David Berliner was fascinated when he came across these star performers while observing in public school classrooms. I saw teachers that were stupendous, and I began to study them and compare them both to novice teachers and to teachers that were simply competent. By videotaping teachers in a lab setting, and using a research methodology developed by cognitive psychologists and computer scientists in the 1980s, Berliner was able to pinpoint many of the techniques and behaviors of expert teachers. He found that they bring a deeper grasp of their subjects, sensitivity to the classroom environment, intuitive knowledge of how to handle unexpected events, automaticity for repetitive tasks such as roll-taking, and remarkable flexibility. Expert teachers develop their expertise over a period of years, and seem to be continually refining their techniques.
Reflectiveness combined with years of experience are key.
What disturbed Berliner, however, is that little provision is made in most schools for experienced teachers to share their successful techniques with novices. Plumbers and auto mechanics have longer apprenticeships than teachers. It's a difficult job, and we give them 12 weeks of student teaching and they're done. The saddest statistic is that in the first five years there's a disproportionate number of dropouts from the profession among the top 25 percent in academic ability. They leave because of lack of support, loneliness and poor placements.