The School Recruitment Handbook: A Guide to Attracting, Selecting and Keeping Outstanding Teachers

The School Recruitment Handbook Good teachers are distinguished by their characteristics – passion, integrity, initiat...

Author: Russell Hobby

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The School Recruitment Handbook

Good teachers are distinguished by their characteristics – passion, integrity, initiative, confidence and more – yet recruitment tends to dwell on skills and knowledge. Skills are vital, but are not the whole picture. This handbook provides a comprehensive technique for spotting and assessing the deeper characteristics of outstanding teachers during interview, using the Hay McBer research into effective teaching. Spotting an outstanding teacher, however, is wasted if you can’t attract them to your school. So here you will also find a means of evaluating, improving and communicating your school’s attractiveness to candidates and existing staff. This handbook provides a pathway through the complete recruitment process – from defining your needs to welcoming the new recruit into the school. This includes: • • •

•

•

•

Research into Teacher Effectiveness – a model of characteristics of outstanding teachers Critical Incident Interviews – comprehensive training in an interview technique proven to elicit and test deeper characteristics Definition – self-evaluation tools to help you prioritise the characteristics you are looking for, define the culture you are seeking to promote and the team roles recruits must fit into Attraction – an examination of teachers’ motives for joining schools, a self-evaluation framework for improving your attractiveness to candidates and an action plan for change Assessment – fitting the Critical Incident Interview into a full day’s assessment, combining it with group exercises and pupil feedback, plus making decisions on the evidence Induction – settling the new recruits into the processes and culture of school

Based on interviews with recruiters and recruits, surveys and original research into effective teaching, this lively guide offers practical advice for all schools – whether you are looking for truly outstanding candidates or striving to fill vacancies.

Russell Hobby is a researcher, speaker and trainer on educational leadership and organisational change. Sharon Crabtree was a maths teacher and Head of Faculty in a highly successful comprehensive school before joining an LEA Advisory Service. She is now an educational consultant. Jennifer Ibbetson has worked for major recruitment agencies and was a primary school teacher.

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CHAPTER TITLE

The School Recruitment Handbook A guide to attracting, selecting and keeping outstanding teachers

Russell Hobby Sharon Crabtree Jennifer Ibbetson

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THE SCHOOL RECRUITMENT HANDBOOK

First published 2004 by RoutledgeFalmer 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by RoutledgeFalmer 29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001

This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2004. RoutledgeFalmer is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group © 2004 Hay Group Ltd All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Hobby, Russell, 1972– The school recruitment handbook: a guide to attracting, selecting, and keeping outstanding teachers/Russell Hobby, Sharon Crabtree & Jennifer Ibbetson. p. cm. 1. Teachers–Recruiting. 2. Teachers–Selection and appointment. 3. Teachers– Rating of. I. Crabtree, Sharon, 1962– II. Ibbetson, Jennifer, 1971– III. Title. LB2835.H59 2004 371.1–dc22 2003018471

ISBN 0-203-35659-4 Master e-book ISBN

ISBN 0-203-38727-9 (Adobe eReader Format) ISBN 0–415–32348–7 (Print Edition)

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CHAPTER TITLE

Contents

Acknowledgements

1

Introduction

3

1

Something more

1

The problems with traditional recruitment

2

The benefits of a new approach

3

The role of skills and knowledge

4

Using this book

4

Complete process flowchart

6

References to frequently asked questions

7

Glossary

8

Part 1 2

viii

Core concepts and techniques

Measuring characteristics

11 13

What is a characteristic?

13

A brief history of competencies

15

The research into teacher effectiveness

15

Sixteen characteristics of effective teachers

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Seven skills of effective teachers

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From characteristics to interview probes

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Probing for skills

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Customising and extending the model

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Introducing the research to your school and broader applications

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Summary and overview of process

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Critical Incident Interviewing

27

Overview of the Critical Incident interview

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Probing for FACT – feelings, actions, context, thoughts

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Planning and structuring the interview

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CONTENTS

Part 2 4

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Recording the interview data

40

Analysing and rating the interview data

42

Exercises to develop your skills

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Variations and modifications

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Critical incident interviews in development and coaching

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The complete recruitment process

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Definition: describing your ideal candidate

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Capturing the job requirements

53

Characteristics and the shape of jobs

54

Defining your values through the culture sort

62

Understanding team roles and relationships

69

The person specification

76

Broader applications of job shape, culture and team roles

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Attraction: maximising applications

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Why work here?

81

Fundamentals of motivation and engagement

82

Why teachers join and leave schools

88

Auditing your school’s Total Reward

90

Changing your school’s Total Reward

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Building a school brand

102

Communicating your brand: adverts, packs, visits and offers

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Individualising the offer

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Selection: making the right choice

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The point of decision

114

Shortlisting for interview

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A structure for the day of the interview

116

The observed lesson

118

Group exercises for candidates

119

Forming and running a selection panel

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CONTENTS

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Induction: ensuring the best start

125

Walking in the door

125

The orientation and acclimatisation of new staff

125

Performance management and professional development

126

Evaluating your recruitment process

128

Summary and overview of process:

130

Conclusions

131

Schedule of potential INSETs and training activities

132

References

135

Part 3

Practical exercises and materials

Practical 1 Professional characteristics

137 139

The dictionary of characteristics of effective teachers

139

Interview probes for specific characteristics

155

Practical 2 Observation schedule for teaching skills

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Practical 3 Materials for conducting the interview

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Interview protocol

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Rating protocols

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Sample interview transcript

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Practical 4 Interview training materials

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Self-assessment checklist

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Interview observation checklist

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Answers to the coding exercise in Chapter 3

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Practical 5 Audits and self-evaluation tools

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Job profile exercise – questionnaire and grid

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School culture quiz

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School culture card sort and table

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School culture card sort facilitation guide

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Professional characteristics self-assessment guide

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Team social roles – a generic framework

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School Total Reward audit

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School Total Reward summary sheet

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Classroom climate questions

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Practical 6 Template person specification

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Prioritising characteristics

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Person specification

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Technical note on the origins of the methodology

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Index

226

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank all our colleagues in Hay Group. This book is based on their expertise, built up over sixty years of helping organisations become places where people thrive and excel. In particular, we would like to thank those who have developed and refined Hay’s expertise in critical incident interviewing techniques, the UK education team, especially Frank Hartle, Stephen Cunningham and David Barnard, and Patricia Marshal who directed the research into effective teaching. We have been assisted and supported by our colleagues in the profession, many of whom utilise Hay expertise in novel and challenging ways and who critique our ideas for practicality and fit. Thank you, too, to the Department for Education and Skills for inspiring and commissioning the original research. Thanks to Chris Baker for the strategy/culture matrix. Philip Cohen for job shape, Chris Watkin for coaching and Mark Thompson for engaged performance. Thanks also to Pamela Riley for testing many of the questionnaires. Crown copyright material is reproduced with the permission of the Controller of HMSO and the Queen’s Printer for Scotland.

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CHAPTER TITLE

Introduction

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Something more Teaching is a complex mixture of skills, passion and common sense, a blend of the deeply practical with the thoroughly impractical. A good teacher knows the tips and techniques of behaviour management, they know how to structure a lesson, how to assess work fairly and productively, they know about the curriculum. But there is something more, perhaps a love of the subject or a passion for social justice, a deep respect for the value of other lives, roots in the community or a knack for creating clarity, even something as simple as a sense of humour. Outstanding teachers are defined by their personal and professional characteristics as much as by their skills and knowledge. So why do we spend so much time on skills and knowledge? Because we can test them, measure them, issue qualifications to guarantee them, fit them neatly into a bullet point on a CV or application form. They are the basis of inspection and evaluation, and cannot be ignored, but an outstanding teacher has so much more Thus the irony of current practice in teacher selection and recruitment. We spend most of our time assessing attributes which contribute to only a small proportion of on-the-job success (and which are relatively easily acquired by someone with the ‘knack’). For the remainder, the very essence of outstanding teaching, we rely on the gut feel and instinct of heads and their leadership teams. In this book, we turn traditional recruitment practice on its head and present a reliable process for identifying – through interview – the deeper professional characteristics that contribute to outstanding teaching. We show how to create consistent benchmarks, record appropriate information and make decisions between candidates on the basis of their professional characteristics. We also emphasise that recruitment is as much about communication as selection. We will show you how to increase your pool of applicants while using your recruitment communications to act as a filter in their own right. This is not a cosmetic exercise. It means creating the working conditions that create job satisfaction; it means clarifying who you are and then designing compelling propositions around that identity. We therefore introduce a theory of ‘total reward’ that will help you build a workplace that attracts, motivates and retains new and existing staff. Like the effective teacher, this book combines principles and practical application. In the first section, we introduce a research-based model of teaching characteristics and the rigorous ‘Critical Incident Interviewing’ process which elicits evidence about them. In the second half, we embed these principles into an end-to-end recruitment process suitable for a wide range of schools. This runs from the design of the person specification to placing the advertisement, from sifting applications to conducting interviews, from making the offer to planning the induction. We use the Hay McBer model of teacher effectiveness, created in research for the DfES in 1999. This project sought out outstanding and effective teachers and asked: What are they doing that sets them apart? The answers provided a comprehensive and concrete list of the enduring patterns of teacher behaviour associated with high value added. We are not, however, wedded to a single view of what makes an outstanding teacher. The model is

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merely one source of criteria, well suited to this approach, but could be supplemented with others more appropriate to the needs of your school. Indeed, we introduce a roles and culture audit process that will help your leadership team clarify the sort of values and perspectives you are seeking in order to build or strengthen your school’s ethos. This will not always, we hope, be someone who fits the mould or blends in – occasionally it will include people who will shake things up, break the unwritten rules and introduce new horizons. We cannot, therefore, offer a ready built, one-size-fits-all model of the perfect teacher – they don’t exist – but a process to define what you’re looking for and select for it reliably. As education reform gathers pace in the UK, the need for a reliable method of spotting and developing characteristics becomes even more urgent. If we are looking for schools to build their own internal capacity for improvement, the research on school effectiveness suggests that certain attributes come to the fore: collaboration (between teachers and between schools), team working, shared leadership at every level, a willingness to experiment, the sharing of knowledge, vision and enthusiasm, openness to feedback. You can’t send someone on a course to give them enthusiasm. You can’t become a lifelong learner from reading a book. These behaviours are all rooted in enduring professional characteristics like empathy, confidence and respect for others. Change in schools rests on the quality of the people, before the processes and systems. The current direction of education reform demands a method of recruitment that not only selects for the professional characteristics associated with each teacher’s broader leadership role but which, by doing so, symbolises and emphasises their value. For the way we are chosen by an organisation sets the tone for how we will behave once we join.

The problems with traditional recruitment Traditional interviewing techniques are unreliable, with a poor record of spotting the best candidate. We recruit too many people who never fit in – who are not meant for teaching or, worse, who would make perfectly good teachers in a different school but fail to meet their potential in their current environment. This situation becomes particularly acute as heads widen their nets in response to the recruitment crisis, seeking overseas teachers or recruiting and training their own graduates. The techniques espoused in this book are even more crucial in these circumstances, where we can’t rely on track record or the preselection that occurs in teacher training colleges. We really are looking for the behaviour and characteristics that will help someone acquire the skills and knowledge, while surviving the first painful months. Not only do traditional interviews contain a strong subjective element, allowing our inherent biases to creep in, they also give candidates too much room to manoeuvre, to please the interviewer. Although a candidate’s principles are important, the principles espoused in the comfort of the head’s office are no guide to behaviour in the classroom. Although teamwork and collegiality are crucial, simply having been part of a team once is no guarantee that you played a helpful role. Simply: what people say is not a good guide to what they do. Traditional processes permit a great deal of conjecture, philosophising and evasion. Most people hate to lie directly in an interview, but they can let the interviewer’s imagination do the work for them: Well, in general I would approach such a child firmly but avoid confrontation. Would you? Do you, under the stress of a disruptive class? We successfully implemented the initiative three months before it became compulsory. And you . . . Led the team? Made the coffee? I think children should be treated with respect. Do you treat them with respect?

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INTRODUCTION

Yet it is possible to get at what people actually do, and thus the beliefs and principles which genuinely guide their behaviour, through the interview process. The Critical Incident Technique introduced in Chapter 3 is gruelling (and strangely cathartic) for both parties, yet produces a detailed evidence base for every candidate. The aim of the Critical Incident Interview is to generate spontaneous contributions from candidates about concrete behaviour at work. It can replace those vague earlier statements, for example, with more useful comments: I said to Jonathan, ‘leave the Walkman with Paul for now, we’ll discuss who it belongs to after the lesson and get to the bottom of it.’ I ensured the team had the resources it needed to work quickly. I met with the project leader weekly and followed a protocol which I’d designed. . . . I noticed Nicky was upset because she was quieter than usual in the art lesson. I didn’t broach the topic in front of her friends, that would only embarrass her, but caught up with her in the corridor. . . . With this sort of information we know how someone chooses to behave on the job – a selection process second only to having shadowed them for the last six months.

The benefits of a new approach The benefits of the Critical Incident Interview, allied with a detailed model of teacher effectiveness, are considerable: •

•

•

•

•

•

Firstly, it places a needed emphasis on the art and passion of teaching. With such emphasis beginning at recruitment and running throughout the school’s ethos, it becomes the foundation of the school. Second, it makes interviews fairer, as people are recruited via a rigorous, documented process, on the basis of enduring character traits rather than academic opportunity, personal background or career history. Third, it reduces the waste of time and energy created by bad career moves, either as a first placement or later on in a career, as it focuses on the fit between personality and ethos. Fourth, it focuses training and professional development where it can have the greatest impact. If we can discover people with the right professional characteristics we can provide them with access to skills and knowledge more easily than trying to make someone who never really liked children in the first place succeed. Fifth, this approach emphasises diversity and the variety of context. It is a process that helps you start from generic models but create unique specifications to move your school forward. Last, it emphasises the leadership and collaborative roles of all modern teachers, whatever their level, by helping you select for initiative, empathy, accountability and confidence.

You will discover greater numbers of more effective teachers, who belong in your school and who therefore stay for longer. You will discover people in all walks of life who have the passion, commitment, clarity of thought and energy to be outstanding teachers and make the most of the training they are given. This can only improve education and achievement. This book won’t solve the teacher recruitment crisis. It is not a systemic solution – and it has no aims in this regard. It won’t increase the number of graduates who view teaching as an attractive career and it won’t remove the burdens of paperwork, public scrutiny and pay that cause some to leave the profession. However, if we can widen the pool of potential applicants to include those with the talent, but not yet the skills, and if we can improve the fit between candidate and institution, thus retaining more people in the profession, then we are doing more than make schools a little better at competing with each other for a diminishing pool of candidates. We are finding the best teachers for pupils and the best schools for teachers.

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The role of skills and knowledge At no point do we want to appear to denigrate the role of skills and knowledge in effective teaching, nor the safety net that qualified teacher status provides. The research is clear that all competent teachers do have a common framework of skills. It is just that outstanding teachers have something more and we are already pretty good at spotting and measuring the skills. This book is an exercise in positive discrimination in favour of a key role for characteristics in recruitment and development. In regard to skills, we are making one of two assumptions: • •

Either candidates possess the required qualifications and skills (especially the experienced candidates) and you are looking for that something ‘extra’; or Candidates are lacking in some of the required skills and qualifications but you have in place a careful induction programme, with intense support, training and, especially, monitoring to provide these skills. (More on such an induction process in a later chapter.)

Teachers, whatever their flair, should not be left unsupported in the classroom without basic subject knowledge and skills in lesson-planning, behaviour management, assessment schemes, time and resource management, statutory duties, health and safety and risk assessments, to name just some of the basic requirements. QTS ensures that the knowledge and skills held by the teacher pass the necessary thresholds.

Using this book The book is split into three parts. The first part introduces the basic principles and techniques to recruit for characteristics, including the model of teacher effectiveness and a detailed explanation of Critical Incident Interviewing – the technique lying at the heart of this book. The second part describes a step-by-step recruitment process, which has Critical Incident Interviewing at its core. The third part contains practical exercises to assist you through the processes outlined. Chapter 2 – Measuring Characteristics – describes the model of teacher effectiveness, including the sixteen professional characteristics identified as critical to outstanding teaching, and its role within the recruitment process. Essentially, the model is a menu of criteria and evidence statements, from which schools can start to build their person specification. For example: Level 3: Challenges others in pupils’ best interests Challenges others to bring about the best educational outcome for all pupils, persisting in overcoming barriers; is prepared to be appropriately stern in the best interests of the pupil. This model is only one of a range available, although it is based on research and well suited to Critical Incident Interviews, and we therefore provide indications of how it can be supplemented by other criteria. Chapter 3 – Critical Incident Interviewing – instructs you in how to conduct a Critical Incident Interview. As well as an overview of the theory, it provides exercises and examples of good and bad practice. It includes advice on structure, probing, recording and preparing for these interviews. Critical Incident Interviewing is a tough skill to master – overturning many techniques with which we are comfortable – so we recommend tackling it as a team in school and we provide a process for working together to train, test and provide feedback to each other. The investment of time will be repaid in shared understanding and more efficient, more conclusive interviews. Chapter 4 – Definition – begins the practical recruitment process. It describes how to create a person specification based on the models of teacher effectiveness and other information

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INTRODUCTION

about your school’s needs. These include audits and facilitated debates about culture and team roles. The aim is to help you ask: What sort of an ethos/team are we trying to create? How far have we achieved it? Do we want someone to fit in or shake it up? What would that person look like? By the end of this section, you should have a unique person specification combining professional characteristics, professional values, informal roles and basic skills. Chapter 5 – Attraction – focuses on designing a recruitment process that is itself attractive as well as efficient and rigorous. It facilitates the question: Why would someone want to work here? We look at putting together options for attractive packages which go far beyond the restrictions of pay and benefits. We also show how to create the widest possible base of suitable candidates through the way the job is advertised and the school is marketed. Chapter 6 – Selection – positions the Critical Incident Interview within the wider school visit and examines the practicalities such as panel selection, timing, reception and positioning in relation to other selection exercises, such as the observed lesson and group exercises. Chapter 7 – Induction – concludes the recruitment process by investigating the implications of Critical Incident Interviewing for early support and training. We also look at how the process can be evaluated to ensure continuous improvement. The book contains extensive practical materials, including the complete Dictionary of Teaching Characteristics and numerous pro–formas, questionnaires, checklists and schemas referred to by earlier sections. These are available for you to photocopy for internal use in your school, amending as you see fit. As you may invest considerable time mastering the techniques, it is worth noting that Critical Incident Interviewing needn’t be confined to the recruitment process. It is also a powerful technique for encouraging someone to reflect on their actual behaviour at work and for identifying strengths and weaknesses. As such, it can have a useful role in career management, training (especially leadership development), performance management and coaching. We’d like to hear your ideas and suggestions. If you have any comments or questions, you can reach the authors at: [email protected]

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Complete process flowchart

Figure 1.1 A flowchart of the complete process

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INTRODUCTION

References to frequently asked questions

If you have direct questions about specific parts of the recruitment process or common challenges, these references can take you straight to the appropriate part of the book without the need to browse. How do I write a job or person specification? ‘The person specification’, Chapter 4 What is the best way to advertise a job? ‘Communicating your brand’, Chapter 5 How should I plan and organise the day of the interview? ‘A structure for the day’, Chapter 6 What might attract teachers to my school? ‘Auditing your school’s Total Reward’, Chapter 5 How should I record and use information from an interview? ‘Recording the interview data’, Chapter 3; ‘Forming and running a selection panel’, Chapter 6 How can we increase the number of candidates? ‘Changing your school’s Total Reward, building a school brand’, Chapter 5 What should I be looking for in candidates? Chapter 2 How do I spot if a candidate is lying or evading the truth? ‘Probing for FACT’, Chapter 3 How can I tell if someone is going to fit in? ‘Defining your values through the culture sort’, Chapter 4 What are the alternatives to the formal interview? ‘Group exercises for candidates’, Chapter 6 What evidence should I look for in candidates without teaching experience? ‘From characteristics to interview probes’, Chapter 2 What should I do with a new recruit when they arrive? Chapter 7 What is an appropriate way to involve pupils in the selection process? ‘The observed lesson’, Chapter 6 How does recruiting for more senior roles affect the process? ‘Characteristics and the shape of jobs’, Chapter 4 How do I know it’s working? ‘Evaluation’, Chapter 7

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Glossary

This book borrows some technical terms and introduces more of its own. It also uses words with common sense definitions in specific, technical senses. The aim of this glossary is to provide clarity over definitions and serve as a ready reference to the concepts used in the book.

