research interests include task-based materials design and classroom-based assessment, set within a perspective of language learning as education of the whole person.