10 smart practical ways teachers can improve students’ academic performance

Teachers are in classrooms and schools with the sole responsibility to transfer knowledge and ensure they help their learners or students to improve their academic performance, moral values, discipline and polish the talents of students until they shine. However, the big question and challenge is: how can the teacher achieve this in a modern world of its own challenges and in schools and classrooms saddled with challenges that burn the teacher out before he or she begins to provide the needed support?

If your students are performing below expectations, don’t immediately conclude that they are lazy. That is often the first thought and saying of most teachers.

The bitter truth is that sometimes, the problem is the teaching approach, learning environment, practice routine, or lack of feedback. In other instances, parents are blamed for the poor academic performance of the learner. As a teacher, what strategies are you implementing to improve students’ academic performance?

Many educators also focus on the best students and end up leaving the weak ones behind. The weak ones are actually the students who prove whether your teaching approach, the learning environment you have created, the learning and classroom practice routine, and two-way lesson feedback strategies in place are positively impacting not just academic performance, but self-belief and behaviours of students and learners.

Try these strategies consistently:

1. Identify the exact learning gaps

Give a short diagnostic test to discover what students actually don’t understand. These are often the exercises and unannounced quizzes. It is not about the level of difficulty, but the understanding, and the exercise can become more challenging as you go along.

2. Teach in smaller chunks

Don’t overload students with too much information at once. Teach one concept, check understanding, then move forward.

Learners do not need information overload to become excellent. Teach in small portions and weave them together throughout the term, but ensure that your explanations and examples help learners understand your lessons.

If your learners cannot technically re-teach you what you have taught them, then you have not explained the information or lesson well enough for their understanding.

3. Make students participate actively

Ask questions, let them explain, solve problems on the board, discuss answers and demonstrate what they have learned.

This is excellent and helps you know what they know. Give attention to both students who can explain orally as well as those who can write the answers.

4. Use daily revision

Spend 5–10 minutes revising previous lessons before introducing new content.

This is very important and helps you to know where to start the next lesson from so as to fill in the gaps and carry the learners along into the next important lesson.

It is painful to realise that your learners have not understood a lesson. In such an instance, repeating the lesson may look like a burden, but that is the best way to go.

Do not continue to build hurriedly on a weak foundation.

5. Give regular short assessments

Don’t wait until examination week. Use quizzes, oral questions, classwork and exit tickets to monitor progress.

If you wait for examination before you help your learners through tests and quizzes, you will be disappointed in yourself.

Constant practice helps learners become better and more informed about what they have learned.

6. Correct mistakes immediately

Don’t simply mark answers wrong. Explain why the answer is wrong and show students how to get it right.

In many instances, teachers are quick to mark answers wrong without giving feedback to students as to why an answer is wrong.

The feedback here could be a written explanation of why a particular answer is wrong or how the answer should be written.

Others include calling the learner to explain the question and the answers to them.

READ: Why So Many Teachers Struggle With Classroom Management – Smart Classroom Management

7. Give struggling students targeted support

A student who cannot read fluently, for example, may struggle in several subjects. Address the foundational skill instead of merely giving more homework.

Two horses competing in the same race are not the same in any way.

As a teacher, you should be able to know your students, their weaknesses and strengths, and come out with an approach that helps the students to become better.

8. Set clear expectations

Students should know exactly what they are expected to learn, complete and achieve.

This way, they direct their effort towards that goal as you guide them.

9. Celebrate improvement, not only high scores

As teachers, do not concentrate on the best students in the class alone, but more importantly, the weak ones. Praise them for the little wins they achieve.

This helps boost the morale of all these learners towards working harder.

By doing so, they know that every effort they put in is recognised and their teacher is excited to see them progress.

That good feeling can be the magic potion in the minds of learners who will soon begin to challenge themselves for the best.

Recognise students who move from 40% to 60%, improve their reading, submit work consistently or overcome a difficult skill.

READ: How to Study Smarter, Not Harder: 5 Science-Backed Strategies for Students

10. Track individual progress

Keep simple records of students’ scores and learning gaps.

What gets measured can be monitored and improved.

This helps you not only to know their progress but also to know how well your teaching approach, learning environment, practice routine and feedback systems as a teacher are working.

Make the necessary changes to these smart approaches to better improve your effort and the performance of the students gradually.

Don’t just teach more. Teach more intentionally.

Find the gap → teach the gap → practise the skill → assess again → give feedback → repeat.

That cycle can produce noticeable improvement much faster than simply giving students more notes and assignments.

Teachers, which of these strategies has worked best in your classroom?