Achievement motivation The drive to do something better for its own sake, for the intrinsic satisfaction of beating standards or improving results. Affiliation motivation

A need to build and maintain positive relationships with colleagues

Assessment centre A collection of exercises and tests designed to mirror realistic job situations and elicit authentic behaviours from candidates. A-type A role or work culture biased towards accountability over problem-solving. The holder must deliver critical results but is not required to innovate. Brand A compelling statement of identity: what we stand for as an institution and why we are different. To be effective in recruitment, a school’s brand must reflect the reality of working conditions there. We suggest seven criteria of an effective brand. It is focused, consistent, concrete, credible, persuasive, relevant and distinctive. Characteristic An enduring, typical or habitual pattern of behaviour, such as initiative, flexibility or a passion for learning. Fundamental to effective teaching performance and assessed through the Critical Incident Interview. Climate, classroom The factors in the social environment of the classroom which awaken the motivation and engagement of pupils: what it feels like to learn with that teacher. Includes clarity, standards, interest, order, safety, support, participation, fairness and the physical environment. Climate, school Factors in the social environment of the school, products of leadership styles and behaviours, which affect the motivation and productivity of staff. Closely connected to the achievement motivation. Includes clarity, standards, flexibility, responsibility, reward and team commitment. Cluster A group of characteristics. Effective teachers are expected to show strengths across the five clusters of characteristics described in the dictionary of teacher effectiveness, rather than every single characteristic. Different teachers achieve success in different ways. Codable Data A statement by the candidate in a Critical Incident Interview which provides acceptable evidence of a characteristics. Must be descriptive of an actual action, thought or feel, rooted in a past event (which is clearly understood by the interviewer in terms of participants, location, etc.) and expressed in the first person. Coding The act of reviewing a Critical Incident Interview transcript or notes for the codable data. Competency A characteristic, behaviour, value or skill predictive of effective or superior performance in a specific job.

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INTRODUCTION

Critical incident A coherent event in a candidate’s career (or, more rarely, social life) which showcases their characteristics. Narrated in detail by the candidate in the first person and guided by the interviewer using probes to create the right depth. Critical incident interview A means of assessing characteristics, structuring a series (usually three) of critical incidents together with appropriate introductions, guidance and conclusions. May also include traditional interview techniques. Culture The shared values and beliefs of an organisation: what we agree is true and what we agree is right. Culture is neither all pervasive nor uncontested but has powerful means of propagating itself (through ‘reinforcing behaviours’) and is critical to school improvement and effectiveness. Dictionary of the characteristics of effective teachers A collection of characteristics discovered through research to be associated with effective and outstanding teaching. Each characteristic has a number of levels and appears in different combinations for main grade, post threshold and AST/outstanding levels of teaching. Excellence factor Drawing on Herzberg’s research, a feature of the working environment with the potential to create high levels of job satisfaction. Also known as a Satisfier. Includes achievement, recognition, personal growth. Hygiene factor Drawing on Herzberg’s research, a feature of the working environment which will not, even when positive, create high levels of job satisfaction but, when negative or weak, will create high levels of dissatisfaction. Also known as a Dissatisfier. Includes bureaucracy, security, convenience. Job evaluation A process for understanding the design and shape of work, comparing a job’s requirements for know-how, problem-solving and accountability Job profile An individual job’s balance of problem-solving and accountability. Jobs high in problem-solving and low in accountability are ‘creative’; jobs high in accountability and low in problem-solving are ‘delivery’ oriented. Jobs low in both are ‘safe’ and routine; jobs high in both are ‘risky’ and stretching. Leadership style Typical approach to motivating, influencing and directing colleagues activity, connected to the creation of effective climates. Strong leaders have a repertoire of styles, including coaching, coercive, authoritative, democratic, affiliative and pacesetting. Model of teacher effectiveness

See Dictionary of the Characteristics of Effective Teachers.

Motivation Intrinsic goal (need or drive) which energises, orients and selects behaviour. Common work-related motives include achievement, affiliation and power. Operational behaviours Those work-related actions driven by organisational culture and values, can include wide range of behaviour fundamental to teaching Person specification The collected requirements for a specific role. May include professional characteristics (weighted by job shape and team roles), values, skills, knowledge and experience. Power motivation A need for ‘impact, control or influence over another person, group or the world at large’. Professional characteristic Enduring, typical or habitual pattern of behaviour known to be associated with effective performance at work. P-type A role or work culture biased towards problem-solving over accountability. Then role has space for creativity and free thinking, but is not directly responsible for critical organisational results. Rating protocol A marking guide for Critical Incident Interview transcripts. It details the levels of characteristics expected for different levels of the teaching profession,

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together with the criteria for the presence. The protocol also indicates the expected combinations of characteristics and enables an assessment of a candidate’s strength across the clusters. Reinforcing behaviours Actions and behaviours which, consciously or unconsciously, propagate, communicate and enforce cultural values. They include hierarchies, status recognition, rituals, role modes, symbols. School profile The common shape of jobs within a school, indicating an overall orientation to accountability or problem-solving. See Job profile. Shape, job

See Job profile.

Social role The habitual, informal and often tacit roles individuals in a team tend to slip into. Not formal positions or job descriptions, but ways of relating to each other, managing mutual expectation, co-ordinating contributions and making a meaningful contribution. Neither fixed nor exclusive. Total Reward The net balance of all the factors that make a school and attractive or unattractive place to work. Extends far beyond salary and tangible benefits to address motivation and requirements for job satisfaction.

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INTRODUCTION

Part 1 Core concepts and techniques

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12

MEASURING CHARACTERISTICS

Measuring characteristics

2

The first step in recruiting staff for their enduring characteristics is to establish a clear idea of what we are seeking. If a sense of initiative, for example, is part of being a good teacher, how will we know it when we see it and will we all agree? Are there degrees or levels of initiative? Is initiative really critical after all? This chapter presents a comprehensive and detailed model of the characteristics of effective teachers, drawn from research conducted by the Hay Group on behalf of the DfES (Hay Group 2000). It describes how the model was derived, what it contains and how to use it as the basis for recruitment. The complete model, described as a ‘Dictionary of the Characteristics of Effective Teachers’ is included in Part 3, practical 1.

What is a characteristic? We define a characteristic as an enduring personality trait – a pattern of behaviour exhibited over the long term and in a variety of situations. Acting with initiative is a character trait, as are self-confidence, integrity and assertiveness. Being able to plan a lesson is a skill: using learned procedures for making decisions. It is interesting, however, that two teachers can use the same lesson plan and yet reach very different outcomes in terms of learning. Our research leads us to conclude that the teachers’ characteristics make the difference. Characteristics can include motives (e.g. a need for achievement), dispositions to certain responses (e.g. resilience), values and beliefs (e.g. self-esteem) and cognitive skills (e.g. deductive reasoning). Clearly, characteristics and skills interact – and the dividing line between the two is not stark – but we regard characteristics as more fundamental determinants of performance at work. Our characteristics will determine when we choose to use our skills and whether we use them appropriately. They may also determine which skills we choose to acquire and practice. I may have been sent on a time management course, and know all the rules, but, in the press of my daily activities, do I habitually live my live in an ordered and planned fashion? In an exam or formal setting I may solve problems in a highly analytical fashion, breaking them apart and following cause and effect, but do I behave this way at work? Another way of thinking about characteristics, therefore, is to see them as habits. For these reasons, and because they drive large swathes of our behaviour in the workplace, characteristics are the most important attributes we should be thinking about in developing, recruiting and supporting our teaching staff. Characteristics drive performance in every role, but the greater the degree of human interaction, discretion and creativity, the more critical they become. It is hard, therefore, not to regard them as fundamental to effective teaching. Research backs this up and so does common sense. Take a few moments to reflect on the most inspiring teacher you have ever known. Jot down the words that come into your mind to describe them. The chances are you used characteristics. We can always remember a teacher who believed in us, or made us laugh, or helped us understand long after we’ve forgotten the structure of the lesson.

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CORE CONCEPTS AND TECHNIQUES

Of course, not all characteristics are of equal relevance; a sensitivity to organisational politics, for example, is an enduring trait but does not play much of a role in determining outstanding classroom performance (it may come in handy later in one’s career, though, in management positions). In looking for characteristics to use as the basis of recruitment, we are only interested in those which make a difference, which make someone a good teacher or a good colleague. We label these ‘professional characteristics’. Although it may appear obvious, it is not always easy to pinpoint the difference between, say, a competent professional and an outstanding performer in terms of attributes. Sometimes we may be surprised by the way people actually go about their job in reality rather than theory – the shortcuts they take or the obstacles they must overcome. Sometimes we describe jobs in politically correct or aspirational terms. Other times the reality of what it takes to succeed is more mundane than we expect. For whatever reason is often hard to estimate the professional characteristics that lead to outstanding performance using intuition alone. It is unfortunate, therefore, that the preferred method for reaching national standards for the teaching profession appears to consist of sitting a group of bright people down in a room to brainstorm all the possibilities. This is then reviewed by focus groups and the various stakeholders, government agencies and professional associations, who add extra items according to their agendas, or remove items which are too dangerous to promote openly. The result is that, while most of the items on the list are acceptable, there are too many, they are too bland and there is no way to focus on the few things that really make a difference in the classroom. The situation is complicated by the fact that teachers themselves often find it very difficult to explain how they succeed in the classroom. ‘I just do it.’ ‘It works.’ ‘How else would you do it?’ are typical responses to our probes. Teaching is an active profession; when it’s going well you are caught in the flow, responding to the demands of the class, not analysing your performance. Until recently, teaching has also been a relatively isolated profession, with practitioners having few benchmarks against which to judge themselves and discover whether they are doing anything unusual. For these reasons, it is important to take an evidence-based approach to defining professional characteristics. In essence, this approach is quite simple: 1 2

3 4

Agree a common definition of performance and the measures which would reveal it. Compose two sufficiently large groups of current job holders, one of which is judged to be competent against the agreed performance measures and the other of which is judged to be outstanding. (By comparison with other professions, teachers are blessed by a wealth of discussion and data on what constitutes superior performance. These days, it is not difficult to populate each group reliably.) Investigate the characteristics spontaneously displayed by each group in relevant work situations. Characteristics displayed by both groups are threshold or baseline requirements; characteristics displayed only (or more often or more comprehensively) by the outstanding group distinguish high performance and can be summarised in a model of effectiveness.

Of course, a great deal of territory is covered by point 3, which we will cover in more detail in the section below on the research into teacher effectiveness. The key point here is that, in research as in recruitment, highly structured questioning and multiple choice responses effectively put behaviours into the candidate’s mouth, disguising what they really do in the job. Therefore, we suggest that, because professional characteristics drive performance at work, and because it is possible to measure and describe them rigorously, they should form the basis for recruitment decisions. This is not to say we are uninterested in skills and knowledge, far from it, but without the character traits to ensure such skills are used appropriately, they are merely wasted education.

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A brief history of competencies Our proposal to base teacher recruitment on professional characteristics is far from original, nor is the proposition that characteristics lie at the heart of superior performance a unique insight. Indeed Professor David McClelland, the founder of McBer & Co., first proposed that we should be testing for competence rather than for intelligence in a seminal article in 1973. At this time, McClelland and others asserted that not only did measures of academic aptitude and credentials fail to predict performance at work or success in life, they were biased against minorities, women and socio–economic status (Fallows 1999). Since then, Professor Boyatzis (The Competent Manager) and more recently Daniel Goleman (Working with Emotional Intelligence) have elaborated the tradition. Goleman states, for example, that ‘emotional competencies were found to be twice as important in contributing to excellence as pure intellect and expertise’ (Goleman 1999). The term ‘competency’ was coined to summarise all those traits which are predictive of superior performance. Boyatzis defined a competency as ‘an underlying characteristic of an individual which is causally related to effective or superior performance in a job’ (Boyatzis 1982). The role of tradition and political correctness rather than evidence in the definition of professional characteristics was amply demonstrated by McClelland’s early research for the US Navy. While investigating successful captains, McClelland would ask them and their commanding officers their opinion on what made a good captain. The most common answer was courage. When investigating the characteristics actually displayed by outstanding captains, McClelland discovered they were distinguished more by organisational skills and a perceived concern for their crews. Today, 61 per cent of organisations in the private sector and 54 per cent in the public sector use characteristics or competencies in their recruitment (Competency and Emotional Intelligence). Most schools, with less formal language perhaps, also look for characteristics in their new staff. Yet few organisations in any sector apply any kind of rigour either when deciding what characteristics they are looking for or when assessing candidates against them. In the next chapter, we cover the rigorous assessment of candidates’ professional characteristics. In this chapter, we cover what to look for.

The research into teacher effectiveness In 1999, the Hay Group began investigating the characteristics of effective teachers. We were asked to do so by the DfES to help bring forward proposals in the Green Paper Teachers: Meeting the Challenge of Change, which required a clear view, for the purposes of performance management and career progression, of what good teaching looked like. Reviewing over 200 previous studies, and despite a growing body of detail on classroombased skills, actions or ‘micro–behaviours,’ (for example, Mortimore et al. 1992) we discovered little consensus and even less detail on how the deep seated characteristics of teachers might lead to the well-documented and observable classroom outcomes associated with effective learning (Hay Group 2000). We followed the methodology outlined in previous sections, selecting two groups of ninety teachers each, using value–added data (supplemented with assessments from their headteachers) to distinguish ‘effective’ and ‘highly effective’ professionals. We then studied these teachers through a variety of techniques including lesson observation, biometric/ demographic data, self, peer and pupil assessment. However, the main technique was the Behavioural Event Interview – a research version of the Critical Incident Interview approach promoted in this book. Each teacher was interviewed for three hours about critical incidents in their career. These interviews were recorded, transcribed and coded for patterns of behaviour – the total sample producing about 40,000 pages of data. There is a certain

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symmetry in the fact that the same technique used in research to produce the model of characteristics should also be used in practice to assess candidates against those characteristics. It also reinforces the rigour of the approaches we are recommending here. An unexpected and affirming picture emerged from the early research, which is worth quoting at length: . . . [W]e found that biometric data (i.e. information about a teachers’ age and teaching experience, additional responsibilities, qualifications, career history and so on) did not allow us to predict their effectiveness as a teacher. Effective and outstanding teachers came from diverse backgrounds. Our data did not show that school context could be used to predict pupil progress. Effective and outstanding teachers teach in all kinds of schools and school contexts. This means that using biometric data to predict a teacher’s effectiveness could well lead to the exclusion of some potentially outstanding teachers. This finding is also consistent with the notion that pupil progress outcomes are affected more by a teacher’s skills and professional characteristics than by factors such as their sex, qualifications or experience. It was down to what the teacher chose to do, not about the right qualifications or being lucky with the area in which you taught. Indeed, putting together data on skills, professional characteristics and the climate they created in the classroom enables us to predict well over 30 per cent of the variance in pupil progress from class to class. This puts an enormous emphasis on the importance of these skills and characteristics in recruitment and development – investing in the development of professional characteristics, through both recruitment and training, could have a significant impact on standards. We now turn to look in detail at the characteristics and skills that do lead to outstanding performance.

Sixteen characteristics of effective teachers Equally good teachers may teach very differently. They may have different inspiration, different techniques, different sorts of pupils with which they excel; a certain amount of individualism, even eccentricity, may be part of their success. In this sense, despite the claims from the research title, there is no compulsory model of teacher effectiveness, no single route to success. Rather, the ‘model’ we are promoting here is a list of potential ingredients, put together in different combinations and amounts by different teachers. From our sample of highly effective teachers, sixteen characteristics emerged as contributing to success, but not every teacher possessed all of them. Rather, the characteristics could be separated into five clusters: highly effective teachers had strengths in each cluster, but not every characteristic. Figure 1 describes these clusters and their contents. This has important implications for recruitment, the most important being that we are not pursuing a sixteen-item checklist; strengths in one area can compensate for gaps in another. This also means that we, as recruiters, have a certain amount of flexibility in how we use the model. We want to structure an interview process that ranges across the five clusters, but we may also want to focus on some characteristics that fit our ethos or needs as a school (or the demands of the individual job) more closely than others. We therefore have a range of questions or probes, which vary from simply asking candidates to demonstrate their behaviour within a particular cluster, to demonstrating the possession of a particular characteristic. The section below entitled ‘From characteristics to interview probes’ will explore this process in depth. We will now briefly define and describe the sixteen characteristics. A more comprehensive review is available as a dictionary of characteristics in Part 3, Practical 1. This is intended

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as a reference tool to use when deciding on interview probes and assessing interview data. As the dictionary makes clear, every characteristic can be displayed at a number of levels, representing increased complexity, sophistication or power. Thus, confidence can range from a general sense of optimism or self-belief to the willingness to take on serious risks (or figures in authority) in pursuit of one’s principles. These levels can sometimes be related to different levels of seniority as a teacher and Chapter 4 on Definition provides more information about using job size to adapt the basic model. •

Professionalism – a core of strongly held and enacted values Respect for others – The underlying belief that individuals matter and deserve respect Challenge and support – A commitment to do everything possible for each pupil and enable all pupils to be successful Confidence – The belief in one’s ability to be effective and to take on challenges Creating trust – Being consistent and fair. Keeping one’s word

•

Thinking – the drive to ask ‘why?’ and to see patterns Analytical thinking – The ability to think logically, break things down, and recognise cause and effect Conceptual thinking – The ability to see patterns and links, even when there is a lot of detail

•

Planning and setting expectations – targeting energy and effort where it will make the most difference to pupils Drive for improvement – Relentless energy for setting and meeting challenging targets, for pupils and the school Information seeking – A drive to find out more and get to the heart of things; intellectual curiosity Initiative – The drive to act now to anticipate and pre-empt events

•

Leading – directing, inspiring and motivating others Flexibility – The ability and willingness to adapt to the needs of a situation and change tactics Holding people accountable – The drive and ability to set clear expectations and parameters and to hold others accountable for performance Managing pupils – The drive and the ability to provide clear direction to pupils, and to enthuse and motivate them Passion for learning – The drive and an ability to support pupils in their learning, and to help them become confident and independent learners

•

Relating to others – managing one’s relationships and interactions effectively Impact and influence – The ability and the drive to produce positive outcomes by impressing and influencing others Understanding others – The drive and ability to understand others, and why they behave as they do Teamworking– The ability to work with others to achieve shared goals

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Figure 2.1 Professional characteristics and their clusters

Seven skills of effective teachers Outstanding teachers were not only distinguished by their characteristics – they also possessed and used a set of skills or ‘micro–behaviours’. Based on work by Professor David Reynolds we looked, through lesson observation, for thirty–five different skills. These were clustered into the seven headings used in Ofsted inspections. They are: •

High expectations

•

Planning

•

Variety of teaching strategies

•

Pupil management/discipline

•

Time and resource management

•

Assessment

•

Homework

The consistent use of these skills and approaches meant that on average effective teachers had their pupils on task for over 90 per cent of the lesson, and that the lesson struck an appropriate balance between individual, group and whole-class work, including interactive work, lectures and tests. In primary schools, the outstanding teachers scored significantly higher on average in four out of the seven clusters: high expectations, time and resource management, assessment and homework. In secondary schools there was even stronger differentiation covering all clusters, but it was particularly evident in high expectations, planning and homework.

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From characteristics to interview probes To use the model of teacher effectiveness, and specifically the sixteen characteristics, in recruitment we need to move from definitions to questions. Our key task during the recruitment process is to ascertain if a candidate possesses any of the characteristics described above, and in what degree. We don’t, however, want to pose candidates questions such as ‘Are you an effective teamworker?’ or even ‘How do you influence people?’ These would give us back the traditional interview problems of inviting espoused views rather than actions, or of candidates picking an isolated example rather than demonstrating a character trait. In an ideal world, we want candidates to spontaneously volunteer examples of actual team work or influencing strategies from their experience, without imposing structure. In the real world, we may not have time, even in a lengthy interview, for such free flow, so we may need to make some form of compromise with structure when choosing our probes. We would therefore recommend the middle of the three options presented below. However, if your recruitment process has more or less space than normal, you can choose the other extremes, or possibly blend combinations: a few Semi–Structured probes with some Fully Structured probes, for example. Free flow

No hints as to what you are looking for, the candidate talks broadly about topics of their own choosing. You examine the patterns of behaviour that are spontaneously volunteered. Example probe: ‘Tell me about a time when you felt you were particularly successful in the classroom.’

Semi–structured

Uses the five clusters of characteristics to structure the discussion, but does not prompt for specific characteristics. Example probe: ‘Tell me about a time when you fought for something you believed in at school.’

Fully structured

Looks for evidence of a particular characteristic and guides the candidate in that direction. Example probe: ‘Tell me about a time when you played an important role as part of a team of teachers trying to solve a problem or implement a change.’

