How Good Teachers Get Even Better

Teaching is one of the most complicated jobs in the world.

Ignoring, for a moment, the much-hyped statistic that teachers make 1,500 decisions a day, what makes teaching so complicated may be the real human consequences of those decisions. The right question at the right time for one student can make a murky concept suddenly click, while a poorly handled interaction with another can sow confusion. With dozens or even hundreds of students under their care, even the most highly skilled teachers look for ways to refine their craft.

That complexity of human systems explains why a Harvard-led team of researchers concluded that teachers need more than pedagogical theories and mental models of how classrooms work—they also need opportunities to break complex teaching down into smaller parts, study how other teachers handle them, and rehearse those moves with feedback until they become second nature in the chaotic flow of the classroom.

Effective teaching, then, is less about executing a set of prescribed strategies and more about developing the “informed judgment” necessary to “engage in complex decision-making and practice,” the researchers note. For example, watching how a master teacher delivers a lesson or handles difficult moments in the classroom, and then rehearsing those moves while getting feedback from coaches, allows for authentic “feedback in the moment” along with quick hints on “how to elevate instruction.”

That kind of expertise doesn’t happen automatically; it develops when teachers take the long view and engage, over many years, in a disciplined course of deliberate practice, identifying a set of skills they want to improve and then making the time to reflect on and practice them. 

1. Pinpoint What Needs Work

Elite athletes don’t get better simply by playing more games. They isolate specific skills—a serve, swing, or jump shot—identify what needs work, and drill those skills intently, making small refinements until their movements hold up under pressure. That approach also works in the classroom, according to a 2016 Deans for Impact report. The best teachers learn more when they “focus on improving a particular aspect of teaching rather than working toward broad, general improvement.”

The challenge, then, is figuring out what areas to work on. For Jill Yamasawa, a college and career readiness teacher, the key is to resist the urge to improve everything at once. “Focus on one thing you want to improve on in the year,” Yamasawa suggests. It could be asking better questions, spotting moments in your lesson when students tend to get confused, or redesigning classroom materials to better support a wider range of learners. Once you’ve identified a target, keep it narrow enough that you can experiment with changes, watch for their effects, and refine your approach over time. The goal isn’t to overhaul your teaching, but to make small, but meaningful changes.

2. Actively Solicit Feedback

Collecting student feedback “can serve as a valuable source of information for teachers that encourages them to reflect on their teaching practices,” researchers explain in a 2025 meta-analysis. You might spend an hour giving a lesson, but across a classroom full of students that’s 25 different ways that your lesson could land. Student feedback can surface confusing instructions, difficult concepts that are glossed over too quickly, or even practical obstacles that are hard to spot from the front of the room, such as poor acoustics or hard-to-read slides.

“Last year, I began my reflection process by looking through student feedback, including the results of a final survey I gave students to rank their experience of our classroom community according to our stated core beliefs,” writes high school English teacher Marcus Luther.

The results were eye-opening, as students ranked curiosity—an area that should have received high marks—lower than every other classroom value. This gave Luther a clear target for improvement, as he spent the following year deliberately building more opportunities for inquiry into his lessons. “As teachers, we all want to be better for our students—but the path to better is often foggy or overwhelming,” Luther explains. By collecting feedback from students, he was able to close the gap between his perception of the classroom and his students’ reality—and identify a concrete starting point for improvement.

3. Be Objective

Just hours after winning the 2015 national championship, legendary football coach Nick Saban was reviewing game footage—not to celebrate the win, but to look for areas that could still be improved. It’s an approach that can help teachers, too, according to a 2025 study. After revisiting classroom video, teachers were more objective about giving, as well as receiving, feedback about each other’s lessons. Pausing and rewinding helped them focus more tightly on key instructional moments and student responses, highlighting moves that clearly worked well along with areas that needed further refinement. By contrast, teachers reflecting on classroom instruction without the benefit of video “found it difficult to capture the root problems” they had witnessed, relying on potentially spotty memory or notes.

