Education is often debated in terms of budgets, curricula, or technologies. But behind all that, what truly changes students’ lives (and with it, the course of societies) is something much more elemental: the quality of teaching. Inside schools, no other factor influences learning as much as what happens between a teacher and their students. A good teacher can open up unexpected paths; a bad one can close doors that take years to reopen.
The new report Keys to High-Quality Teaching, published by the OECD and translated and adapted into Spanish with the collaboration of SUMMA and the University of Chile, starts from this simple premise. Teaching is not just a vehicle for transmitting knowledge: it is the very heart of education. But it is also a task shaped by non-trivial contemporary challenges. After the pandemic, educational inequalities have only grown, and to them we must add digital disruption, the rise of generative artificial intelligence, and the socio-emotional pressures students face in an increasingly uncertain world.
The report draws on a solid body of evidence. Its authors focused on analyzing 20 practices that support five key dimensions of high-quality teaching. They also relied on qualitative contributions from more than 150 schools in 40 countries to better understand the complex realities of implementing these practices in the daily work of teaching.
Its authors propose looking at teaching with a nuanced perspective: as a science, as an art, and as a craft. This threefold condition requires relying on solid evidence, but also trusting in the creativity and professional judgment of those who, every day, make hundreds of decisions in real classrooms. To translate this approach into concrete actions, the authors identified five major objectives that serve as a guide: ensuring students’ cognitive engagement; developing quality content; providing socio-emotional support; fostering meaningful classroom interactions; and using formative assessment as a driver of continuous improvement. In this article, we will discuss these five keys.
Quality Teaching: Science, Art, and Craft
What does it mean to teach? The question seems obvious, but stepping into a classroom is enough to see that the answer never is. Teaching does not fit into a single formula: it is science, because it builds on decades of rigorous research; it is art, because it requires creativity to capture the attention of a diverse and changing class; and it is craft, because it is perfected through practice, reflection, and shared work among colleagues.
The OECD report emphasizes this triple nature. As a science, teaching builds on evidence: we know, for example, that precise and timely feedback can transform a student’s learning, while poorly designed assessment can demotivate them forever. As an art, teaching requires intuition: deciding in seconds whether to pause for an explanation or let an unexpected question open a new path. And as a craft, it demands accumulated expertise: routines, strategies, and habits that are not born of improvisation but of years of practice, observation, and fine-tuning.
What’s most interesting is that these three dimensions are not mutually exclusive but mutually necessary. Science without art becomes rigid; art without craft, chaotic; craft without science, repetitive. Quality teaching arises precisely from the tension among these poles. And it is here, precisely, where its complexity lies: teachers do not apply single recipes. They must make situated decisions, adapted to each context, each group, each moment.
This delicate balance underpins the five major objectives of the report that we will discuss next. Each reminds us that teaching is not about choosing between the “traditional” and the “innovative,” but about learning to combine evidence, intuition, and professional practice in a choreography that adjusts in real time.
Teaching does not fit into a single formula: it is science, because it builds on decades of rigorous research; it is art, because it requires creativity to capture the attention of a diverse and changing class; and it is craft, because it is perfected through practice, reflection, and shared work among colleagues.
Five Objectives to Transform Teaching Practice
Cognitive Engagement: Learning with Meaning
Learning does not depend only on the time a student spends in class, but on the mental effort they devote to making meaning. Cognitive engagement occurs when students do not just listen but think, question, and apply what they learn. In this sense, the report highlights sustained effort and metacognition (learning to learn) as key drivers of academic progress.
Asking challenging questions, inviting students to explain in their own words, or designing tasks that connect with real life are among the most effective strategies. Evidence shows that when students understand the purpose of what they study, they persist more and learn better. For example: in a school in Santiago, Chile, secondary students analyzed the water consumption of their own homes to discuss sustainability. The topic was curricular, but by linking it to their personal experience, motivation and the quality of their reflections skyrocketed.
Quality Content: Clarity and Rigor
There is no good teaching without good content. Clarity in presentation, conceptual rigor, and the invitation to critical thinking are essential for learning to be lasting. The report reminds us that an overload of unstructured data suffocates understanding. What makes the difference is selecting fundamental ideas, organizing them logically, and offering examples that make them memorable.