You will also find that candidates become progressively more comfortable with the approaches as they become more structured, reflecting familiar interview practice. The most common response to a really open-ended question like ‘tell me about a time when you felt you were particularly successful …’ is a long uncomfortable silence. In a typical interview, given the techniques we develop in the next chapter, you will only have time for between three and five core questions. This makes it highly unlikely that the Fully Structured approach, by itself, will elicit enough evidence for a clear decision. It also means that, in many cases, you will need to prioritise the clusters used even in the Semi–Structured model – one or two may well slip off the end of interview agenda. This is not a calamity, however. Even when probing for evidence in a particular cluster, candidates will introduce many examples of behaviour belonging to other clusters, which can and should be accepted as evidence. They may, for example, be talking about a time when they led a project in the school, naturally generating evidence about initiative, impact and influence and flexibility, but their professional values around integrity and confidence could easily be equally evident. We recommend three options for prioritising clusters during interviews: • •

•

Either, choose the three most important clusters to your school or for the particular role, through discussion as a senior leadership team (or indeed as a whole school); Or, concentrate on Leading, Planning and Setting Expectations and Relating to Others. Professionalism and Thinking will often show up as themes running through other stories. Alternatively, use one Free Flow probe (good for Professionalism, particularly) and two to four Semi–Structured probes.

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Below, we provide a range of initial probes for each of the five clusters. The next chapter on Critical Incident Interviewing will provide clearer instructions on how these probes should be used. •

Professionalism

Tell me about a time when you fought for something you believed in at school Tell me about a time when you felt you made a real difference to someone’s life in school

•

Thinking

Tell me about an important project or initiative you have planned and implemented Tell me about a time when you confronted a serious problem, challenge or ‘unknown’ that affected your work

•

Leading

Tell me about a time when you confronted poor or unacceptable performance Tell me about a time when you led others within your school

•

Planning and Setting Expectations

Tell me about a time when you made a major change in your approach to teaching Tell me about a time when you changed the way things are done in your school

•

Relating to Others

Tell me about a time when you worked as part of a group of teachers to implement an initiative or study a new approach Tell me about a time when you changed a colleague’s mind about something important: a teaching technique, a pupil, etc.

The Fully Structured approach requires probes on specific characteristics and Part 3, Practical 1 contains a list of suitable probes for each. The probes used in both the Semi- and Fully Structured approaches can easily be adapted to candidates without teaching experience, whether NQTs or graduate trainees. Encourage candidates to search for examples in their college career, other jobs, hobbies and clubs or their private life. You do need to address the question of whether they will apply their characteristics in school: a passion for a hobby may drive behaviour that is not carried over into work. In particular, you should ask that one of the incidents be selected from work experience and seek to structure probes from the Professionalism cluster to focus on learning. For example: Tell me about a time when you helped someone achieve something they hadn’t been able to do before

Probing for skills You may also want to gather evidence on the seven groups of teaching skills confirmed during the research. As these are heavily classroom-based, and relatively easily observable, we recommend investigating these through an observed lesson on the day of the interview, and we provide an observation schedule in Part 3, Practical 2 to facilitate this. It would be even more effective to visit their school and observe the teacher in their usual setting but this is not always practical. It is, however, not impossible to gather skills level data through the interview process itself: you could either make particular probes against particular skills or examine the data generated in pursuit of characteristics for additional evidence of skills. Interview data from the Leading cluster is often rich in evidence for pupil management and varied teaching strategies; stories about Challenge and Support may provide data about setting expectations; the Planning and Expectations cluster may also provide data about lesson planning, time and resource management and assessment. Be wary of generating too many criteria for easy or consistent evaluation. Again, tacking a few highly structured questions on to the end of a more free flowing interview is a

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legitimate technique, particularly if there are certain skills of clear importance for your school’s context. Otherwise, we emphasise here the priority of gathering data on professional characteristics through the interview process.

Customising and extending the model The model of teacher effectiveness is a powerful foundation for recruiting teachers. It is flexible enough to welcome diverse approaches to teaching, but also rooted in evidence that these characteristics really do contribute to greater pupil progress. If you can discover candidates who possess strengths in each cluster then you are going a long way to reliably recruiting outstanding teachers. The model is also exceptionally detailed, providing clear criteria against which to assess candidates’ behaviour, and thus ensuring consistent decisions between different candidates and different interviewers. Furthermore, the different levels ascribed to each characteristic will help you identify candidates who are ‘on the cusp’ and who may excel given appropriate support and development. However, the model is not the only set of criteria that could be employed in making decisions about teaching characteristics, and the Critical Incident Interviewing techniques presented in the next chapter can be used in relation to any criteria that are sufficiently detailed, comprehensive and concrete and which concern themselves with enduring patterns of behaviour. There are three options for going ‘beyond the model’: • •

•

Build your own model – recapitulate the research on a smaller scale within your own school or cluster of schools Amend and supplement our model – in fact we recommend this approach: it involves critically assessing the sixteen characteristics and five clusters for relevance and fit with your needs. Use other sources – work from national standards, other documents or research on outstanding teaching

Each of these approaches is worth discussing in more detail as they have the potential not only to increase the sophistication of the criteria we provide but also to facilitate acceptance within your school. If you have the resources and time, you may wish to create your own model of teacher effectiveness. This approach has the valuable benefit of getting the whole school involved in reflecting on and discussing what makes good teaching, while providing criteria that use your own language and examples. You can also extend the criteria to take account of learning support assistants and other non–teaching staff. The teacher effectiveness model can be used as a style guide and a check point to ensure your perspective takes account of national practice. You can take a swifter, discursive approach to generating the criteria or pursue a more active, but time-consuming, investigation; or combine the two. The ‘discursive’ approach to generating your own criteria could fill part of an INSET day focused on teaching and learning. A template process would include the following steps: 1

2

3

4

Introduce the aims and scope of the session. Encourage staff to brainstorm the range of possible applications of such a model (from recruitment to lesson observation, for example). Ask staff to work in pairs or threes to reflect upon and describe the most effective teachers they have known and worked with (this should include teachers they have been taught by). The attributes they arrive at, which can cover any level of detail, should be written on post-it notes. Each group should stick their post-its on a wall. Then ask everybody, working without management, to organise the groups into clusters of similar or identical attributes. (This could be done in sections of the whole staff to ease logistics.) When the attributes have been clustered satisfactorily, ask a temporary chairperson to negotiate with the group to assign a title to each cluster, and select the few words or phrases that sum up its nuances.

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5

6

7

Assign a group to each cluster. Ask them to think through and write up specific concrete examples, from their experience, of the attribute(s). As many examples as possible are to be welcomed. The criteria are that they should include who said and did what, in what context and with what results. A single person will need to write the notes up into a comprehensive dictionary of the attributes of effective teachers. Each attribute should have a single page, with a title, brief explanatory text and a range of examples. Aim to separate skill- and knowledgebased attributes from enduring character traits within the document. Circulate the draft document and ask people to consider the following questions: a Is this a complete picture? What have we missed? b Is this equally applicable to all teaching roles in the school, or are there variations for seniority, level, subject, age range, etc. c Would you expect an NQT to achieve all these attributes, or will they only emerge in a more experienced teacher? d Are there any attributes which are more important than others? Is there a sense of priority within the list? e Is there anything controversial or inappropriate?

The result is a potentially powerful document, owned by the entire staff, rooted in your experience, challenges and language. As the initial brainstorm will reveal, this can be used in many more applications than recruitment. The weaknesses are that you have no guarantee, other than gut feel and common sense, that you have chosen the right attributes for effective teaching, rather than the attributes you want to see. Have you challenged your preconceptions? One defence against this would be to share the criteria with other schools in different circumstances to your own. Additionally, you will have an undifferentiated list of attributes – a one-size-fits-all approach – rather than clusters within which different teachers can demonstrate different strengths. It is possible to go for a fully researched model of teacher effectiveness within a single school or, more feasibly, within a collaborative group of schools like a network learning community. The aim here, in the ‘investigation’ approach is to recapitulate the Hay research. You will have certain advantages and disadvantages in doing so. The disadvantages are lack of time and expertise in the research methodology. The advantages are that you are much closer to the subjects – you are the subjects – and so can investigate characteristics and behaviour in more detail over a longer time period. Given that you will be ‘investigating’ your colleagues and yourself, this will form an action research style project. The chief obstacle to this approach is selecting and composing two groups of teachers who are openly judged to have different levels of performance. This can be a controversial step, creating divisions and discouraging people from participating as they are often embarrassed to be highlighted as outstanding or disappointed to be labelled as merely ‘effective’. There are a number ways around this obstacle: 1 2

3 4

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‘Brazen it out’. There are clearly people in your school or schools who are outstanding and others who are effective or competent. This is not news to anyone. Keep the performance judgements and criteria confidential. This, however, destroys the trust and acceptance we would be looking to generate from an in–house model. And, anyway, people will have their own views, correctly or otherwise, on who fits into which group. Generate several levels of performance (perhaps five), ranging from competent to outstanding, which create less distinct divisions. Take a context–specific view of outstanding performance. Different teachers tend to excel with different groups of pupils or circumstances: older versus younger, gifted versus challenged, boys versus girls, literacy versus numeracy. Identify the range of different circumstances that matter in your school and identify the people who excel in them. This, although fairly complicated, has the advantage of generating multiple ‘poles’ of excellence: every teacher is likely to be strong in some areas and in need of development in others.


With the issue of defining high performance for your school solved, you will need to gather detailed and defensible performance data for all participating staff. This can, and should, run as a parallel stream to the main investigation. From this point forward, you need to gather rich information on what teachers actually do. Every teacher is a potential subject and every teacher is a potential researcher. Ideally, this phase should take place at a relaxed pace over the course of a term or a year, utilising a range of techniques: • • • • • •

Repeated lesson observation Pupil feedback and assessment Peer interviews (using the Critical Incident Interviewing technique detailed in the next chapter) Line manager assessments Shadowing Journals and diaries

It is important to ensure a consistent format for different researchers to use to gather and record data within each technique. This can be achieved through pre–prepared pro formas. You can also use the discursive approach described above to generate some initial criteria as ‘hypotheses’ to drive the investigation. The project will soon generate large volumes of information which will need to be carefully filed, with all the data relating to a single individual collated into a single ‘data set’. After the data-gathering phase, you will need to form conclusions from the data. This is the most painful part. You will need to form a group, which could include all participants or an inner core, to review and debate the data. Each participant should be assigned a number of individual data sets (ideally between three and five) to read. The assignments should be overlapping, so that each subject is read by at least two people. The task of the readers is twofold: to get a feel for the ‘big picture’ of the subject – why they do what they do and how they do it; and also to isolate all concrete examples of behaviour, whether a skill displayed or an enduring characteristic, from the data. These should be summarised on a separate sheet but marked according to which performance group they were generated by (i.e. whether from an effective or highly effective teacher). The behavioural summaries are then brought into a discussion, known as concept formation. This will require careful facilitation and may run over several days. The aim of the discussion is to examine which categories of behaviour are displayed by all teachers studied, and which are only displayed by those judged as high performers. These are the ‘threshold’ and ‘differentiating’ characteristics. It will be an important part of the discussion not only to create the labels for the characteristics but to capture as much of the detail as possible, quoting the most powerful examples verbatim. These should be written up into a draft dictionary, for circulation and review, in the manner described above for the discursive approach. Both the data-gathering and concept-formation are gruelling activities, but have the potential to create a detailed, compelling, accurate and context specific document. We have been discussing two ways in which you can go beyond the model presented in this book and create your own model. These approaches involve creating an entirely new set of criteria for effective teaching, which may be intriguing and rewarding but which may also feel like reinventing the wheel. There are two less strenuous approach for going beyond the model. The first, is simply to amend and supplement what is already there. You could use some of the techniques presented previously, in a watered down format, to facilitate this approach but the aim is simply to take a critical attitude, as leadership team or whole staff, to the characteristics: • • • • •

Do we accept these as characteristic of effective teaching? Is there anything missing that would be vital in our school? Is there anything vague, unclear or inappropriate? What examples can we draw from our own experience to illustrate these characteristics in a more compelling fashion? Do we have any unusual roles or activities which are not covered by these characteristics?

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The result of these questions may well be a series of amendments and additions to the model – changes to language and style, additional examples and illustrations, new characteristics, new levels. The model is extensively researched but not sacrosanct: it should be made to work for you. Finally, you can seek out other models of skills and characteristics, to blend in with or replace the professional characteristics. These might include the relevant National Standards (e.g. QTS), threshold criteria or Ofsted frameworks.

Introducing the research to your school and broader applications The models of teacher effectiveness have far-reaching implications for many aspects of life in schools. They are also highly sensitive, making judgements and setting criteria that cut to the heart of your staff’s work and professional pride. If they are only going to be used for recruitment, the issue of introducing the models and embedding them within the school is less serious, but still should be addressed – consensus on the criteria for selection will help new recruits become more fully accepted more quickly and will help other people participate effectively in the recruitment process. However, it would be a waste to limit the models to recruitment. The range of applications for an evidence–based model of effective teaching is significant. It includes: •

Performance Management – helping people set rigorous, evidence–based professional development objectives as part of the PM process. The characteristics can also help staff with Threshold applications and movement along the upper pay scale, for which they need to demonstrate superior and sustain performance. Competency-based PM is an important and extensive topic in its own right and a useful reference is Getting the Best out of Performance Management in Your School (Hartle et al. 2001)

•

School Self-evaluation – the model of effective teaching and the interview techniques presented below provide both a framework and a method for gathering data on the quality of teaching and learning.

•

School Development Planning – if the quality of teaching and learning is fundamental to standards of achievement then any SDP should include strategies for raising the capability of staff. This can include the introduction of research into effective teaching, the generation of a code of professional conduct incorporating the characteristics, the formation of professional communities and study groups around the development of characteristics and, of course, CPD.

•

Continuing Professional Development – encouraging and tracking the development of professional characteristics as well as skills, ensuring professional development has a significant classroom focus.

•

Career Management and Succession Planning – the levels within the dictionary of characteristics indicate how they develop as roles become more senior and complex. This enables teachers to plan their own career path and future training needs against their abilities and schools to take a view of their current capacity.

•

Lesson Observation – the model creates an additional framework for observing and assessing classroom practice which moves beyond assessment to support improvement and development.

Perhaps most importantly, such a model creates a common language around what we mean by good teaching and so facilitates whole staff discussion around teaching and learning and the sharing of experience.

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If the models presented here are to sit comfortably at the foundation of a range of processes, from recruitment to development, they will need to be widely accepted and understood. There is, however, a danger in introducing any ready–made model that people either accept it unquestioningly as authoritative – and so don’t engage closely enough to make it real – or reject it as ‘not invented here’. The ideal middle ground is for staff to reflect and agree that the model represents genuine and important parts of their own experience at work, but also to question it, test it and adapt it as appropriate. Some of the techniques presented in the previous section, ‘Customising and extending the model’, can be helpful for this approach.

Summary and overview of process In this chapter we have suggested that outstanding teachers share a common body of skills and techniques with their competent peers, but are distinguished by a set of professional characteristics. There is no single path to excellence and outstanding teachers combine and use their characteristics in different ways. None the less we have been able to build a strong evidence base in favour of sixteen professional characteristics, grouped into five essential clusters. Furthermore, we suggested that traditional recruitment and development tends to neglect characteristics, despite their fundamental importance to successful teaching, and their relative difficulty to acquire late in life. We therefore presented the model of teacher effectiveness as a set of criteria against which to recruit teachers. If we can reliably spot these characteristics in our applicants then we will select better teachers, more suited to the demands of the role, and will be able to focus much of our early training on essential or advanced skills and knowledge, rather than trying to shape someone fundamentally unsuited to the profession. This approach is also fairer to candidates. It recognises inherent potential to be a good teacher, even where educational background and personal circumstances have prevented the acquisition of the right skills or necessary experience. In the face of current recruitment difficulties, this potential is becoming increasingly precious. The next chapter focuses on the issue of reliably spotting characteristics during the recruitment process. We now know what we are looking for, but traditional interviews do not encourage people to display or talk about actual patterns of behaviour. They do create a lot of space for received wisdom, textbook learning, espoused values and approaches or inspired second-guessing of the interviewer. The Critical Incident Interviewing technique structures a conversation so that people are forced to talk in detail about what they actually did, said, felt and thought in real situations. Incidentally, the level of detail derived also makes it extremely hard to conceal the truth or lie. You will be able to take the data generated by the Critical Incident Interview, isolate the examples of characteristics and compare them against the models presented here (making use of the detailed information in the dictionary in Part 3, Practical 1). You will be able to judge if a candidate has strengths in all five clusters of characteristics and make some judgements about the sophistication, depth or complexity of the characteristics held. In later chapters, we will also show you how to supplement the characteristics with criteria relating to your school ethos and the candidate’s potential fit with their colleagues.

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Checklist This has been a theoretical rather than process oriented chapter, so the steps to apply the chapter are relatively brief and straightforward:

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Familiarise yourself with the model of teacher effectiveness.

Introduce the model to staff.

Amend or replace the model to suit your circumstances.

Decide on a Free Flow, Semi–Structured or Fully Structured approach to the characteristics. Prioritise the clusters or characteristics that are most important to you and then select the appropriate interview probes. Carry these over into the next chapter.


Critical Incident Interviewing

3

Overview of the Critical Incident Interview If the traditional recruitment interview is characterised by questions, and led by the interviewer, the Critical Incident Interview is characterised by probes, guiding the candidate to produce the right level of detail within a story of their own choosing. The Critical Incident Interview technique is designed to generate concrete examples of actual past behaviour. As such, it is ideal for investigating characteristics. In essence it is quite simple: candidates are asked to recount past events in their career – the critical incidents – in almost cinematic detail. In fact, interviewers often tell candidates to imagine they are a video camera filming them at work: What is the scene? What do they say and do? Who else is involved? What is their motivation? A typical interview will contain three such incidents, each lasting for around thirty minutes. However, if a single incident is particularly rich in examples of a wide range of characteristics, it is acceptable to pursue this event to the exclusion of others. Richness of data, rather than number of incidents is the criterion for a successful interview. Although this sounds simple, if somewhat lengthy, in practice most candidates are loath to provide the right amount of detail. There are many reasons for this, most of them benign: past interviewers may have been content with broad generalisation; it is hard to remember the detail; you can’t believe quite how much detail the interviewer wants; in this age of teams and collegiality it feels immodest to be speaking about your own actions at length. And, of course, it is sometimes difficult because you haven’t done what you claimed to do. The Critical Incident interviewer needs to be highly disciplined with themself and the candidate to generate the right sort of data. This chapter contains a range of techniques, from setting expectations to effective probes to overall structure, to ensure you achieve this. During the process, both interviewer and candidate can often feel uncomfortable as the interviewer ‘trains’ the candidate in the new expectations. Nevertheless, the benefits in terms of rigour and accuracy are considerable. Ironically, candidates often value the experience after the fact for inspiring deep reflection and self-assessment. For this reason, the Critical Incident Interview can also be a valuable tool within a coaching relationship. The level of guidance within a Critical Incident Interview is also of importance. If you ask a candidate to provide an example of leadership, they will dredge their memory for a possibly isolated example, or shape other events to fit the bill. This doesn’t tell you if leadership is a theme running through their behaviour. The aim of the Critical Incident Interview is to generate unprompted examples of behaviour. Therefore, the level of guidance is extremely loose – candidates can and should choose the topic and recount their behaviour and feelings without prompting. The interviewer is only strict about the way they talk about incidents and the correct level of detail. In this fashion what candidates choose to talk about, and what they neglect, can be extremely revealing. If, in a long story about a difficult change initiative they enacted in school, the candidate never mentions thinking about other people’s feelings and reactions, and changing their own behaviour in response, this reveals a curious lack of empathy. If the interviewer suddenly asks in the middle of the story ‘And were other people upset by the changes?’ the candidate will immediately change tack, give the answers expected and an example of a characteristic, or the lack of it, is lost.

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For reasons of practicality and focus, interviewers may choose to provide some degree of focus to an interview – perhaps because there is not enough time for longer incidents or because a particular characteristic is of special interest. In the previous chapter, we introduced three possibilities. These included the Free Flow interview, where the only prompt provided to the candidate is to talk about a time when they were particularly successful at work – there is no other guidance for selecting a topic. The Semi–Structured interview aims to focus the conversation among a broad cluster of characteristics and the Fully Structured interview provides a more limiting prompt. A full interview could also contain a combination of these approaches. In this chapter, we will assume either a Free Flow and Semi–Structured approach to interviews. In the rest of this chapter, we describe the Critical Incident Interview in depth. We start with the detail of a single incident, rather than the big picture, describing how the interviewer generates the right level of acceptable data, and the common challenges. We then pull back up to the interview as a whole and provide a structure for the entire event. We also look at recording and assessing the data generated by the interview. Finally, we discuss training yourself and colleagues in the techniques, and provide a series of exercises to facilitate this. A partial transcript of a successful interview, with codable statements highlighted, is available in Part 3, Practical 3.