“As teachers, we aren’t always the best at recalling exactly what happened in our classrooms on a given day or assessing how a lesson is going in real time,” write Zachary Herrmann and Sarah Kavanagh, professors of education at the University of Pennsylvania. “Maybe we thought that the way we explained a concept made things click for our students, only to realize later that it left them more confused.”

Seeing yourself teach (you can use audio, too, if you can’t bear to watch!) provides a fresh dose of objectivity, allowing you to notice habits that are hard to catch in the moment. For example, teachers tend to speak more than they realize, and video may reveal that you’re filling silences too quickly. Watching yourself from a student’s perspective can also expose the curse of knowledge, the assumption that your lessons are landing well since you’re so familiar with the material. Rewinding the tape can surface important steps you missed, or a sequence of difficult concepts introduced too quickly. 

4. Rehearse the Tricky Moments

Teaching requires making dozens of decisions on the fly, and even experienced teachers can’t rely on a script for every challenge that comes their way. In a 2025 study, researchers discovered that teachers who showed the most growth were the ones who mentally rehearsed difficult instructional moments, such as a set of important instructions that unexpectedly created more confusion, or learning how to respond to a student who gives an answer that comes out of left field.

By thinking through scenarios in advance or even taping yourself reacting to a potential classroom issue—actively engaging in a type of “what if this happens” practice, in other words—teachers can build a repertoire of responses, making it easier to improvise instead of relying solely on their training or abstract principles.

“Teaching is complex, particularly ‘ambitious’ teaching that prioritizes student thinking and reasoning,” researchers explain in a 2025 study. Theory-based professional development can only get you so far; at some point, teachers need opportunities to rehearse the moves themselves, get feedback, and refine their responses before trying them in a live classroom.

5. Go Beyond the Lesson Plan

Even a perfect lesson plan can only get you so far. Students arrive in your classroom with their own thoughts, fears, interests, and mindsets, all of which shape how engaged they are and their willingness to persist through difficult material. Understanding what makes a student tick is one of the most difficult aspects of teaching, and it’s a skill that can take years to master.

In addition, misbehavior is often not what it seems. In a 2018 study, researchers analyzed the causes of student misbehavior and discovered that a full 15 percent was attributed to academic confusion, often stemming from a “failure to provide clear expectations,” for example. Another major source of misbehavior, according to the researchers, came from a student’s “inability to perform adequately in academics” because the material was too challenging or confusing.

That explains why it’s helpful to look beyond the behavior, especially for less serious infractions like talking in class, misusing technology, or not paying attention. In a 2025 study, researchers found that experienced teachers were adept at “addressing the underlying issue instead of just the behavior itself.” It was a hard-earned skill, taking years of practice and trial and error, but a deep understanding of the psychological underpinnings of learning helped teachers read their students and figure out how to get them back on track instead of resorting to reprimands and punishments. Punitive tactics may work in the short-term, but often lead to more misbehavior down the road, according to a different 2025 study.

6. Adopt a Lifelong Learner’s Mindset

In a 2026 study, researchers studied how veteran teachers, those with more than 20 years of classroom experience, kept improving, and found that they saw professional learning “not as a static requirement, but rather as an ongoing process embedded in teachers’ everyday work.” While formal professional development still played a role, it took a backseat to informal learning: conversations with colleagues, joint lesson planning, reflection, and experimenting with new strategies while seeking feedback, the researchers explain. 

That’s an approach adopted by Brooklyn’s P.S. 249, where both novice and experienced teachers meet each week to practice instructional strategies with small groups of students while their colleagues observe and give feedback. Afterward, groups of teachers discuss what worked, what needs improvement, and how the strategy can work inside different classrooms. Teachers try the approach in their own classrooms and report back to the group, creating an ongoing cycle of practice, feedback, and fine-tuning.

“Lab sites are a place where teachers can come together and practice pedagogy,” says assistant principal Ana De Jesus. “They’re going to research a high-impact instructional strategy and then practice it. It’s low stakes, so teachers are really comfortable providing each other feedback.”