A New Framework to Define What Quality Teaching Looks Like

Across schools and systems, we talk about “good teaching” constantly. We observe it, celebrate it, coach toward it, and attempt to measure it. Yet when pressed to define it clearly - how we know when teaching is strong, and how teachers grow toward it, we often reach for intuition, personal preference, or lists of disconnected competencies.

Without a shared understanding of what quality teaching actually entails, growth conversations become fuzzy, feedback becomes inconsistent, and professional learning risks reinforcing comfort rather than expanding expertise. This is the tension that led us to ask: What is good teaching, and how do we know?

The education world is not short on teaching frameworks. Many independent schools, districts, and organizations already use well-established models to describe effective practice. Charlotte Danielson's Framework for Teaching has been influential for decades, organizing practice into four comprehensive domains. Baltimore City Public Schools developed their Instructional Framework Rubric through collaboration with teachers and union representatives, focusing on three domains: Prepare, Teach, and Reflect & Adjust. These frameworks have helped elevate the profession by naming important aspects of teaching, from planning and assessment to classroom culture and equity.

So why introduce a new one?

Because many existing frameworks, while valuable, tend to function as either checklists or evaluative tools. They enumerate what teachers should do, but not always how those skills relate to one another, or how teachers develop judgment about when and why to use them. Over time, this can unintentionally narrow practice and limit teacher growth. Teachers become known for “their thing”: the project-based teacher, the discussion expert, the master lecturer. Strengths are celebrated, but range is not always expected.

As Michael Nachbar, GOA executive director, wrote in Expanding Teacher Range: Building Expertise Across Three Domains of Teaching, “What’s been missing is a framework—a shared vocabulary for naming the domains of expertise that teachers should be building. Lists of competencies alone won’t get us there. Without architecture, they become disconnected. But when we organize them into domains, we can talk clearly about where teachers are strong, where they need to grow, and how to help them expand their range.”

What we need is a shared architecture for understanding teaching as a complex, integrated practice, one that requires multiple kinds of expertise, held together and applied flexibly.

The urgency for clarity around good teaching has only increased.

Students today are learning in contexts shaped by rapid technological change, global complexity, and increasing variation in learners’ needs. Teachers are navigating new tools, new modalities, and new expectations, often all at once. In this environment, teaching cannot rely on habit or preference alone. It requires judgment: choosing the right move, for the right students, at the right moment.

At the same time, schools are investing more deeply in coaching, collaboration, and teacher growth. These efforts depend on shared language. Without it, conversations about practice can feel subjective or misaligned, even when everyone shares the same goal: better learning for students.

A framework, when done well, doesn’t constrain teaching. It clarifies it.

The framework we at GOA have created organizes teaching expertise into three interconnected domains: Content Expertise, Pedagogical Expertise, and Developmental Expertise. These domains are not new ideas. What is new is the way they are intentionally held together.

Content Expertise is not simply knowing more facts. It is understanding a discipline as practitioners experience it—recognizing what authentic thinking looks like in that field, anticipating meaningful misconceptions, encouraging curiosity, and connecting learning to the world beyond the classroom.

Pedagogical Expertise is not allegiance to a single philosophy. It is a broad, flexible repertoire of instructional moves, paired with the judgment to know when each move serves learning best. It includes direct instruction and inquiry, structure and openness, teacher feedback and peer critique.

Developmental Expertise is not abstract theory. It is the daily, human work of reading students—their cognitive load, motivation, confidence, and readiness—and adapting learning experiences accordingly.

Every meaningful teaching decision draws on all three domains. Designing a discussion, launching a project, offering feedback, or choosing when to provide support all require teachers to balance disciplinary goals, instructional strategy, and student readiness. Great teaching lives in those intersections.

One of the most powerful implications of this framework is how it reframes growth.

The goal is not to diminish strengths or turn teachers into generalists without depth. The goal is range. A teacher with strong content expertise may need to expand pedagogical moves. A teacher with polished instructional strategies may need deeper developmental attunement. A teacher who excels at relationships may need stronger disciplinary grounding.

Without a framework, these gaps can be hard to name. With one, growth becomes visible and actionable.

For teachers, this creates a clearer path for reflection and self-assessment. For instructional leaders and coaches, it offers a shared vocabulary for feedback that is precise, respectful, and growth-oriented. The conversation shifts from “What’s your teaching style?” to “Which domains are you drawing on here, and which could you strengthen?”

At GOA, this framework is a common language for learning. We see it supporting coaching conversations, individual reflection, and collaborative work within teaching teams. Used thoughtfully, it can help teachers make sense of their practice, identify areas for growth, and expand their professional range over time. We will be sharing our strategies and tools for using the framework with our school communities this year.

Ultimately, good teaching is not about mastering a single approach. It is about developing the expertise and judgment to respond thoughtfully to complex learning moments. A shared framework helps us see that work more clearly, and supports teachers as they continue to grow into it.

For more, see:

• Expanding Teacher Range: Building Expertise Across Three Domains of Teaching
• Trends in Education 2026: The Case for Intentional Shifts
• GOA as a Lab School: Innovation Through Practice

GOA is a nonprofit learning organization that reimagines learning to empower students and educators worldwide. In partnership with our global network of 150 schools, we provide interactive, relationship-driven courses, expert resources, and innovative thinking that help to expand and elevate academic programs. Together, we help students and educators become open to the extraordinary.

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