Probing for FACT – feelings, actions, context, thoughts FACT is a helpful mnemonic for the level and type of detail required from a candidate during a Critical Incident Interview. We want to know: • • • • •

What they actually did What they actually said What they felt What they thought Where they were and who they were with when they did these things

The interviewer is trying to verbally recreate important events from a candidate’s career in order to elicit common patterns of behaviour. A key technical phrase in the Critical Incident Interview process is ‘codable data’. In order that we only assess real behaviour, performed by the candidate and not their colleagues – and not what they wished they’d done, or what they convinced themselves after the fact they’d done, or what they’ve read in a book they ought to do – we will only accept certain types of comment. After the interview, when the notes are examined, the candidate’s comments will be marked up and acceptable behavioural examples highlighted – coded. These codes can then be compared against the dictionary of characteristics. The task of the interviewer is to generate as many codable comments as possible. And they will have to work extremely hard to do this, as normal conversation does not generate large volumes of codable information. Codable or acceptable information from a candidate has the following characteristics: • • • • • •

It is in the first person singular – ‘I did this’ not ‘We did this’ It is about real rather than hypothetical actions and feelings It is volunteered by the candidate, not suggested by the interviewer It is clear when and where the action took place It is about the past rather than present feelings or behaviour – ‘I felt angry’ rather than ‘Looking back I feel angry about that’ It is precise

Figure 3 provides more examples of codable and uncodable information. We then provide an exercise for you to assess whether selected comments are acceptable. The aim is always to insist that candidates talk about actual behaviour and to rule out any lapses into generality, some of which can be quite subtle.

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C R I T I CA L I N C I D E N T I N T E RV I E W I N G

You Can Code Statements beginning with ‘I’ that describe what the candidate did, said, thought, or felt (e.g. ‘I thought I'd better talk to his manager first’).

You Can't Code Statements in which the person says ‘we’, ‘he and I’, ‘our team’, etc. (e.g. ‘We planned it and organised our goals’). Problem: What did the candidate contribute to the group effort? You can't be sure.

Statements in the first person (‘I’) in which the candidate is describing their involvement in one situation (e.g. ‘On Thursday morning I called up Edward’).

Statements that begin ‘What I do,’ ‘Usually I,’ ‘I would,’ ‘Typically I,’ etc . (e.g. ‘I would try to do that first...’). Problem: These are generalisations of how they see situations or prefer to act. In any one situation a person may or may not act in the typical or desired way. This is too general to code.

Statements that, although they do not specify the actor, make clear from the context that the actor is the candidate. (e.g., ‘So the reports got done on time ... my manager always has me write the reports early’).

Vague statements about actions, thoughts, interactions, or outcomes in which it is unclear who played what part (e.g. ‘he was convinced in the end’). Problem: All candidates are unclear at some point in describing who did what. Unless the interviewer probes to clarify a statement or the candidate volunteers more detail, the candidate won't get credit for the vaguely described action.

Statements in which the candidate describes their activities in detail (e.g. ‘I asked Helen to hold my calls. Then I sat down behind my desk and said, 'You owe me an explanation’).

Statements in which the candidate uses non-specific terms to describe their activity (e.g. ‘We met and I got him to explain ...’). Problem: You don't know what they said, did, thought, felt. The description is too vague; more precise behavioural data are needed to code.

Statements that include clear explanations of the roles people played in a particular situation (e.g. ‘Louise was co-ordinating the initiative. I told her her ideas were unhelpful’).

Statements in which it is unclear who was involved (e.g. ‘I told her the idea was unhelpful’). Problem: A statement is ambiguous if the people involved are not specified. For example, telling off a subordinate provides a different picture from telling off the boss.

Statements of thought, feeling, words, or action that the candidate volunteers in response to a question that does not imply a particular response (e.g. ‘What were you feeling?’ ‘I felt let down. I'd counted on him’).

Statements confirming the interviewer's stated expectation of what the candidate did, said, felt (e.g. ‘So you felt let down?’ ‘Yes, I did’). Problem: Even though the interviewer's expectation could be right, the candidate might be giving the expected response to please the interviewer. This is not codable because you can't be sure that the candidate would have said this had it not been suggested by the interviewer. The interviewer should avoid such leading questions.

Figure 3.1 Codable and uncodable information

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You Can Code Specific reconstructions of dialogue (e.g. ‘She said he wanted to use the old method.’ I said, ‘This one is more efficient. Let me show you’).

You Can't Code Descriptions of the content or flow of conversations without specific dialogue (e.g. ‘I talked about what was the best way to do it’). Problem: One's intended message or tone does not necessarily match what was said. Reconstructed dialogue, by contrast, specifies what the person said, and is less likely to be contaminated by their later interpretation of the nature of the conversation.

Statements of what the candidate felt or thought during the situation they are describing (e.g. ‘At that point, I didn't want to deal with her again’).

Statements of current feelings or thought about the past (e.g. ‘I think it was an upsetting situation’). Problem: These are after-the-fact thoughts or feelings, which include current knowledge of how everything turned out. Coding is done to capture the essence of how a person performed (thought, felt, etc.) in the past.

Statements describing what the candidate did in the past (e.g. ‘I picked up the statistics three hours before the meeting’).

Statements about what the candidate might do in the future (e.g. ‘I'll pick up the statistics early next time.’). Problem: There's no behaviour, since it hasn't happened yet.

Figure 3.1 (continued)

In order to get a feel for what codable data looks like in practice, read each of the following quotes from an interview and decide whether they contain codable material according to the criteria presented earlier. Give reasons for your judgement. The first seven examples are completed for you, there are then a further ten quotes for you to test your judgement upon. The conversation went round and round until I got them to see that they were really arguing about the exact same problem as last month. NOT CODABLE We can’t tell how the speaker made them ‘see that’. The description of the conversation includes interpretation. It needs dialogue to make the person’s actions, tactics, and intentions clear. We don’t know whether she asked questions, expressed herself point blank, or manoeuvred someone else into making the point. What were you feeling at that point? I guess I was really annoyed that he treated me as if I had no good reason to question him. CODABLE Although the person sounds a little unsure, this is an explicit statement of feelings at the time of the incident. I feel as if that meeting should have gone differently. The way things have turned out, my idea would have worked. I think she should have listened to me. NOT CODABLE

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These are current feelings based on information gained after the situation. What would be codable is a feeling or thought that was part of the actual experience of a situation. I feel as if that meeting should have gone differently. The way things turned out, my idea would have worked. She should have listened to me. I thought that then, and now I know it’s true. CODABLE This person has stated their feelings at the time of the meeting. Whether it is volunteered or elicited by the interviewer, such a statement of feeling is specific and describes a job experience. It is codable. I just talked about it until he started to agree with the schedule as planned. NOT CODABLE How did the speaker get the person to agree? Did he have to persuade, use examples, threaten, or bury him in detail? As it is stated, this can’t be coded for thoughts or speech, or for specific action. I told her that if we worked together, this would save her time. When she looked at it that way, she agreed with the scheme of work as planned. CODABLE There is an explicit statement of the argument used, clearly revealing the speaker’s approach or thinking. Once I’ve got those interview notes, I’ll be very careful to code only the specific thoughts, actions, and feelings individuals had during their job experiences. NOT CODABLE This is a statement of intent. What a candidate intends to do provides no evidence of ability or past performance.

A ‘I always try and get staff working together, get everyone involved in the meeting. I always think that’s important.’ Would you code this? Yes ________ No ________ Reason: ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ B ‘I guess I started to panic a bit but then I just thought “Go for it.” You’ve got nothing to lose and think how good it will be for the class if it all goes well.’ Would you code this? Yes ________ No ________ Reason: ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ C ‘I thought they wouldn’t respect shabby tweed and elbow patches, so I walked into the lesson in my sharpest suit and tie, cufflinks and pinstriped shirt.’ Would you code this? Yes ________ No ________ Reason: ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ Figure 3.2 Coding exercise

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D Candidate: ‘I don’t remember how I felt.’ Interviewer: ‘You must have been pretty angry?’ Candidate: ‘Yes, I suppose I was.’ Would you code this? Yes ________ No ________ Reason: ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ E ‘We really pulled that bid team together and did such a good application, really worked well as a team.’ Would you code this? Yes ________ No ________ Reason: ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ F ‘Everyone thought the problem was impossible and we’d have to scrap the extra displays from the younger years at the fair but I just thought, if we took a bit of a risk with the numbers and put the other group in one of the upstairs rooms, we could still fit everyone in.’ Would you code this? Yes ________ No ________ Reason: ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ G ‘Usually I pop in to see the head first. That way I know for certain whether I can set that sort of objective with that member of staff.’ Would you code this? Yes ________ No ________ Reason: ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ H ‘Usually I pop in to see the head first. That way I know for certain whether I can set that sort of objective with that member of staff. That's what I did this time.’ Would you code this? Yes ________ No ________ Reason: ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ I ‘Tom and I began the joint lesson with some apprehension. The lesson went over well. The pupils said they enjoyed it and learnt more than if we’d done it the old way.’ Would you code this? Yes ________ No ________ Reason: ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ J ‘We were able to convince the head of English to try the scheme. It was new in this country, but Jane and I had data from US pilot studies that turned out to be very persuasive.’ Would you code this? Yes ________ No ________ Reason: ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ The answers to this exercise are at the end of Part 3, Practical 4.


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So, how does an interviewer ensure that any incident provides sufficient codable data? Through the adroit use of probes and through a gentle disciplinary regime which rewards codable data and rejects unusable information. In fact, many of the uncodable examples in the exercise above could have been rescued with the right sort of probing. A common flaw in Critical Incident Interviews is not drilling down into sufficient detail and letting candidates get away with broad statements. For example, the uncodable quote ‘I just talked about it until he started to agree with the schedule as planned.’ could have been unpicked if the interviewer had said something along the lines of ‘What did you say to him? Paraphrase your actual words for me.’ It is important to note that the probes takes place within the context of a spontaneous and freely chosen incident. The probes ensure the right level of detail and emphatically not the content of what is said. For example, the uncodable quote above would have been ruined if the interviewer had followed up by saying ‘I expect you had to browbeat him a little, didn’t you, to get him to agree?’ As most people will always seek to return to the surface of an event, to summarise and gloss over detail, to skip the boring bits and to talk about ‘we’ rather than ‘I’, a Critical Incident Interviewer will be constantly probing. It will be frequently necessary to interrupt the candidate and get the level of detail back on track. This can feel uncomfortable and impolite, but every minute spent generating uncodable data is entirely wasted and will equip the candidate with far less data than their peers, making them less likely to succeed. The FACT acronym can help with generating acceptable probes, and it may be worth keeping the following table to hand during the interview to remind the interviewer of some good probes. F

Feeling ‘How did you feel when that happened?’

A

Action ‘What did you say?’ ‘What did you do?’

C

Context ‘Tell me about the situation.’ ‘What was your role?’ ‘Who was involved?’ ‘What was the outcome?’

T

Thinking ‘What was going through your mind at that point?’ ‘What were you thinking?’

A further list of useful and effective probes is provided below: • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Can you give me a picture of that? If I were there, what would I see? Take me through that (incident) (meeting) etc., step by step Can you give me an example of a time that you ...? Can you give me an example of such a (meeting) (group)? You said “we”. What did you do specifically? What part did you play? Can you tell me what you actually said to them? Can you tell me what you mean by ...? That was a good overview. Now, let’s go back and get the details. How were you feeling then? What went through your mind? Tell me about a time when you ... This sounds like a good incident for us to be talking about. Can you take me back to the beginning?

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• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Take a minute to reflect. Then, give me a quick overview. What were the key events, the critical points along the way? How did it start? Tell me about X. What led up to it? That’s exactly the kind of incident I was looking for, and exactly the right amount of detail. What were some of the specific things you talked about? What did they say? What did you say? Let’s go back. When you ... how did you feel? So what happened after that? What were the critical next steps? Can you remember any key interaction or conversation you had in the early stages of this? What stands out in your mind as most important about that incident? Let’s go back. You said there was planning involved. Can you tell me about that? What were some of the thoughts you had when ...? Who’s the “we” here? And, then, what happened? How did that come about? How did that first come up? How did you do that? What did you say? What were your next steps? Do 1 Ask questions that shift the candidate 'down' into what they actually did versus 'up' into philosophising, abstractions, espoused beliefs, hypothetical responses, 'Royal we'. Examples: • ‘What did you do/say?’ • ‘What was your role in this?’ • ‘What was going through your mind at that point?’

2 Probe for codable data. Examples: • Specific attributable actions, e.g. dialogue. • Thoughts operating at the time of event. 3 Keep your questions brief, specific and in the past tense.

Don’t 1 Ask questions that shift the candidate 'up' into abstractions, philosophising, espoused theories, etc. – present, future, and condition tenses, invite rationalising or hypothetical responses. Examples: • 'Why' questions – ‘Why do you do that?’ Better Probe: ‘What was going through your mind when you did that ...’ • Hypothetical questions- ‘What could you have done?’ Better Probe: ‘What did you do?’ 2 Ask leading questions that put words (and characteristics) in candidate's mouthcharacteristics the candidate might not otherwise express. Example: • ‘So, you tried to influence her ...’ Better Probe: ‘What did you say to her?’ 3 Let candidate use the 'Royal we'. Example: • ‘So, we made the presentation ...’ Better Probes: ‘Who is we?’ ‘What specifically did you do?’

4. Ask for dialogue in play script fashion. Examples: • ‘I said, ...’ • ‘He replied, ...’ • ‘I said, ...’ • If candidate cannot remember, ask ‘Give me a sense of the conversation.’

Figure 3.3 Interview dos and don’ts

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4 Allow the candidate to change the topic.


Do 5 Stay with one situation.

6 Let the interview flow as long as the candidate is ‘on track’.

Don’t 5

Assume you know what is happening, or who is involved, unless this has been specifically stated by the candidate.

6 Let candidate espouse theories/ values. Examples: • ‘What one does in a situation like that is ...’, or any response beginning, ‘Usually I ...’, ‘Generally we ...’ Better Probe: ‘What did you actually do ...’ • ‘I'm a participative manager ...’ Better Probe: ‘Can you give me an example of a time you managed someone?’

7 If you are having trouble getting codable responses, halt the process and coach the candidate supportively, but firmly. Example: • ‘I need you to tell me about what you actually did ...’

8 Probe for thoughts behind actions, e.g. problem solving, pattern recognition, strategic planning, in teaching most of the action is thought (90% of behaviour is covert).

7 Accept hypothetical statements. Example: • ‘If they'd refused to go along, I'd have ...’ Better Probe: ‘Can you give me an example of a time when a (group/ person) refused to go along ... what did you do?’

8 Reflect or restate candidate's feelings: Your objective is data collection, not therapy. Brief probes of past feelings can provide useful data.

Examples: • ‘How did you reach that conclusion?’ • ‘How did you know to do that? How did you know that was the case?’ • ‘What were you thinking at the time?’

9 Take brief notes to identify each incident and to keep track of points you want to come back to for more detail.

10 Reinforce the candidate for good incidents.

9 Let the candidate ‘ramble’ or go through lengthy non-codable explanations.

10 Pay so much attention to note-taking that you appear not to be listening, or miss opportunities to probe for data.

Example: • ‘Great – that's exactly the detail we are looking for ...’ You know you are doing it right when you are getting good data


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We’ve now covered the basic technique of the interview, including the nature of codable data and the techniques used to elicit that data. Candidates tell relatively spontaneous stories about critical incidents in their career, of relevance to the prospective job, and the interviewer guides this story to keep the candidate down in the detail of their actions. As you apply these techniques you will find that candidates say a great deal more about themselves and their motivations than they perhaps realise. They will find it hard to conceal characteristics and what they neglect to talk about will be as revealing as what they do raise. In traditional interviews, the interviewer does too much of the work, consciously or unconsciously prompting candidates to talk about the criteria they are interested in. It is not surprising that they get what they ask for. Furthermore, although few candidates directly lie, exaggeration and ‘glossing over’ are common in job interviews. When you have to actually repeat what you said, to whom and in what context, and reconstruct your thought processes and feelings, it becomes very hard to sustain exaggeration. Consequently, Critical Incident Interviews have a much higher success rate in finding genuinely suitable candidates. So far, we have only considered the basic tactics used in each critical incident. We now need to consider the overall structure of the interview, within which a number (perhaps three to five) of critical incidents will sit. Proper attention to the structure can greatly facilitate the likelihood of an event producing rich codable data and will help both you and the candidate keep track of the mass of detail. This covers issues like helping candidates select the right event, helping the candidate focus and refresh their memory and launching the probes that will focus events on particular clusters or characteristics.

Planning and structuring the interview The full Critical Incident Interview could last up to three hours, although we will present various options and short cuts in the section on ‘variations and modifications’. Within this timeframe, the following stages will apply: •

• •

•

• •

Introductions and ‘coaching’ – at this point the interviewer puts the candidate at their ease and devotes a significant portion of time to explaining the way the interview is conducted (the free choice of events and the detailed probing). The interviewer may need to return to the briefing later in the interview if the candidate strays from the path. Current role – to break the ice, a conversation about current responsibilities and experience. Critical Incident #1 – #3 – #5 – the heart of the interview, with the candidate relating a number of stories, guided by probes from the interviewer. The exact number will be depend on the level of codable data in each incident – never halt an incident that is rich in detailed behavioural examples to move on to the next. Conclusions – as well as rounding the interview off with courtesy, you may also want to pose some more traditional questions outside the Critical Incident format. In particular, you may want to discuss values and the candidate’s preferences for reward. If the interview is conducted after such events, it may also be valuable to question the candidate about their observed lesson and any group exercises they participated in. These factors are detailed in later sections of the book and the Interview Protocol in part three, practical three contains complete guidelines for the concluding section. Candidate’s questions – it is obviously helpful to allot time for the candidate to satisfy their own curiosity Rating – the data from the interview must be coded and assessed. The method for rating the data and making judgements about candidates will depend on the way the data is recorded and will be discussed in detail in a later section.

The structure of the interview is summarised in Figure 3.4.

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Figure 3.4 The structure of a Critical Incident Interview

It is worth dwelling in depth on two elements of this process: on the initial coaching and on the substructure of the individual critical incidents, which themselves follow a set cycle. During the introduction to the interview, you will need to explain in detail the unusual style and your expectations for the candidate’s responses. Interviewers tend to develop their own approach for communicating the nature of the Critical Incident Interview but frequently a metaphor of some form is used to capture the essence: • • • •

Imagine I’m a video camera on your shoulder as you go about your work. What would I see? Imagine we’re trying to write a script, so that actors can play out some critical incidents in your career. Let’s aim for that level of detail. I’m a fly on the wall for that conversation. What am I hearing? I’d like to aim for you to relive some of the highs and lows of your teaching experience – paint for me a vivid picture of what you actually did.

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Within the introduction certain key points need to be made: • • •

•

•

That this will be an unusual interview, going into a great deal of detail about concrete actions. Sometimes this can feel uncomfortable. That you’re going to ask candidates to replay key events in their career in comprehensive detail, explaining exactly what was said and done. That you want the candidate to talk in the first person singular, about their actions, however immodest that may feel. Even if it was a team effort, you’re interested in their personal contribution to the team’s success. Warn them that if you are not getting the right sort of detail, you will interrupt and refocus the conversation. They should not be concerned at frequent interruptions, it’s not a bad sign and happens to every candidate. Finally, if you are tape-recording the interview, you need to warn them and secure their formal permission on the tape-recording itself.

Turning to the substructure of the individual critical incident, the following framework will assist the candidate and maximise the amount of codable data. The aim of this structure is partly to encourage reflection but mainly to anchor the story in a clear context, so that the interviewer can probe appropriately. • •

•

•

•

•

•

Opening probe – triggering the incident off through a statement like ‘I’d like you to tell me about a time when …’ Reflection – a pause for the candidate to rack their brains for an appropriate event. ‘I’ll give you a couple of minutes to find a suitable event, remembering that you have will need to provide a great of detail, so choose something as recent as possible. Let me know when you’ve got one.’ Headline – this lets you know what the incident will be about and immediately gets the candidate thinking about their own role, because the headline must follow a set format: Candidate’s Name – Action – Outcome; for example: ‘Ms Jones confronts Billy and his behaviour improves dramatically.’ Brief summary of event – ask the candidate to outline the event. Use the opportunity to check how long ago the event occurred; if it was more than three years ago, query that the candidate has sufficient recall of the details. Timeline – using the summary, work with the candidate to plot a brief history of the event on paper, charting the key milestones. Constantly check when the incident genuinely started, to ensure you include any preparation or build-up that was involved. First milestone, etc. – take the first milestone and ask the candidate to begin relating the story, constantly probing to maintain the correct level of detail. If necessary, pause the story and recapitulate the briefing to set your expectations for appropriate responses. Conclusion – when you’ve reached the final milestone or when you believe you’ve exhausted the event’s potential for codable data, wrap up the story. If the candidate has provided a good level of detail, reward the behaviour. Check if the candidate needs a break and then move on to the next incident.