Strategies include using analogies, concept maps, and progressive sequences that move from simple to complex. Evidence shows that students retain more when working with well-organized concepts rather than endless lists of facts. For example, in a rural school in Colombia, a science teacher asked her students to build a collective mural of the water cycle. The exercise combined conceptual rigor with graphic creativity and allowed children to discuss processes in depth instead of memorizing isolated formulas they would soon forget.
Socio-Emotional Support: Teaching with the Heart Too
Quality teaching does not occur in a vacuum: it depends on the emotional climate of the classroom. Students learn more when they feel safe, heard, and respected. The report emphasizes the importance of teacher empathy and of promoting soft skills such as self-regulation, resilience, and collaboration.
Useful strategies include establishing clear routines that provide security, encouraging emotional expression, and offering feedback that combines demand with encouragement. International research confirms that a positive classroom climate reduces anxiety, increases participation, and improves academic performance. A nearby example: in a school in Lima, teachers implemented dialogue circles at the beginning of the day. Just fifteen minutes of structured conversation were enough for students to start the day with more confidence and readiness to learn.
Classroom Interaction: Dialogue that Builds Knowledge
Learning advances when the classroom becomes a space of authentic interaction. Talking, asking, discussing, and collaborating are actions that deepen understanding and develop communicative and social skills. The report underlines that active student participation is one of the strongest conditions for improving teaching quality.
Among the most effective strategies for fostering this interaction are small group work, guided debates, and the use of open-ended questions that stimulate reasoning. Evidence shows that students learn more when they have to explain their ideas to others than when they just listen passively. For instance, in a school in Barcelona, a history teacher turned a lecture into a simulated trial: students had to defend different positions on the French Revolution. Participation was nearly total, and argumentation skills grew visibly.
Formative Assessment: Feedback that Drives Learning
Assessment should not be the endpoint of learning but its engine. As we have already explained in this Observatory, formative assessment seeks to provide constant feedback that allows students to adjust their strategies and move forward. According to the report, the key is for assessment to become a tool for self-regulation and continuous improvement, not just a classification mechanism.
Effective formative feedback strategies include using clear rubrics, peer assessment, and guided self-assessment. Research shows that students who receive specific comments on how to improve progress more than those who only receive numerical grades. For example: in a school in Montevideo, language teachers asked their students to review their essays based on three constructive comments given by peers. The result was a notable improvement not only in text quality but also in students’ critical and self-critical capacity.
Beyond the Classroom: The Role of Context and Leadership
No matter how inspired a teacher’s work may be, teaching never occurs in a vacuum. It is conditioned by structural factors such as the curriculum that sets priorities, available resources, the organization of school time, or the institutional climate that permeates daily school life. The report stresses that if these dimensions are not addressed, individual teachers’ efforts risk being diluted.
In this field, school leaders play a decisive role. Their mission goes far beyond managing schedules or resolving conflicts: school leaders are responsible for promoting the conditions that allow the five keys we’ve just explained to unfold in practice. Strong pedagogical leadership provides support, promotes collaboration among teachers, and creates safe spaces for innovation, where experimentation can occur without fear of error.
Ultimately, teaching is a shared responsibility. Teachers put body and mind into every class, but they need education systems that support their efforts with ongoing training, communities of practice, and coherent policies. Research shows that when schools operate as teams, teaching improvements are sustained and amplified.
Looking beyond the classroom means recognizing that teaching quality depends as much on each teacher’s decisions as on the system’s ability to support them. Only then can the five keys proposed by the OECD move from the theoretical framework into reality.
Toward Impactful Teaching
There are no magic formulas for good teaching. Each classroom is a world, and each teacher, a compendium of different intuitions, knowledge, and experiences. What does exist are common principles that, when applied with sensitivity and consistency, can make a difference. This OECD publication synthesizes them into five practical keys that offer a flexible framework each school and teacher can adapt to their context.
What these five keys tell us is that teaching quality does not depend on revolutionary changes but on small accumulated improvements. A better-posed question, clearer feedback, a warmer classroom climate… These are seemingly modest adjustments, but research shows they have a disproportionate effect on learning. And the most encouraging part: they are within reach of any motivated teacher and any education system willing to embrace them.
And this is where the OECD issues its call to action: if we want classrooms to be places where students not only memorize but think, feel, interact, and grow, we need policies that support teachers, quality ongoing training programs, and professional communities that share experiences and learning. The future of education is defined in that daily encounter between those who teach and those who learn. And there, as this report reminds us, is where a few well-applied keys can truly make a difference.
