Uploaded July 2015 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago

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So: you are a teacher, you’ve done your ELT training, you read ELT books, you watch ELT webinars, you attend ELT conferences, etc. How can you get even better as a teacher? What about doing more of the same? Is this a good idea? It seems that this would be the most obvious answer.
Yet Rory Sutherland seems to disagree. And he points out two very important things: a) The law of diminishing returns: Beyond a certain point, it takes a lot more effort to make a difference in something (and that difference is likely to be marginal); b) even if you do get better at something you are already good at, your students may not even notice. So this is the idea: perhaps we spend too much time trying to improve our knowledge about the language (grammar, discourse, phonology etc.) or methodology (methods, techniques etc.); perhaps we should focus on something else. Disciplines such as Psychology, Business Studies, Management and Behavioural Economics can potentially help us enormously. Even finding ways (as Rory Sutherland suggests) to let your students know how great you are may well be a better investment of your time (Marketing!)

[NB: I do not own the copyright to this video clip. I have uploaded it here for educational purposes].