This incident structure is summarised in Figure 3.5. The timeline and milestones not only refresh the candidate’s memory but enable the interviewer to control the pace of the interview – moving on to the next milestone if the current one has dried up or spotting when important actions may have been glossed over. An example of a typical timeline in provided in Figure 3.6. If you are using a Semi-Structured approach to the interview you will have a range of starting probes selected from Chapter 2. In preparing for the interview, you will prioritise your clusters, choose the relevant probes and then deploy them appropriately. If you are using a Free Flow approach, you may want to consider alternating between positive and negative incidents: • •

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Tell me about a time when you felt you were particularly successful in the classroom/ your work Tell me about a time when you felt unsatisfied with your performance in the classroom/ your work


Figure 3.5 The structure of an individual Critical Incident

This can produce a wider variety of codable data. If you are using the Critical Incident Interview in a coaching situation, varying between successful and unsuccessful events can be particularly helpful. Try to finish either type of interview on a positive incident, however. Part 3, Practical 3 contains a protocol covering this interview structure. It provides a stepby-step framework for the whole interview, with appropriate space for notes. There are a couple of key steps in preparing for the interview:

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Figure 3.6 An example of an incident timeline

• •

• •

•

Decide on the Free Flow, Semi-Structured or Fully Structured approach. Decide on the approximate number of incidents you are aiming for, given the time available to you – each incident will add between thirty and forty-five minutes to the interview. Select the opening probes for each incident, using the prompts in Chapter 2. Prepare the protocols to take account of the number of incidents, any changes to structure and the selected probes. Include any relevant reference materials on the candidate (e.g. CV). Arrange facilities, location and diary to ensure an uninterrupted interview.

Recording the interview data It is hard to probe effectively and make running judgements on the data at the same time. So effective record-keeping is essential. It is helpful to split the process into a number of chunks: •

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Conduct of the interview, probing constantly to maximise codable information from each critical incident.


• •

Coding the candidates’ comments to highlight concrete behavioural examples and sorting the coded data against the chosen criteria (e.g. professional characteristics). Rating the candidates’ overall achievement against the criteria and selecting the best candidate.

As you become more familiar with the techniques you will be able to combine some of these steps to save time. There are a range of options for recording candidates’ comments for later analysis. They range from the expensive and comprehensive to the cheap and practical. One option is to tape-record the entire interview. This is then transcribed on to paper to permit analysis. You may have recording facilities in school, or be able to borrow or purchase a high quality tape-recorder. A three-hour interview can require as many as four sides of a standard cassette tape, which should be clearly labelled and numbered immediately upon use. One of the biggest upsets to this technique is discovering after the interview that either nothing has been recorded or that the voices are inaudible. Always test the tape at the start of the interview and ensure the microphone is prominently positioned in front of the candidate – people swiftly overcome their fear of the microphone as the interview proceeds. Never record covertly and always obtain the candidate’s permission to record. Check the recording immediately after the interview if it hasn’t taken, you will need to quickly scribble down as many notes as possible – for this reason some interviewers take notes as well as record. Once you’ve recorded the interview, you will need to arrange for transcription. The transcription will form the most complete record possible, probably numbering in the region of 100 pages of typed, double–spaced text. This is then relatively easy to code. Although you can have interviews transcribed by a professional agency, this is a fairly expensive option. Asking a school secretary or administrative assistant to transcribe will be more economical. If technology, budget or time preclude the tape-recording of the interview, you will need to take hand written notes. We assume this will be the most common method of recording data and the interview protocol in Part 3, Practical 3 contains ample space for making notes. Try to record comments verbatim, but you can omit anything that is clearly uncodable in your immediate judgement. It is incredibly difficult to mentally monitor the quality of the candidate’s responses, formulate and make appropriate probes and take detailed notes. For this reason, we recommend that Critical Incident Interviews are conducted in pairs. One party could just take notes and the other guide the interview but, as a silent partner is quite off–putting, we recommend swapping the roles around from time to time during the interview (alternating critical incidents for example). Finally, if you are really short on time, it is possible, though not recommended, to skip the note-taking stage altogether and code the behavioural examples directly against the characteristics as they appear during the interview. This is only possible with an experienced interviewer, who doesn’t need to think deeply about their probes, and someone who is highly familiar with the professional characteristics and their definitions. Part 3, Practical 3 contains a rating protocol. This is normally intended for use after the interview, as someone goes through the coded notes and ticks off examples of each characteristic on the table. However, it is possible to keep the rating protocol (and a copy of the dictionary of characteristics of effective teachers) in front of you during the interview and tally the examples as they are raised by the candidate. Thus, while someone is saying ‘I thought it was outrageous that he should treat a child in that way, inspector or no. So I told him to his face. I said “You should be ashamed of yourself. What did you hope to achieve?” ’ the interviewer would be placing a tick against the Confidence characteristic. This tactic saves time and shortcuts a number of administrative stages, but is difficult to pursue successfully. Figure 3.7 compares these options for recording data in terms of time/expense and effectiveness.

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Figure 3.7 Options for recording interview data

Analysing and rating the interview data The next step is to use the codable information in the candidates’ interviews to rate their characteristics. The Rating Protocol in Part 3, Practical 3 is a key tool for this. This lists the sixteen professional characteristics, in their clusters, with space for tallying up their presence. When rating an interview, you will need to work with a copy of the dictionary of characteristics to form a judgement as to whether a particular codable example of behaviour fits one characteristic or another. The dictionary will be particularly useful if you are trying to rate the levels of characteristics, as there are some quite fine distinctions between them. The rating process uses the following steps. These can be performed simultaneously, or rigidly separated depending on your preference, experience and the available time. 1

2

3

Work through the notes or transcript highlighting codable examples of data. Use the criteria specified in the section on Probing for FACT to assess if a statement is codable and use the exercises provided there to hone your judgement. It must be a first person statement about a concrete action (including talk, thoughts and feelings) that took place in the past. With reference to the dictionary of characteristics, initial or label the highlighted statements with the appropriate characteristic. If a highlighted statement is clearly codable but not contained in the dictionary, label it UNQ for ‘unique.’ These represent characteristics not included in the model of teacher effectiveness, and they may still be of interest to you – they may even provide a prompt for modifying or extending the model when used in your school. Work through the highlighted statements, tallying them up against the relevant characteristics on the rating protocol.

It is often helpful to have more than one person rate each interview to provide a level of safety in the judgements.

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The rating protocol then enables you to form a judgement as to whether a characteristic is ‘absent’, ‘weak’, ‘present’ or ‘strong’ for a particular candidate. It also enables you to judge if a candidate has enough characteristics in a particular cluster to ‘cover’ that whole cluster – remembering that the model of teacher effectiveness requires strength in each cluster, not every characteristic. Table 3.1 provides an example of a completed rating protocol. The process of selection from this point is somewhat individualistic: • • • • •

Is there a single candidate who possesses strengths in each cluster? If there is more than one eligible candidate, who possesses the higher levels or greater variety of characteristics? If you have prioritised a particular cluster or characteristic how does the candidate’s performance on that priority alter the balance of judgement? Are there any glaring holes or omissions? If no candidate has all the characteristics you are looking for, who is the closest fit? Are they capable of development?

Chapter 6 on Selection provides more information on making judgements as a panel of interviewers. It is usually effective to work as a group, sharing and discussing the various rating protocols. In such a discussion it is also helpful to keep the full interview notes and transcripts at hand to follow up on any points of enquiry.

Exercises to develop your skills The Critical Incident Interviewing techniques require practice to be fully effective. We certainly wouldn’t recommend trying it out untested on the next interview candidate who arrives at school. Rather, you should identify a cadre of people that you want trained in the technique and plan a series of exercises to hone your skills. It is particularly helpful, for example, to receive feedback on whether your probing is effective and whether you communicate the expectations effectively. Taking turns to play both interviewer and candidate can also be illuminating. The following process may help embed the techniques in your school: 1 2 3

4

5

6

Identify the initial cadre to be trained. All participants should read at least Chapters 1–3 of this book and perform the exercises in the section Probing for FACT (this can be photocopied). Work in pairs to conduct a single critical incident each, using the structure provided and working on effective probes. After the incident, the interviewer should explain how they felt and what they found difficult; the candidate should explain what it felt like from their perspective and how some of the interviewer’s perceived difficulties might be addressed. A self-assessment checklist for interviewer and candidate to facilitate this discussion is provided in Part 3, Practical 4. This session will last approximately one and a half hours. One pair from the group should conduct another critical incident with the remaining participants observing. Part 3, Practical 4 contains an interview observation checklist to help observers record the strengths and weaknesses of the interview. Most of the observers should use the observation checklist, but at least one or two should act as note-takers, using the standard interview protocol to record the candidate’s comments. Those observing with the checklist should provide feedback to the interviewer on whether they covered all the bases, taking particular care to highlight what went well and when probes were particularly effective at eliciting codable detail. The feedback should also address the incident structure: Did the interviewer asks for a headline, timeline, etc.? Did they use the timeline to guide the candidate? And, most critically, did they miss any opportunities to pursue codable detail? The interview notes should then be photocopied and handed around the group. All participants should analyse the notes and highlight what they regard as codable comments. These notes should be shared and discussed in open forum to obtain a common view and correct each other’s mistakes.

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Table 3.1 Example of a Completed Rating Protocol

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= = =



7

8

9

Steps 4, 5 and 6 can be repeated as many times as required, varying the role players to give the entire group some practice. These steps will take approximately two hours per iteration. It is helpful next to practise the introduction and communication of expectations. Participants can either work in pairs, and spend five to ten minutes each trying to make a good introduction, or you can invite some non–participating colleagues to play the role of candidate from afresh. The person playing the candidate should offer feedback to the interviewer on whether they understood the required level of detail, whether any metaphors or imagery worked for them and whether they were clear about the structure the interview would follow. This step will take approximately twenty minutes. The final step is often omitted due to time, but in an ideal world each participant in the initial cadre would perform a full-length interview, including note-taking. It is usually best not to perform this test on a colleague – you know too much about them and their job to probe realistically, and can make too many assumptions. Partners are often unsuitable for the same reasons. The best test subject is a willing friend from outside of education – if you can find someone willing to spend three hours being interviewed. If this is not possible, move straight to a live recruitment interview, but ask an additional colleague, other than the note-taker, to observe you and provide feedback afterwards.

These steps should enable you to build up a group of skilled interviewers in school through a process of practice and feedback. At the very least, we recommend you work with one other person, rather than trying to master the techniques alone. If you are planning on using the Critical Incident Interview in coaching or performance management, it will be even more helpful to have a larger body of people trained in the techniques. The training in interviewing techniques should ideally follow the school–wide introduction of the research into the models of teacher effectiveness. Finally, some people will never master the Critical Incident Interview. Their attention to detail may be too low to probe consistently, or they may feel too uncomfortable interrupting candidates and demanding codable detail. This is understandable, and they will at least have gained an insight into the techniques being used to recruit new teachers to the school.

Variations and modifications Although we have provided a range of options for applying the interview process, it is still a relatively lengthy affair. This is to ensure the rigour and accuracy required to select effective teachers who could affect thousands of children’s lives during their time at your school. However, we also recognise that time and expense limit all activities. Accordingly in this section we first of all summarise all the variations and options presented so far. We then discuss a range of options for shortening the interview and rating process, and the associated costs in terms of accuracy. In the next section, we also look at how the interview might change when used in applications other than recruitment, as part of a coaching intervention, for example. Figure 3.8 summarises the range of options presented so far. Some of these represent changes of focus, other can provide a shorter, more economical format. Although it is possible to reduce the number of people involved and shorten the interview (thus reducing note-taking and the length of coding), taking all of the possible shortcuts will greatly reduce the reliability of the interview, particularly cutting the number of incidents to below three. In general shortcuts should only be used by more experienced interviewers. At the far extreme, it is possible to use some of the techniques presented here simply to tighten up a traditional interview. In this scenario, you will not code the data for concrete behavioural examples, but you can increase reliability through the use of the probing

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Figure 3.8 The full range of interview options techniques – keep the candidate on specific examples of action, probe for thought, feeling and conversation, reject generalisation, post hoc rationalisation, philosophy and the royal ‘we’. You could also invite candidates to assess themselves against a pre–prepared checklist of characteristics. However, it is important to maintain a sense of cost versus benefit. The Critical Incident Interview techniques demands up to three hours of interview, and probably another hour of coding and rating. You will need spend time discussing the ratings with your colleagues and also invest in promoting the research across the school and training yourself and others in the techniques. What are you getting in return? How long will a teacher spend in your school? How many pupils will they influence in this time? What impact can a teacher have on standards of achievement? What impact can a senior recruit have on culture, management processes and the morale of their colleagues? It is possible for a bad choice to wreck and a good choice to transform children’s prospects. And we know that the difference lies in professional characteristics. Therefore this recruitment approach is a critical investment in school improvement.

Critical incident interviews in development and coaching We have remarked several times that Critical Incident Interviews have wider application than recruitment. In particular, when improving individual performance and effectiveness we need to develop a shared understanding, between mentor and mentee, of the strengths and weaknesses that may be influencing success. It is not enough to make judgements based purely on results (for how are they achieved?) or for each party to have a different view of the problem. Additionally, we often find that teachers do not have a clear idea of why they are successful or why they are struggling – characteristics are like habits, we use them without thinking and are often unaware of them until they are pointed out. A coaching relationship should always make use of wide range of data before proceeding to solutions. This should include feedback from colleagues and pupils, examination of progress data and direct observation by the mentor. However, a Critical Incident Interview,

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conducted at an early stage of the intervention, can generate valuable detail on the deeper characteristics. Because the mentee is providing the information, and working through their experiences, they can begin to reflect and analyse their own performance, as well as experiencing a sense of catharsis over the troubling incidents in their career. We often generate ‘rose–tinted’, self–justifying memories of past incidents, brushing over mistakes and infelicities, ‘knowing’ we’d do it differently next time. This can prevent an accurate analysis of our performance. The Critical Incident Interview helps unearth what really happened for both parties. The Critical Incident Interview should not be deployed lightly and should not be isolated from support and feedback – it is one part of a larger process rather than an isolated event. It could be used in addressing underperformance, but also has more positive potential. It could form part of the performance management process, to identify objectives for professional development; it could be used to plan careers; or for people embarking on a new role, in a leadership position. For example, an AST could use a Critical Incident Interview to gain a view of how they do what they do, but also to investigate whether they have the influencing, leadership and interpersonal abilities to succeed in their role. For people beginning a new and unfamiliar role, the Critical Incident Interview could be combined with an analysis of job demands. In effect, you are jointly creating a model of effectiveness for that role, then assessing their current fit to those demands. This process would begin by listing, discussing and agreeing the key accountabilities of the job, including any relevant national standards. The mentor and mentee would then agree the skills, knowledge and characteristics required to meet those accountabilities – either working from the model of teacher effectiveness or starting afresh. The Critical Incident Interview would then solicit evidence against these characteristics and lay the foundations for a development plan. This approach combines role clarity, consensus around objectives, self/peer assessment and action planning for improvement. Whatever the ultimate objective, the use of the Critical Incident Interview in a coaching or developmental relationship follows much the same model described previously, although there are different nuances. First, the introduction needs shaping to the task. It needs to stress the developmental objectives and that the probing is not aggressive but designed to produce the most value from the interaction. The introduction also needs to make clear that the data is confidential and gathered for coaching rather than assessment purposes – honesty will not be career-limiting. Second, it is best in the coaching application of the Critical Incident Interview to use a Free Flow approach, using both positive and negative incidents and ending on a positive incident. The major difference between development and selection is the need to provide detailed feedback on the interview to the mentee. This should begin immediately after the interview is complete: How did it feel? What do you think has been revealed? In many cases, you won’t formally code or rate the data at all – merely discuss the process. However, if rating the data, it could be extremely helpful for both mentor and mentee to code and assess the notes. The second session can begin by comparing perspectives and discussing differences. During this feedback session the mentor should seek the mentee’s view on the data generated – is this a fair picture? What is missing and what is exaggerated? How does the data feel? Does it make you angry, upset or inspired? The mentor will also need to work extremely hard to highlight and build upon strengths as well as weaknesses. The natural tendency of anyone receiving feedback is to focus on the bad news, but people can only make far-reaching or difficult changes with sufficient self-esteem and by building on strengths. If the feedback session has generated a consensus on clear priorities for action, which should include strengths that can be leveraged as well as gaps to be addressed, mentor and mentee should jointly create a learning plan. This will address the following questions: •

What extra information and evidence do we need to confirm our conclusions? Where will this come from and when will we gather it?

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• •

•

• • •

What will success look like when I achieve my objectives? How will I know I’m there? What will it feel like and what will be different? Are these objectives achievable? Are they stretching? How will they make a difference to teaching and learning? What impact will they, or my pursuit of them, have on my colleagues? What resources are available to help me achieve my objectives? What are the obstacles and challenges I will have to overcome? What worries me most about this objective and what will I do about that? What will I tell my colleagues/pupils about my plans? Who will I tell? How can I get them to help me, remind me, support me? What actions will I perform and when? What is the first step I will take and when will I take it? When and how will we assess progress and modify the plan?

This learning plan should be written up and revisited on a regular basis. The mentor and mentee should meet more frequently than once or twice a year to review progress and, where feasible and psychologically safe, colleagues should be bought into the plan. Ideally one’s trusted peers, and even pupils, should have roles to play in achieving your objectives, even if it’s as simple as reminding you when you’ve forgotten to behave in the way you’ve promised or celebrating when you do. This can be done in a fluid and informal way, or through a more formal system of codes and alerts – red cards, hands up, warning phrases, scheduled mini–reviews and so on. If you are using the Critical Incident Interview as part of the coaching process it is essential to invest time in the full training programme outlined in the section on Exercises. It is also ideal that the mentor should have played the role of mentee, working through role clarity, interview, analysis, feedback, learning plan and progress review. At the very least, they can be going through this one step ahead of the people they are mentoring or coaching. The developmental application of these techniques is further elaborated in Chapter 7 on Induction, but we conclude this introduction by re–emphasising the need for sensitivity in the provision of feedback and to emphasise strengths. The model of teacher effectiveness includes many routes to success: teachers almost never have strengths in every characteristic (although perfectionists may demand that of themselves) and the coaching intervention must celebrate diversity, individualism and alternative approaches to creating a learning environment.

Summary and overview of process The thrust of this chapter has been to outline the basic principles of an interview technique that reliably elicits data on a candidate’s professional characteristics. In previous chapters we examined the importance of characteristics to effective teaching and how they are often neglected in traditional recruitment and development activities in favour of skills and knowledge. The Critical Incident Interview eliminates many of the flaws of traditional interviews. In particular it removes the tacit guidance that most interviewers offer candidates on the criteria they are looking for. Candidates can only spontaneously volunteer the traits and tactics that characterise their practice. Additionally, by only accepting concrete, first person singular, past tense examples of behaviour, welded together into a coherent story with a clear context, we prevent the exaggeration, extrapolation, generalisation and downright wishful thinking that characterise many interview responses. Properly conducted, a Critical Incident Interview will reveal what candidates actually do in their jobs on a habitual basis. The Critical Incident Interview is built around a series of acceptable tactics on the part of the interviewer and a structure which supports those tactics, making them easy and natural. We have described these tactics in terms of probes that pull the candidate down into detail. Equally important are the things you are not allowed to say and do – leading questions, interpretations, allowing the story to drift. The chief obstacle to success is a conditioned

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reluctance to interrupt, challenge and return repeatedly to the concrete. In some interviews you will need to be constantly reminding the candidate of the aims: ‘I’m sorry, but if you remember, the aim of the interview is to recreate this incident in vivid detail. I need you to tell me what you actually said to the pupil, even your tone of voice … Wait a minute, did you do that, or the deputy head? What was your role in the conversation?’ This guidance usually becomes easier as candidates realise you really do want the detail and you are interested in their actions, not warm generalisations about teamwork. The emphasis on individual actions is not intended to downplay the role of teamwork and collegiality in successful schools. Schools improve most when teachers collaborate and share their learning. In terms of recruitment, however, we are interested in that candidate’s contribution to the team – were they the leader? Were they the critical friend, the ‘social secretary’ or ‘quartermaster’? Do they know how to co–operate with other adults? Constantly using the word ‘we’ doesn’t indicate a team player; evidence of empathy, influence and initiative do. A statement like ‘The project team implemented the initiative across the school and got everyone’s buy in’ tells you nothing about the candidate’s contribution. The easiest solution to this problem is to allow candidates to acknowledge the contribution of others early on in describing the incident and then fix them on their role. Although we have gone into great detail on the actual interview, this chapter and the preceding one have an important strategic thrust. If schools are not oriented around teaching and learning they are failing in their core purpose. Effective teaching and learning is sustained by a variety of human processes – by professional development, by open collaboration, by meaningful performance management, by succession planning and, of course, by getting the right people on board in the first place. The evidence indicates that although skills and knowledge are a critical foundation to teaching, outstanding teachers are distinguished by their enduring character traits. And so we must build our school’s human processes around professional characteristics as well as skills. Students choose to learn, they are not passive receptacles of information. They will choose to learn if they understand why they’re doing it, if they’re excited by the topic, if they trust the teacher and their peers, if they are challenged and stretched. There is a limit to the number of quick-fix tactics, checklists, pro formas and procedures that can build this sort of learning environment; rather, such conditions are promoted by teachers with passion and compassion, respect and self–confidence, energy and enthusiasm, careful planning and discipline. Our recruitment process must seek out these things. Almost any investment of time, discomfort and preparation is justified by the potential benefits. This marks the end of the section on principles. Our aim was to lay a foundation for a new recruitment process and to introduce the basic techniques. So far, however, we have not grounded these techniques within the overall recruitment process. It is one thing spotting an outstanding teacher, for example, but how do we get them to come to our school? The model of teaching characteristics is fine, as far as it goes, but we need to slot candidates into existing teams and relationships. We have an ethos and set of values we are trying to build. How does the interview process take account of that? The next section on process addresses these questions by describing an ‘end to end’ recruitment process. This process is based around professional characteristics and the Critical Incident Interview, but takes account of many other practicalities and requirements. We begin with the person specification, and creating a realistic definition of requirements that takes account of characteristics, team fit and school culture. We also look at communicating your requirements and attracting the candidate. Our angle of attack here goes below the surface techniques of selling the school. Every institution offers a ‘package’ to the candidate which goes far beyond pay and benefits. There is a complex bundle of incentives, from congeniality to convenience, from development to responsibility. And many of these can be consciously engineered by the school to attract the right sort of staff.

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Checklist:

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Identify your initial cadre of Critical Incident interviewers.

Introduce the model of teacher effectiveness and professional characteristics to the school.

Conduct the Critical Incident Interview training, practicing the basic incident, introductions and coding.

Decide on the options, from number of incidents to method of recording, to be used in the interview.

Choose from Free Flow, Semi and Fully Structured approaches and select the opening probes.

Prepare the Interview Protocol to reflect the chosen structure and probes.

Prepare recording facilities if required.

Select interviewer(s) and note-taker(s).

Conduct the interviews.

Code the interview notes or transcripts and use the appropriate Rating Protocol to rate against the dictionary of characteristics.

CHAPTER TITLE

Part 2 The complete recruitment process

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CHAPTER TITLE

Definition

4

Describing your ideal candidate

Capturing the job requirements Effective recruitment is founded on a clear definition of requirements. This helps the school understand what it is looking for and, a fact often neglected, enables potential candidates to rule themselves in or out. In Chapter 5 we look at expressing the requirements through the advert, recruitment pack, interview and offer. In this chapter, we look at the process of formulating them. The professional characteristics presented in Chapter 2 provide a basic set of requirements but require elaboration. The generic model of characteristics may need amending for certain roles – perhaps for increasing seniority, specialism or non-standard roles – and there are other factors of concern in selecting a new teacher. Foremost among these are: • •

Values – You are trying to build or sustain a particular ethos and culture in your school. How should the new recruit contribute to this? Relationships – The new recruit will work within an existing set of relationships and roles. How should their characteristics, abilities and temperament complement those of their peers?

Of course, when we talk about values and relationships, you need not be looking for someone who reinforces those that exist. You may be in search of someone to shake things up, or break the mould. A key question during the definition process, therefore, becomes ‘How far do our current values and team relationships support our goals as a school?’ If we add values and relationships to characteristics, we then have three fields from which to build our requirements and, in this chapter, we will present three techniques to audit, analyse and define these requirements: • • •

Characteristics – Job analysis Values – Culture sort Relationships – Team roles audit

Figure 4.1 summarises this approach. In the rest of this chapter we will address each field in turn and present the tools that will help you formulate your requirements. We will then move on to generating consensus as a leadership team or whole school on the emerging requirements and summarising the requirements into a formal specification. Throughout, we assume you are focusing on a single vacancy, but the techniques would be equally valid for a whole batch of vacancies. They could be performed once, on a generic teacher role, and then reused. Or, more effectively, they could be performed afresh for each new vacancy. Indeed, many of the techniques could be usefully applied where there are no vacancies at all, to provide role clarity and development for existing job holders. In particular, the culture audit and the team roles audit have broader applications than recruitment. We will address these applications briefly at the end.

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THE COMPLETE RECRUITMENT PROCESS

Figure 4.1 Characteristics, values and relationships make a specification

Characteristics and the shape of jobs Would you put a professor in charge of a production line? Would the professor even want to run a production line? The key difference between the roles is not so much the level of challenge but, rather, that one demands a high level of unconstrained thinking, the other is accountable for reliable delivery of clearly defined objectives. This difference in the nature of the job implies different characteristics for success. You may have your own views on how the role of teaching has swung between these two poles in recent decades. This balance between creativity and delivery is one of the most important drivers of the feel of a job and the capabilities of its holder. We call this balance the ‘shape’ of the job. The other important variable is the amount of experience and ability we expect – and are willing to pay for – of the job holder in relation to the amount of creativity and accountability. A feature of modern work, particularly in the light of de-layering in the public and private sectors, is that we try to get our problems solved and results delivered cheaply, delegating more challenging tasks to staff with the same basic abilities. We call the balance between ability and delivery the ‘stretch’ of a job. Of the two, shape has the greater implications for teacher recruitment, and has seen the greatest changes in recent years. Although we have presented a model of the characteristics of effective teaching, based on the generic demands of the role, there is room for substantial variation in schools, and for weighting of different parts of the model depending on the shape and stretch of the job. The shape of the role of teacher has been changing in recent years but, additionally, different schools – with different work cultures and aspirations – will shape their jobs differently. Indeed, even within the same school, different jobs will have different shapes. Thus, as well as modifying our person specification, an analysis of the shape of jobs in our school, generally, and the shape of the vacancy specifically, will have wide ramifications.

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D E F I N I T I O N : D E S C R I B I N G Y O U R I D E A L C A N D I D AT E

Our culture and values, as discussed later in this chapter, influence and are influenced by the way jobs are designed. The attractiveness of our school to recruits and existing staff – the Total Reward explored in Chapter 5 – is in part due to the fit between individual aspirations and the shape of the job. This section will therefore outline a method of analysing work, based on a job evaluation methodology used by Hay Group for six decades. It will examine the historical impact of education policy on the role of the teacher but also emphasise the relative freedom of schools to create the jobs they want to match the culture they value. This process will involve a school–wide application of the evaluation methodology. Finally, returning to a practical recruitment focus, we will illustrate how different characteristics emerge as priorities for success in different-shaped jobs and how the basic dictionary should be amended for the final person specification. When Ned Hay founded Hay Group in 1943 he stated that ‘the most successful companies in the future will be the ones that manage the human element most skilfully’. In his view this meant creating, and rewarding appropriately, meaningful, balanced jobs. An analysis of the nature of work, continued over the decades and covering over one million jobs around the world, reached the conclusion that there are three generic components to a job that recur in every role: •

Accountability – the emphasis on delivering measurable objectives and the scale and importance of those objectives to the whole organisation; measured on three factors: Freedom to act (or discretion) Impact on end results (direct or indirect) Magnitude or importance of results

•

Problem-solving – the degree to which the job requires innovation and creative thinking; measured on two factors: The complexity, scope and challenge of the problems that arise in the job The amount of analysis, judgement and innovation required as opposed to established precedent, procedure and policy

•

Know-how – the expertise, technical skills, characteristics and experience required to meet the accountability and problem-solving components

We can also think of these in process terms, as input, throughput and output. A teacher brings their know-how to a task, while working on the task they must solve problems and make decisions (of a greater or lesser degree) in order to achieve results (of greater or lesser importance). This is summarised in Figure 4.2. The higher the score on each of these categories the ‘bigger’ the job – harder to do, more important to the organisation, more senior and, in the original emphasis of the research project, better paid. However, scores in the categories don’t necessarily keep pace with each other – some jobs can be high on Know-how or Problem-solving and low on Accountability. Thus the ‘shape’ of a job.

Figure 4.2 A definition of work

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Breaking work down into these components gives us the ability to formally define shape and stretch: • •

Job Shape: Ratio of Accountability to Problem-solving Job Stretch: Ratio of Know-how to Accountability and Problem-solving

Although this may sound fairly abstract and can be measured in highly technical ways, this has a real grounding in the way different jobs actually feel, particularly the amount of stress, scrutiny and pressure in a job, upon which some people thrive and feel ‘alive’ and which others find distracts them from the creativity and thinking they value. In professional roles, salaries and pay grades tend to follow Know-how scores closely, and so we can think of jobs, from the organisation’s perspective, as ‘buying’ Accountability and Problem-solving with Know-how. How cheaply are you getting your outputs? Do jobs (and their salary levels) require enough experience and the right characteristics to deliver the objectives easily? Or is it a constant pressure, facing thorny problems and meeting stretching targets? Obviously, we would like all our employees to have the experience and characteristics they need to easily deliver their accountabilities, but this is expensive. In times of tight budgets and rising expectations, we may decide to take a risk and pay for slightly less Know-how to achieve the same results. To the employee this ‘sweating of the assets’ will feel like rising expectations and greater stress. At the extreme ends of job shape we have A–type and P–type roles. A–type roles are relatively high in Accountability, using established protocols and procedures to address familiar problems but always called upon to meet clear targets. This is the classic ‘industrial’ model, the operations manager, the sales person, the supervisor. P–type roles are relatively high in Problem-solving. They feel more reflective, there is less precedent and fewer established rules to guide their actions, more room for creative thinking and judgement; targets are more vaguely defined, the accountabilities are supportive of the organisation’s goals rather than directly part of them. This is the classic staff or professional role – the oldfashioned human resources manager, the lawyer; at even greater extremes, the researcher and the scientist. Once, we might have described the teacher as a P–type role.

Figure 4.3 Job shape: Problem-solving v. Accountability

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Figure 4.4 Job shape: The changing role of teachers

Figure 4.3 describes the possible combinations of Problem-solving and Accountability and their effect on the feel of a job. Teachers and school leaders have experienced some profound shifts in the shape of their jobs, and the ratio of Problem-solving to Accountability, as the education system struggles to find the correct balance between school autonomy and central direction. Such a shift can move the ground under your feet and make you feel that the job you trained for has changed beyond recognition. If we redraw our matrix (Figure 4.4), we can track the changing shape of teaching across the grid. This change has been driven by increasing pressure on targets and objectives and a relative reduction in professional autonomy and judgement, for example through the following of prescribed procedures such as the National Literacy and Numeracy strategies. Teaching is becoming an A–type job. As we explore below, A–types and P–types require very different characteristics and motives to succeed, and therefore appeal to very different types of people. In the light of the government’s aspirations for ‘informed professional judgement’ it remains to be seen how the shape of teaching will change again over the coming decade but, given the clear mismatch between the values of many teachers and the shape of their jobs, further change seems inevitable. This could mean a return to the Creative job of past years with more local decision-making and a reduced emphasis on targets. It could mean, given an emphasis on freedom to innovate combined with strict expectations for delivery, that teaching moves into the Risk-taking mode. This is an ‘entrepreneurial’ category, breaking new ground but carrying high stakes – failed experiments would be careerlimiting. Although the entrepreneurial category sounds attractive and dynamic, it carries real costs for an educational system. It will produce both spectacular success and spectacular failures. In the world of commerce, financial failures seem a small price to pay for progress: in education, we are talking about children’s futures. Currently the education system is not geared to understand, support or evaluate entrepreneurial behaviour.

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Interestingly, astute organisations instinctively ensure they have all four types of jobs – risktakers, deliverers, creative types and even safe roles. As well as providing multiple career paths, this creates a healthy balance. Perhaps the solution lies in this direction rather than a mass movement of the profession into any single category. Does your school see some people as deliverers, others as creatives and a small number as risk-takers? An organisation formed predominantly of A-type jobs will feel different. It will have a different culture, a different self–image and establish different norms of behaviour. Stereotyping for effect, an organisation of A-type roles will value directive behaviour, vision, efficiency, flexibility, managerial loyalty to staff, respect for management in return, and speed of response. An organisation of P-type roles will be more egalitarian, emphasise integrity, trust and moral purpose. Individuals will be more independent and loosely connected to each other; the professional virtues will be lauded and mistakes driven by creativity and experimentation will be tolerated more readily. The idea of the practitionerled professional community – high in confidence, active in research, zealous of standards – is much lauded in recent work on school improvement, and underpins valuable initiatives like network learning communities. We need to remember, however, some of the negative aspects of P–type environments: slow to change, inconsistent in approach, hard to transmit knowledge, the leisure to coast, standards raised for the benefit and exclusivity of the profession rather than the ‘client’. So, where does your school lie on the continuum? Where would you like to be and where can you feasibly be in the light of current policy? We propose three levels of investigation: • • •

What is the shape of my job now? What is the shape of my ideal job? Are we in agreement as a school?

It is possible that different parts of the school or different levels will send different messages. As well as raising debate and stimulating reflection, these investigations will provide valuable material for the person specification we will use in the recruitment process. The Job Profile exercise in Part 3, Practical 5 on page 189 provides a self-scoring framework for you to plot both your ideal position and current experience against the grid presented in Figures 4.3 and 4.4. It is not scientific, but by rating your aspirations and experience for accountability and problem-solving, you can start to explore the implications for people and the school. The steps are as follows: 1

2

3

4

5

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Hand out a copy of the Job Profile questions to each participant in the exercise. Each sheet contains four scales, two each for Problem-solving and Accountability. Participants should find the description on each scale that matches their current experience and mark it with a circle. They should then find the scores for each section by multiplying the numbers attached to the circled descriptions. Repeat the exercise for people’s ideal profiles, marking the ideal position on each scale with a cross. Multiply the scores for the crosses and record in the relevant spaces. The scores for section A will plot two positions on the vertical Accountability axis and the scores for section P will plot two positions on the horizontal Problem-solving axis. Either photocopy and enlarge the blank grid provided in Part 3, Practical 5 on page 192, or sketch it out on the white board, being careful to provide the numerical scale. Ask each person in turn to mark their current experience with a circle and their ideal experience with an cross by using their scores for the vertical and horizontal axis. Figure 4.5 shows a completed questionnaire and grid. You should quickly be able to see if there is a consensus, complete variety or competing poles. You will be able to see how close your current working ethic is to people’s personal aspirations. Draw a circle around the one or two biggest concentrations of circles, labelling them ‘Actual’ and do the same with the crosses, labelling them ‘Ideal’.


Figure 4.5 A complete job shape questionnaire and grid

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6

The next step is to initiate a discussion around the findings, which could proceed in a number of directions. If there is a substantial gap between actual experience and the ideal … it may be best to focus on what it would feel like under the ideal. Ask people to reflect in pairs on what most dissatisfies them about their current experience of job shape, and to provide concrete examples. This will provide material for an action plan. It may also be helpful to pose the following questions to larger groups: • • •

Given that we want our jobs to be Safe/Creative/Risk-Taking/Delivery, what sort of a school would that look like? Draft a ‘code of conduct’ or list of appropriate behaviours for teachers and leaders that would create this school. What, in the outside world, might be stopping us from creating the jobs we want? How might we get round that? What is within our control?

If there is substantial disagreement between parts of the school on the actual experience … explore how this breaks down by department, seniority, age or background. What’s the common variable? Why are some people treated differently? Is this justified (and do people actually want to be treated differently)? Are we applying preconceptions about what different types of people want out of their work? Are some people already experiencinge the ideal described by others? Is this a result of their own behaviour, their jobs, their status? How can we all be more like the lucky group? If there is substantial disagreement between parts of the school on the ideal experience … again, explore how this breaks down by department, seniority, age or background. What’s the common variable this time? It may be feasible to create different sorts of jobs – how can this be done and made explicit? How can people communicate the job shape they are looking for? If it isn’t desirable to have differentshaped jobs, you may need to reflect as a senior leadership team on your own ideals and whether you want to enforce or support a particular approach. These exercises can form a vital input to two later stages of the recruitment process. It informs the consideration of culture, of which the job shape forms one dimension. This is examined more fully in the next section. It also influences and the attractiveness of your school as a place of work. Job design is part of the total reward package available to teachers (influencing their feelings of personal achievement). The section ‘Changing your school’s Total Reward’ in Chapter 5, on page 94 deals with this more fully. Of more immediate relevance to the recruitment process, and to the current task of building our person specification, we now have the tools required to modify the generic model of characteristics according to job shape. We need to decide if we are recruiting to an A–type or P–type role, and we can do this by gut feel, by looking at the actual or ideal profile generated from the whole school exercise detailed earlier, or by using the Job Profile questionnaire on the vacancy itself. This is best performed with a copy of the job description, particularly the accountabilities, and an attempt to envisage the daily work routines of the potential job holder. Whatever the means, as we have discussed earlier, a different shape will throw different characteristics into prominence as crucial to success. Figure 4.6 compares the critical characteristics in the dictionary for A– and P–type job shapes. These can be used to inform the ranking in the person specification and there is space to record both the job shape and the impact on the characteristics. This is a judgement call, rather than a mechanical process; you may choose to ignore or modify particular rankings based on other demands. Job shape has the greatest bearing on recruitment, but it is worth returning briefly to job stretch. When constructing job descriptions and specifying objectives, schools have a choice about how hard to work their human ‘assets’. Unlike the exploitation of physical or financial assets, however, these decisions have a personal cost. Too much accountability and too challenging problems for the level of Know-how paid for will create anxiety, stress

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Figure 4.6 A-type and P-type characteristics The highlighted characteristics are emphasised in the different job shape (although all remain relevant)

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and even burnout. Conversely, however, insufficient challenge will produce boredom and apathy. The task of school leaders, in creating a satisfying and attractive place to work, is to find the right path between the two. Chapter 5 will address this topic in more depth, and the measures of attractiveness that we use include both ‘stress’ and ‘achievement’ as key variables. Job shape and job stretch interact. As we increase Know-how, what were once challenging problems and stretching targets seem easy. Thus, we have to redraw the quadrants in Figures 4.3 and 4.4 for different levels of ability and experience, as modelled in Figure 4.7. This has a particular bearing on seniority. As you conduct your investigation into the school’s job profile, observe if there is a difference in shape between senior and junior jobs. The fact that your senior leadership team might describe their jobs as ‘safe’ and other teachers describe theirs as ‘delivery’ oriented may not imply a different level of accountability, merely that your leaders are over-qualified for the challenges they face. This implies that we can change the perceived shape of jobs by increasing the Know-how associated with them. This provides one possible solution if the investigations into your school profile indicate a significant mismatch between experience and aspiration. It also implies that we must consider job shape separately at different levels of the school. Again, finding the right level of stretch, neither too high nor too low, is crucial to job satisfaction.

Figure 4.7 Stretch changes Shape

Defining your values through the culture sort For a property so hard to pin down, much has been written on the topic of school culture, driven by the realisation that it has a fundamental role in school effectiveness and school improvement. The values and beliefs we share as an institution drive assumptions about

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ourselves, our pupils and our colleagues which shape our behaviour. Moreover, culture is an incredibly powerful force, stubbornly resisting change and insidiously occupying the minds of its participants. Why is culture of relevance to the recruitment process? First, the values we hold as an individual will affect the way we teach. Many of the professional characteristics identified in the research are rooted in values. If you have invested in a positive, learning culture, you want to be sure recruits have compatible values. If you don’t currently have the culture you desire, careful recruitment can help to change that. Second, we feel happier and more comfortable in an institution and among colleagues who share our values. We are more likely to feel rewarded, to be engaged with the organisation and, of course, to stay. Third, recruitment is itself a highly symbolic process, a rite of passage, and sends important cultural messages to new recruits and existing staff. These are reasons why we might want to select for values and to enquire into someone’s professional beliefs as part of our recruitment process. However, selecting for cultural fit is not an essential part of the recruitment process, it’s more of an advanced option. The generic characteristics themselves make some reference to values and beliefs and you may find the proposed process complicated enough without additional criteria. You may not value your current culture and so may not care whether candidates fit. There are other tools for culture change and, as culture is so powerful, even candidates not selected for fit may eventually conform. Accordingly, the first step in this part of the process is to decide whether you want to include it at all. If you have a distinctive school culture, or if you want to strengthen it, or if you have a particular concern about particular values, then this could be a valuable enhancement. If you are interested in your school culture for its own sake, and its impact on learning, then there are some useful techniques in this section regardless of their role in your recruitment process. So far, we have bandied about various terms interchangeably – values, beliefs, ethos, culture. Before we can assess a property, we have to define it precisely. What follows is not a research–based or scientific definition, it is a rough and ready approximation based on a synthesis of recent writings (especially Stoll and Fink) and our experience in schools. It is designed to help school leaders become aware of and influence certain cultural attributes. For the purposes of this exercise we split school culture into two components: a series of values and beliefs which are shared by the members of the institution; and the behaviours and actions they stimulate and in which they manifest themselves. It is the behaviours that we are more usually aware of, when we talk about culture, but values and assumptions about the world underpin those behaviours, even when they are not consciously expressed. By beliefs, values and assumptions we simply mean: what we agree is true (about the world, people, etc.) and what we agree is right (or good, acceptable, ethical). Obviously agreement is rarely total in any institution about every topic of interest, and important sub–cultures or conflicts, or even just mavericks, can arise. However, there are powerful forces for creating agreement: people unconsciously join institutions which share their values, they change their minds over time, stop talking about their disagreements or eventually leave. Examples of beliefs about what is true include how we think children learn, whether certain children are capable of learning or how effective we believe ourselves to be. Examples of beliefs about what is right include our views on the purpose of education, on whether professionals should be able to make decisions autonomously, on how colleagues or pupils should be treated, on natural justice and egalitarianism. The dividing line between true and right is often blurred: very often our beliefs about what is right are founded on assumptions about the way the world works. Beliefs, or values, are important in so far as they underpin the way we teach and the way we behave within the school. If we assume, for example, that ability is basically innate, it will affect the way we treat certain pupils. If we assume that everyone can develop and grow, we will treat pupils differently. If we think hierarchy is the only effective organisational

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structure, we will organise our school and treat our colleagues in certain ways. A growing body of research places school culture at the heart of school improvement and sees it as a fundamental limit on the rate of change (Dimmock 2000; Stoll and Fink 1996; Hargreaves 1994). There are two important categories of behaviour connected to culture: • •

‘Operational’ behaviours – the things we do that affect the goals of the school, such as teaching styles or team working. ‘Reinforcing’ behaviours – the things we do that create, reinforce and enforce our cultural norms, the ways we ensure people conform.

The latter are particularly fascinating as they provide school culture with its power to assimilate and endure, and their study feels like a visit to the realm of anthropology. Some examples of reinforcing behaviours common across all organisations include: • • • • • •

According status and respect to those people who embody our values; Creating events which celebrate and honour our values, and involving those people who agree; Selecting art, decoration and display which symbolise our culture; Building formal and informal rules which enforce the norms; Tacit agreement on which rules are breakable and which are sacrosanct (taboos); Establishing an etiquette and set of manners which reinforce status, symbolise beliefs and enforce the informal rules.

These reinforcing behaviours needn’t be left chance. It is possible to build, reinforce or change a school culture by treating these as discretionary tactics rather than forces of nature. Headteachers and senior leaders within schools need to start thinking of themselves as applied anthropologists, creating role models, symbols, rituals and manners which create a culture for learning (Deal and Kennedy 1982). One way of exploring the issues for your school is to conduct the following short quiz. Reflect on the last year and note down your own personal answer rather than what you might expect the consensus to be. Share the answers with your colleagues and think about whether they embody your aspirations for your school: •

Your biggest celebration this year – what did you celebrate?

•

The most respected person in the school – what are they respected for?

•

Please name: The first thing you notice in the school reception area Something that commonly happens in other schools that could never happen in your school The behaviour, in an adult, that is most frowned upon Something that people regularly ‘get away with’ (things you know are wrong but still do – e.g. late for meetings) Something that people worry about a great deal

•

Complete the following sentence: ‘We will raise standards of achievement most effectively if we focus on …’

Turning back to recruitment, it is possible to identify two areas of focus. First, the recruitment process is a rite of initiation, a core symbolic ritual of the school. Not only whom we choose, but how we choose them sends powerful messages. It is for this reason that many recruitment processes, even today, are unnecessarily cruel, reinforcing negative norms about the role of seniority and respect in institutions. The induction part of the recruitment process is particularly powerful in this regard and we cover that in detail in Chapter 7. How humane is your process? Does it embody high standards and exclusivity or warmth and invitation? Does it position new joiners as ‘seen and not heard’ or recognise their experience as a valuable input? What do you announce about new joiners? What do you celebrate and share about their qualities and your reasons for selection? What happens to them when they first arrive? Is there a mistake that everyone is waiting for them to make? Do we expect some sort of pain or ordeal before recruits become one of the team?

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The area of focus that most concerns us in this chapter, however, is the issue of selecting for cultural fit. How can we discover if recruits share our view of the world? We can achieve this with the following steps: 1 2 3 4 5 6

Understand and define our current and desired culture; Decide, based on the gaps, whether we want someone to fit in or challenge the culture; Build the values identified into our person specification; Analyse the data generated in the recruitment process for evidence of values and make the appropriate choice; If we are choosing someone who challenges the current culture, plan the appropriate support and induction to help them survive; Use the data generated through this process in wider debate and action on school improvement.

The section below on ‘Broader applications’ on page 78 covers step 6; we explore the previous five steps in detail now. Step 1, understanding our culture, is the most involved. It is better performed as an interactive, discursive exercise than an isolated evaluation by the senior leadership team. All staff will have strong views on the current culture, often in conflict with the assumptions of senior management. A key point of decision is who ‘owns’ the ideal culture – the values we aspire to embody? Is this part of the senior team’s remit, or can it be generated by consensus among all staff? This is a matter for individual schools to decide but we would suggest that it is the duty of senior leaders to challenge norms and beliefs which are not contributing to the welfare and achievement of pupils, even where this is an uncomfortable process. Although it is by no means exhaustive, we have compiled a list of thirty beliefs and values of relevance to modern-day schools. They will drive both strategic decisions about the school’s organisation and direction, and also day-to-day behaviours in the classroom. They will be communicated through the reinforcing behaviours of hierarchies, rituals, rules and role models. This list is derived from current research by Hay Group into shared beliefs characteristic of high-performing schools and a review of leading academic research. For example, Hopkins et al. (1994) suggest certain values that foster school improvement. They include: • • • • •

Attention is heavily focused on enhancing pupils’ learning. The school’s vision and values include all members of the community. External pressures for change are used to create opportunities to pursue internal priorities. Collaboration is encouraged. Monitoring and evaluation are shared by all staff.

Similarly, Stoll and Fink have identified a number of ‘norms’ of improving schools, which include shared goals, responsibility for success, collegiality, risk-taking, mutual respect and celebration (Stoll and Fink 1996). In our work with schools, we have also discovered a number of vital ‘turning points’ associated with high-performing schools, including, among others, attitudes to innovation, the importance of hierarchy, willingness to make sacrifices, position on social justice and beliefs about what different groups of children can achieve. Clearly some of these descriptions contain strong value judgements – certain cultural attributes are perceived to be better than others because they foster school improvement. This connection is well documented, allowing us to talk with increasing confidence about the values we would hope to see in our schools. Accordingly, our list of cultural attributes is split: there are fifteen categories, representing key areas of concern or decision points (what is my school’s stance on this issue?) and for each category two opposing viewpoints. Either of these viewpoints may be appropriate for your school, given its context and your values, but the right-hand side is more commonly associated with school improvement. A strong position in either direction, however, may be better than no stance at all. The positions are described in terms of the operational behaviours, attitudes and expressed values they are normally characterised by.

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Figure 4.8 Values underlying school culture

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You can explore these beliefs through a Card Sort exercise, the materials for which are included in Part 3, Practical 5 on page 194 – a set of thirty cards and two grids to demonstrate their arrangement. You may want to do the exercise in private first, or with the senior leadership team, but you should also perform it with as many members of staff as possible. With staff working in collaborative groups of three to five people each, with prepared materials (two sets of cards, cut up, and copies of the Actual and Ideal grids for each group), this session should take around one hour. You may like to warm people up with a brief discussion of what culture means – the culture quiz presented previously is a handy tool, especially if everyone can share their answers. Then perform the following steps: 1 Position yourselves in the perspective of your ideal culture, the values you would like your school to live. 2 Review the cards and sort on a table in order of preference, following the pattern of the grids: the most important statement in the single space at the top, the second and third most important in the second row and so on, down to the statements you regard as undesirable or unimportant. This can be a painful process, as you will often want to put more statements at the top than the grid allows. This is deliberate, schools can’t be all things to all people and need to prioritise some values above all others. This exercise will ‘force’ the most important values into the open. 3 Now, forgetting the ideal world, arrange a second set of cards to represent your actual culture, using the same principles. It is at this point that some painful honesty about how you really behave, rather than how you would like to behave, comes to the fore. 4 Note the numbers and positions of each card (Ideal and Actual) on the grids themselves for future reference. 5 You can take the completed grids away for analysis and summary or analyse them live at the end of the session. The latter option is more satisfying for participants, although somewhat less scientific. Starting with the actual culture, take each group in turn. Ask them to call out their top six answers. Note the answers and their number on a whiteboard or flipchart and place a single tick next to each of them. Now ask the other groups to review their sorted cards and call out if they also have one of the listed statements in their top six – in which case add another tick – or in their bottom six – in which case add a cross. Now move on to the next group and ask them to call out any of their top six answers that aren’t already on the board. Repeat the cross checking and ticking/crossing for this set. Repeat for each group in turn. Table 4.1 contains an example of the table you are trying to create. 6 This should swiftly reveal areas of consensus and dissension. Assuming a total of five separate groups, highlight any statements with three or more ticks and no crosses (larger and smaller sessions should alter the thresholds accordingly). These are clearly characteristic of experience in the school. Highlight in a different colour those statements with two or more ticks and more than one cross. These are characteristic for some but controversial for others. Encourage debate between the groups on how they interpreted the statements (whether they might change their minds) or why experience is different for different groups. 7 Record the positively highlighted items and those controversial statements upon which some consensus is reached, for future reference. These represent a clear view of your current culture from those who experience it. You may want to dig out your mission statement, guiding principles or philosophy from the SDP or other strategy documents and compare the consensus on current culture with the espoused principles of the organisation. What sort of a fit is there? 8 Repeat the exercise with the ideal statements, to produce a second Ideal summary chart. 9 Taking each of the statements on the Ideal summary chart in turn, ask each group to examine the gap between that statement’s positions on their Actual and Ideal grids. Thus, if card 6 is on the Ideal summary chart, each group examines the position of card 6 on their own grids and subtracts the number of the Ideal row from the number of the Actual row. For one group, card 6 may be at the top of their Ideal grid and in row 7 on their Actual grid. This gap is six.

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10

11

Record the gaps on the Ideal summary chart and calculate the average gap. You have most ground to make up in pursuit of your aspirations on the statements with the largest gaps. It is particularly significant if an Ideal statement upon which there is considerable consensus also has a large gap. You may largely have the culture you want, or there may be discrepancies upon which you want to take action. An average gap of five or more indicates a serious discrepancy between experience and aspirations.

Table 4.1 Analysing the culture sort

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Part three, Practical 5 contains a protocol and facilitation guide to take you through these steps (page 198). As well as a higher level of internal debate on school culture and a possible action plan for change, this exercise provides a valuable input to the recruitment process. As step 2 suggests, you need to decide whether you want to use the actual culture or ideal culture as the model for recruitment, bearing in mind that the further someone is from the current norm, the more uncomfortable they may feel when they join. Once this decision has been made, the statements can either become formal criteria, against which evidence is sought during the interview and recruitment process, or they can be used less formally – simply borne in the back of your minds while recruiting and debating a candidate. If you are taking the more formal route, there are a number of options for soliciting the evidence. The most laborious is to perform an additional pass through the Critical Incident Interview data or to request that coders flag anything they consider to be relevant to culture as they look for behavioural evidence. You may well prefer a less intensive approach, and this can be taken simply by asking the candidate about their values and professional beliefs. You could add this to the discussion about total reward preferences introduced in Chapter 5. A useful tactic is to take one of the Critical Incidents, one in which the candidate evinced and acted upon strongly held values or demonstrated a real passion. Get them to explore their motivation in more depth. Another, more creative, option is to perform the card sort exercise with the candidate themselves. Rather than talking about their institution, ask them to sort them in order of their own preferences and talk through the choices. If you are running any assessment centre-style exercises during the interview visit, with multiple candidates co–operating on a task, this card sort makes an excellent exercise. As well as revealing candidates’ values, it requires negotiation, reflection and teamwork. The final step in the application of culture to the recruitment process is to consider any extra support that a recruit may require during their induction and, indeed, throughout their time at your school. This is particularly vital where you have chosen someone to challenge rather than reinforce the existing culture. Without intensive support, the end result of dropping a square peg into a round hole is conflict, disillusionment and a swift exit. There are two sorts of ‘challenger’ recruit – the ‘innovator’ and the ‘disruptor’. The ‘innovator’ does things differently but doesn’t conflict with what is already being done, they fill a gap. The ‘disruptor’ has values in active conflict with those of their colleagues. Unless they are fairly senior, have the explicit backing of the senior leadership, immense self-confidence and practised interpersonal skills, the disruptor tactic is unlikely to be a success for candidate or school, and should be used in extreme circumstances only. The innovator challenger has more chance of success, but you will need to see evidence of Self-Confidence in the Critical Incident Interview data, and preferably also Impact and Influence. Furthermore you will need to provide them a clear brief about your expectations and aspirations, help them identify and build links to like-minded colleagues, provide some simple ‘quick win’ early projects and publicly support and endorse their activity through the various culturally reinforcing behaviours identified earlier. Such a candidate is likely to require frequent coaching and moral support throughout their campaign of change.

Understanding team roles and relationships Our candidate will not operate in isolation but as part of a team, whether this team is defined as their immediate colleagues or as the whole school. And, although Teamworking is one of the characteristics of highly effective teachers, it can mean a lot of different things in different contexts. We all tend to slip into particular roles and relationships with groups of colleagues; most obviously some seek to be leaders and others are content to follow, but there are many more roles than that. Sometimes, our characteristic roles are needed and helpful, at other times they duplicate or conflict with other roles in the team. Archetypal roles may also be left unfilled and the team’s performance may suffer as a result. Accordingly,

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when recruiting, as well as the more generic characteristics, we need to pay some attention to the nature of the team, the roles and relationships it contains and how our candidate may fit in. As with all such comments about ‘fit’, we may also be deliberately seeking candidates who don’t fit and the same cautions about support detailed in the previous section on culture apply here, too. A candidate could complement or conflict with existing team members along a number of dimensions: • • • •

Skills and knowledge Characteristics Logistical issues Roles and relationships

The process of acting on any of these dimensions is straightforward: inventory what’s there, ask what’s missing, add it to the person specification. With an existing team, however, you may want to do this as an open and discursive process, asking the team to elicit their own needs. There are thus three options, in increasing order of attractiveness: 1 2 3

You estimate the needs; You formally inventory the needs through questioning and discussion; The team inventories its needs and you cross check.

The process for skills and knowledge is self-explanatory – what expertise are you currently lacking that you need for the team to succeed? Could a recruit bring enough of this in with them? And how are you going to facilitate the sharing of knowledge? By logistical issues, we mean only that you may want to consider if you need someone at particular times and locations that are not adequately covered already, for example, a partner in a job share agreement, a site manager at a separate facility. We already have a process for assessing and evaluating characteristics. Although those presented here contribute to individual success, and so we look for a rounded portfolio in all clusters from a candidate, it might be possible to support a team which is weak in one cluster with a new recruit strong in that area, particularly if they can act as a role model for others to learn from. This implies a relatively mature and self-confident candidate, and also the presence of mechanisms for learning together. An existing team may find it valuable to work together on a self-assessment of their characteristics to support their own professional development, as well as identifying possible recruitment needs. This process might begin with the orientation exercises presented in Chapter 2 on Measuring Characteristics, on page 21. This will help people understand and ‘buy in’ to the model of teacher effectiveness. In a team situation, it is probably safest for each individual to conduct a private self-assessment and then share the result. Part 3, Practical 5, on page 200 contains a Professional Characteristics Self-Assessment Guide to facilitate this process. With the right atmosphere, you could encourage a critique of each other’s self-assessments, and a subsequent revision of the scorings but this would require a high level of sensitivity and self-confidence among team members. Ask people to complete the Professional Characteristics Self-Assessment. Then pass round the Team Summary Sheet listing the characteristics in their clusters. Have each participant tick and initial any characteristic in which they score thirteen or more, or cross and initial any characteristic in which they score nine or less. Any cluster without a tick, or with a preponderance of crosses could benefit from reinforcement. For the longer term, participants may want to consider pairing up with people who ticked where they crossed and planning some joint development. Figure 4.9 contains an example of a completed self assessment and summary sheet. This data can be inserted into the recruitment process by using it to weight the relevant clusters in the Rating Protocol (see Part 3, Practical 3, on page 173). Although, in general, we are looking for well-rounded candidates, a strength in a prioritised cluster could decide between otherwise equal candidates.

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Figure 4.9 Self-assessment and analysis of professional characteristics Social or informal roles and relationships within the team remain the trickiest to plan and recruit for. Nonetheless, several writers, most notably Belbin (1995), have suggested that, in successful teams, individuals tend to slip into complementary roles (eight in Belbin’s model) and that these roles are fairly consistent between teams. Belbin states that ‘after half a decade of industrial experience in composing teams we could not find any other useful team role to add’. By contrast, de Bono (2000) has proposed a more flexible typology of ‘hats’ to symbolise the roles people play in teams. Thus a ‘black hat’ is the person who emphasises caution and provides critical judgement. The power of the hat metaphor is that it encourages people to consciously put the hats on and take them off. It separates our team roles from our self-image or habits, by allowing us to explicitly state ‘I’m putting on the red hat, now’. It also enables us to offer feedback or move a discussion forward without offering personal insult – ‘I think that was good black hat thinking, but let’s move on …’ Unlike Belbin’s roles, de Bono’s are neither exclusive nor enduring – everyone in the team could wear the red hat (for intuitions and hunches) for a particular session. The hats are a playful approach to self-consciously adapting team roles and contributions to need. De Bono is well known for his emphasis on ‘lateral thinking’ and the hats technique is one method of breaking out of existing ruts and ways of thinking. The roles we are looking at here are social, and mostly tacit, rather than formal positions or specialities. They will, to some extent, shape an individual’s contributions, mannerisms, areas of attention and initiative, and tendency towards styles of data-gathering and decisionmaking. Thus, in Belbin’s terminology, for example, you might expect to see painstaking

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and conscientious ‘Completer–Finishers’, ensuring follow-through, or highly strung, dynamic ‘Shapers’, challenging complacency and self-deception, in many functioning teams. Having a complete spread of necessary roles is not always a major issue, because most people are flexible, capable of playing more than one role, and they instinctively find the role the team needs. This is part of the ‘forming’, ‘storming’ and ‘norming’ that takes place before ‘performing’. It is possible, however, for less flexible individuals to compete for the same role or for a crucial function to go unfilled. If you have a team that seems to be having trouble gelling and performing, this may be one cause. Careful recruitment of a complementary type into the team could help remedy this situation, but you are likely also to need to apply some coaching to the existing members. Playing a clear social role within a team is usually satisfying, creating a sense of personal space and clear contribution. More rarely, being stuck in a role, even one of our own making, can feel like a trap. ‘People always wait for me to point out the difficulties. I feel so negative.’ ‘Why don’t they look to me for ideas?’ The force of habit, and other people’s expectations, can be extremely hard to shake off. It is one of the reasons why people move on to new teams and new schools – it is easier to start again than to change expectations. An open discussion of team roles and preferences can clear the air and create a higher level of empathy among team members. You could apply a generic framework to help a team assess its roles, you could also facilitate a team in reaching its own definitions. We examine the latter approach first, as this combines coaching with recruiting, before offering a generic framework. Team social roles are largely evident to experience and common sense. Most people will have some sense of the different dynamics within different teams, and some experience of playing one role in one context, at a social activity for example, and a different role in another, such as work. This will have largely depended on what other people were doing and their sense of a ‘space’ available. There may also have been competition, resolved through negotiation or a change in membership. Using this experience from inside and outside work, team members can largely diagnose their own needs, and this approach will carry more power and relevance for them. As a warm-up exercise, ask people to work in pairs to discuss the best team they’ve ever been in. Thinking about the people in the team, and the way they worked together, answer the following questions: • •

Who was the most useful team member? Why? What role did the participant play? Why was it helpful?

After the paired discussion, and brief sharing of findings among the whole group, ask people to work alone, writing on post-it notes or scraps of paper. The task is ‘Unofficial Job Titles’. They are to write down as many roles as they can think of that people usefully played in the teams they’ve worked in. They must provide proper, if imaginary, titles for these roles, the more ‘tongue–in–cheek’ the better. They can’t use any real or formal job titles or descriptions – anything that is a proper job or specialism must be ruled out. After sufficient time, stick the post–its on a board, or arrange the scrap paper on a table. Review the suggestions and group together essentially similar descriptions. When the clustering is over, ask if anyone has thought of additional team roles and add them to the list. For each of the informal roles or clusters, add in the following information: • • • •

Why is this role important? What image, in terms of characteristics and manner, do you have of someone performing it? What are its weaknesses or blind spots? Critically, is this role essential or a ‘nice to have’?

You can answer these questions as a whole group or working in smaller units, one to each role. When finished, arrange to have the roles and their descriptions written up into a formal document. This may be helpful to share with other teams and departments in the school.

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The next step is self-assessment against the new model. Using copies of the document, ask people to circle the role they think they play in the current team. They can circle up to three different roles if they wish. Ask them to tick other roles that they think are being filled by other members of the team. Then compare results: • • •

Are there any essential roles not circled? Are there any essential roles not ticked? Are there essential roles circled but not ticked? (i.e. someone thinks they do it, but everyone else feels it is unfilled).

How you proceed from these questions depends largely on the openness and maturity of the team. If there are essential roles neither circled nor ticked, this indicates a possible need for action. On reflection, would the team perform better if someone picked up that function or if you sought to fill it when the next vacancy arose? Does anyone enjoy that sort of role in other teams or parts of their life? What support could you give someone taking it on board? If there are roles which are circled but not ticked, do you have the right climate to debate with the person why they thought they were fulfilling it and your different impressions? Are people used to receiving and discussing sensitive feedback? Whatever the process, you will have three outcomes: either the role wasn’t really essential; or an existing team member would like to try taking it on; or you should look for someone who could do it in the next appropriate recruiting round. We don’t advocate recruiting solely to fill a team social role, merely to add the requirement into the mix if and when you have a vacancy in the team. Therefore, not every person specification will contain a requirement for team social roles. It is also likely to fall low on the list of priorities, behind the professional characteristics and values. If you don’t have the time or, perhaps, the breadth of experience in the team to build your own model, we have prepared a generic framework that could stand in. Based on our experience working with school teams and the literature on the topic, we have tended to see the following social roles as important: •

Critic – the critic is the team member who points out the difficulties in any situation or plan of action. It is easy for them to be perceived as pessimists or doomsayers, but they keep the team’s feet on the ground.

•

Social secretary – the social secretary helps the team bond and get to know one another. They take responsibility for social events and get-togethers. They pay attention to new joiners and to people’s lives outside work. It is possible for them to be perceived as distracted from the main task of the team, but they help create an atmosphere of collegiality.

•

Guru – the guru is a widely respected source of wisdom and experience, someone who has faced the problems of the team before and to whom people turn for the resolution of imponderables. It is possible for the guru to become a semi–detached member of the team.

•

Visionary – the visionary has the bright ideas. They see connections with other ways of doing things, they hunt out best practice, they propose innovations. The negatives side is widely known: a tendency not to follow through, to measure and evaluate, but to move on to the next exciting initiative.

•

Analyst/engineer – in some cases forming a productive partnership with the visionary, the analyst engineer is the person who makes things work. They relish breaking apart big scary problems into their chains of cause and effect and implementing solutions. While methodical, unlike the ‘worker’ they take initiative and fight for their viewpoint.

•

Worker – the mainstay of most teams, workers turn up and get the job done. They are loyal, conscientious and reliable. They need clarity about direction and boundaries and become stressed and anxious in conditions of uncertainty.

•

Joker – the joker breaks the tension and brings people down to earth. They don’t have an agenda, like the rebel, and don’t try to be reformist, like the critic.

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•

Ambassador – the ambassador can also become a semi-detached member of the team. They are the ones who know what’s going on outside, the ones with the contacts and network, who are engaged in the politics of the organisation. They can represent the team’s case and needs to outsiders and bring in news and gossip.

•

Quartermaster – the quartermaster has the resources. They get what the team needs. They know where to obtain things and where they are kept. They know who can help.

•

Conscience – the conscience of the team has an eye to the ethics of a situation: what is fair, what is our duty, are we treating people as they deserve? Yes, the plan may be effective, but is it the right thing to do? The conscious role is often submerged, rising up in times of crisis, but if the team is consistently crossing boundaries, could become merged with the role of rebel.

•

Rebel – the rebel is the instinctive maverick and differs from the critic in that they initiate dissent. They rebel against the big picture rather than the details, they want to revolutionise not reform. They enjoy rebellion for its own sake. This may take the form of petty rebellion against rules and procedures or a grander questioning of purpose and values.

•

Chairperson – the chairperson is concerned with how the team functions. They call the team to order, manage the process and express conclusions. This is not a complete leadership role in itself – the chairperson doesn’t carry a vision, for example – but they are concerned with the team’s effectiveness and look across roles. They frequently exercise the initiative in raising topics and bring people together

•

Shop steward – represents the views of the ‘workers’ to management – either the management of the team or those outside. They may or may not have consulted the other team members or gained their consent before doing so. They can channel essential feedback but also distract with attention to internal hygiene factors rather than the goals of the team. They are likely to question or challenge the impact of changes on working conditions inside the team.

•

Cheerleader – the supporter and enthusiast, the person you turn to for compliments and optimism. This may be one-on-one, as a shoulder to cry on or counsellor, or as a group, as the person who offers praise and is the first to agree. This role can build team spirit, but is not a ‘critical friend’.

Clearly, not every team will have or need someone in all of these roles. Particular roles may come to the fore in different stages of the team’s life cycle. Certain of the roles could easily be encompassed by the same person – visionary and guru, rebel and conscience, analyst and quartermaster – but others are more antagonistic – worker and joker, critic and visionary. There are some close, complementary relationships: the working partnership of visionary and analyst has already been mentioned, and the analyst can be a vital source of clarity for workers. Despite the presence of a ‘chairperson’, we have not included a true leadership role in this list. This is partly because the leader is often a formal position, but mainly because the leader will also usually take on one or more of the above roles, and this will partly characterise their leadership style. The most common leadership roles are chairperson, guru, visionary and analyst. More rarely rebel and quartermaster; most rarely, joker. It can be dangerous if the leader fills the role of ambassador – this characterises the ‘absentee’ leader, more concerned with external relationships than internal operations, bringing in news and then leaving again. The roles can also be divided into cohesive and disruptive categories. The cohesive roles bind the team together, respect authority, reinforce the aims and sustain the direction of the team. The disruptive roles question the direction, introduce doubt, speak out and create trouble. The analyst, the worker, the social secretary, the guru and the quartermaster are cohesive. The critic, the rebel and the joker are disruptive. The visionary and the conscience can be cohesive or disruptive depending on context.

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Figure 4.10 Some common social roles in teams This generic framework is replicated in handout format in Part 3, Practical 5, on pages 205–206. Use the same techniques presented earlier: ask people to circle roles they feel they fulfil and tick roles they see others doing in the team. If people are unfamiliar with the categories or slow in engaging with the process, you could warm them up by asking them to reflect upon a time when they’ve seen that role in action and describe it. After the selfassessment process, follow the same steps described earlier for the ‘DIY’ model for discussion and analysis. Given that we have presented some disruptive roles as well as cohesive roles in the generic model, you may want to expand the debate to raise the issue of: • •

Do we need any disruptive roles at this point in time? If we do, how can we value and support our mavericks, rather than closing ranks against them?

If you have identified a serious gap in the team roles, you will need to feed this into the person specification and space for this is available in the form in Part 3, Practical 6, on pages 222–223. This involves prioritising any characteristics and skills complementary to the existing team and copying in the appropriate social role and its descriptor (why helpful, what it looks like, etc.). These descriptors are essential to provide the criteria to select by. The most straightforward method of selection is to examine any Critical Incidents relating to team activity for evidence that they played that role. This would particularly apply to incidents from the Relating to Others cluster. It may be necessary to include a specific probe to elicit team activity, for example:

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•

Tell me about a time when you worked as part of a group of teachers to implement an initiative or study a new approach.

Alternatively you can ask direct questions about what roles they prefer to play in a team: • •

What value do you think you add to the teams you are a member of? How would your colleagues describe you, and what would they value most about your team contributions?

You could also share with them your model of team roles and ask them to indicate their preferences. These direct questions and self-assessments could be placed together with questions about values and reward preferences at the end of the interview. Finally, the ‘build your own model’ process outlined earlier would make great material for a group exercise for candidates during the interview day.

The person specification From professional characteristics to job demands, from values and beliefs to team roles, we now have a wealth of criteria for our candidate. This should be pulled together, summarised and prioritised in a single document – the person specification. This will enable us to assess the overall balance of the criteria we have generated, and adjust accordingly; to share our thinking with other staff members; and inform our recruitment communications. We may even want to let prospective candidates see it directly so they can make their own judgements about their fit with the job. The process so far has generated a number of possible components to the person specification: 1 2 3 4 5

The professional characteristics required; The skills and knowledge expected; Modifications to the characteristics based on job shape; Values; Team Role.

We may also want to include a list of accountabilities and performance measures on the person specification. One of the risks of the process outlined so far is that it generates too many criteria to effectively judge between or for any feasible candidate to fulfil. We expect that, in most circumstances, schools will pick and choose among the possible categories for those that most closely fit their needs. An acceptable minimum would be professional characteristics and values. A first step in constructing a person specification is to rank order the professional characteristics as result of the exercises performed earlier in this chapter, specifically: job shape, team roles and any unique needs of your school. As well as helping us to decide between nearly equal candidates, this reduces the overall number of criteria used. Rather than adding additional tests for job shape we merely alter existing criteria. Prioritisation will also highlight the key messages to place in our recruitment communications, like job adverts and recruitment packs. These are detailed in the section on ‘Communicating your brand’ in Chapter 5, on page 105. If you want to simplify the process, however, the prioritisation exercise can easily be skipped. Part 3, Practical 6, on page 221 contains a table to help you prioritise. Consider each characteristic in the light of the earlier exercises. Choose the six most important characteristics from each exercise, rank order them for that exercise (where six equals most important) and record that rank in the appropriate column. Then calculate the sum total of their ranks. The characteristics with the four highest scores are your priorities. An example is shown in Table 4.2.

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Table 4.2 Prioritising the professional characteristics

There are no hard and fast rules to guide your decision-making: exercise your judgement in the light of the exercises and the data collected earlier. Figure 4.6 details the characteristics usually associated with different job shapes and Part 3, Practical 5, on page 200 provides a framework for an analysis of the characteristics required to balance out your team. In considering your school’s own needs, you may want to consider the results of the debates outlined in the section ‘Customising and extending the Model’ in Chapter 2. This information feeds into two other documents. First, there is space to record your priorities on the person specification, as detailed below. You will also need to record your priorities in the column titled ‘rank’ on the appropriate Rating Protocols provided in Part 3, Practical 3, on page 174. With the characteristics prioritised you are ready to complete the person specification. Part 3, Practical 6, on page 222 contains a template to assist this process. There is additional space to record accountabilities, background information, skills and knowledge, values and team social roles. After filling the appropriate sections with the data generated in previous exercises, the step is to evaluate the big picture: • • • •

Can we reasonably expect candidates to achieve these benchmarks? Have we set our sights high enough? Is the specification internally consistent, with values, roles, skills and characteristics complementing each other? Is anything missing?

We strongly recommend including a version of the completed person specification in the recruitment pack. The person specification is the key document around which to build consensus on your recruitment plans. It is an opportunity for all staff members to understand who you are

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looking for and to offer feedback on its realism and relevance. If care has been taken around the inclusion of values and the prioritisation of particular characteristics it also sends powerful messages internally about your vision of effective teaching, the culture you are trying to create and the standards you set for staff. Hopefully, given the exercises presented throughout this book, members of staff will already have been involved in much of the underlying thinking and self-evaluation that has gone into the finished document. They have a stake in it. They may also wish to reflect publicly or privately on how they compare to the person specification. This could initiate a productive discussion on the professional standards currently set within the school and on whether the performance management and professional development processes support this picture of effective teaching. A key question to pose of yourself and staff is, imagining you secure a candidate who fits all these criteria, what resources, support and development would they need to make the most of their abilities? This could modify some elements of your induction process.

Broader applications of job shape, culture and team roles Although aimed at informing the recruitment process by adding in sophisticated nuances to the person specification, covering job shape, values and relationships, the concepts and exercises in this chapter have a wide relevance to school life. They can be performed outside of any specific recruitment opportunities and are all designed to include as wide a number of people as possible in the data collection, analysis and decision-making. Even if the exercises are motivated by and applied directly to recruitment, it would be a shame not to use the information generated more widely. Schools are expected to perform self-evaluation and to understand clearly why they succeed or fail at particular tasks. Much self-evaluation focuses on the harder-edged measures of performance but it is equally, if not more, important to focus on the more intangible aspects of the school. In the end, these underlie and explain performance. Furthermore, self-evaluation should never merely be about data collection, or an exercise confined to management – self-evaluation is merely a framework to stimulate objective conversations and reflections about the nature and aims of a school. By itself, the data does not provide or mandate instructions for change, the debate provides the action plan. The exercises in this chapter, and in later ones, are designed not just to generate scores, positions or benchmarks, but to get the whole school working together on questions that matter greatly to the promotion of learning, but which are often left unspoken: •

• •

• •

What is the right balance between autonomy and direction? How does that balance affect our satisfaction and enthusiasm for teaching? If we can’t sustain enthusiasm in ourselves, how will we do so for our pupils? What assumptions do we make, without conscious thought, about our pupils and each other? What do our celebrations, role models and symbols say about what we really believe is important? If I were a new recruit, what messages would I receive from the rituals and routines I experience early on? Does the current thrust of educational policy fit what we consider to be the needs of pupils and teachers? We talk a lot about what schools need from teachers, but what do teachers need from schools? Can teaching be a satisfying career, in fact rather than aspiration, to someone with the qualities to be an outstanding teacher?

The data and debate from the exercises can be stored to inform latter decisions. The exercises can be repeated at regular intervals to check progress or affirm values. In particular school strategy and school development planning should take account of the findings. It can be valuable to cross-reference the major objectives in the SDP against the findings of the various exercises; the culture sort is especially relevant. Do our cultural

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Table 4.3 Does your culture support your strategy: a matrix for analysis

attributes, or job shapes, for example, support our major objectives? Is there any conflict? What should we change, the objectives or the culture? What are we doing in our development planning to nurture the values we say we want and create the place we aspire to work in? Table 4.3 shows an example of a matrix that was developed to facilitate just such an analysis.

Summary and overview of process This chapter showcases some optional extras, ways of moving beyond a generic dictionary of characteristics to take account of some of the more individual conditions of your school. It adds complexity and sophistication in equal measure and you may want to blend in the steps over a period of time, or even use them outside of the recruitment process itself. The end product is the person specification, a concise summary of all the decision-making and analysis that lists and weights the critical attributes we are looking for in our ideal candidate. These will rest heavily on the dictionary of teaching characteristics presented in Chapter 2, but may include: your own unique characteristics; particular skills, knowledge or experience; an assessment of the shape of the job and an appropriate weighting of the characteristics; a view on the values you are looking for; and adjustments for the existing team context (characteristics and relationships) that the candidate would be fitting in to, or deliberately disrupting. The person specification has two main applications. It informs and sits along side the Rating Protocol used to evaluate the Critical Incident Interview. This is dealt with in Chapter 3. It also informs our recruitment communications, particularly job adverts and the recruitment pack. We may wish to go as far as sending it directly to prospective candidates to help

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them decide whether they are suitable and to showcase the depth of thought the school puts into such decisions. Recruitment communications are dealt with in the next chapter, but the issue of attracting candidates is far more complicated than mere marketing. We must communicate the actual conditions that exist within the school and so we must create attractive working conditions. As the summary of teachers’ motivation in the next chapter will show, job shape is particularly germane. This chapter has also demonstrated that teachers interact with their school’s organisation on numerous levels to produce high performance. It is not just about putting someone in the right place at the right time, or providing the required resources. Culture, job shape, relationships provide a context that will make or break a teacher, whatever their basic characteristics, and we also demand behaviours from teachers that will reinforce the context we are trying to build.

Checklist:

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Review the shape and stretch of jobs in your school, both for your overall principles and the particular vacancy at hand. Use the Job Shape questionnaire.

Review the priority characteristics for the relevant job shape.

Conduct the Culture Sort to map your actual and ideal culture.

Review the values revealed by the Sort and decide whether you are recruiting to affirm or disrupt your existing value structure.

Initiate any culture change initiatives which the Sort revealed as desirable.

Review the portfolio of characteristics in teams for which a vacancy exists and note any characteristics needed to make up the portfolio.

Review the social roles in the teams for which a vacancy exists and note any requirements.

Prioritise the generic characteristics to reflect the data provided by job shape, culture, team portfolio and team social roles.

Record all the requirements in the person specification and record the priorities on the Rating Protocol.

CHAPTER TITLE

Attraction

5

Maximising applications

Why work here? If we’ve invested time and effort into defining and spotting outstanding teachers, we do want to make sure they join us. This is more than a marketing exercise. Of course we can create glossy brochures, trumpet our advantages, even offer someone extra points on the pay scale – and we probably will need to hone our communications in some way – but we cannot disguise the fundamental conditions of our organisation. Is this a happy school? Is it a determined school? Do people get on with each other? Most candidates will absorb this atmosphere when they visit for interview and, if they do miss it, will move on from the school pretty quickly if it’s not right. Accordingly, in this chapter we want to address two connected questions: • •

The ‘Reality’ – how can I shape the fundamental conditions and rewards offered by my school to attract and retain talented staff? The ‘Brand’ – how do I promote and communicate these conditions most effectively during the recruitment process?

We are not promoting a quick fix or cosmetic make-over: before we engage in communicating to candidates we need to make our school an attractive place to work. We also need to bear in mind that our recruitment communications are designed to put people off, as well as to attract. Having built a clear person specification, anyone who doesn’t fit the bill should be discouraged from applying. A certain amount of blunt honesty rather than hype is therefore called for. We begin by analysing current understanding about why people choose to work in a particular institution. There are some generic factors – changes that would be perceived as good by all potential candidates – but there are many individual factors, and what attracts one candidate may switch another off. We therefore need to take a two-pronged approach to our school’s attraction: certain generic improvements in working conditions together with the preparation of a portfolio of options which can be combined into unique packages for the right candidates. An understanding of the theory of workplace motivation will help with both tasks. We then move to analyse schools in the light of this framework. There is a great deal of data available about why people choose to become teachers, what they look for in their teaching career and what they feel schools do and don’t offer. We can use this to refine our generic picture of reward and the particular options that are likely to appeal to a broad range of candidates. Armed with this analysis we then offer a self-evaluation and actionplanning process for your school. With the ‘realities’ sorted, it is then proper to address communication. We believe that every school has a brand – not a marketing gimmick, but an honest expression of its values and ethic. This brand needs to be boiled down into some key propositions and the portfolio of options mentioned earlier. Armed with this thinking, appropriate messages can be applied through the various media used within the recruitment process – the advert, the application pack, the visit itself and the offer. We investigate each in turn. Figure 5.1 illustrates the flow of the process proposed.

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Figure 5.1 The key steps in attracting candidates Taking an approach which addresses actual working conditions and rewards before communications and marketing has a number of long-term benefits. First, it is honest; people will get what they expected and be more likely to stay. Second, and perhaps more importantly, it improves the morale and motivation of existing staff as well as attracting new recruits. In making our proposals we recognise the budgetary and statutory constraints on schools for rewarding staff: very few of our suggestions have monetary implications. Although a higher salary can have a significant impact, there are many more factors which drive our decision-making: convenience, congeniality and challenge, to name three. Even schools with few financial advantages can use these techniques to improve and increase their pool of applicants.

Fundamentals of motivation and engagement Although writers like Maslow, Herzberg and McClelland have presented a range of theories about what people might seek from work – and these will provide a useful set of criteria to shape our self-evaluation – the approach taken in economics to the expression of human

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AT T R A C T I O N : M A X I M I S I N G A P P L I C AT I O N S

preferences provides a more fundamental framework to guide our analysis. And, if we are sufficiently sophisticated about our application, this approach need not be constrained by cold rationality or monetary value. Work is an exchange. Someone will decide to join (or remain at) a particular place of work if the difference between the personal value of the benefits to them and the personal cost of working there is greater than that at the next best alternative (which would include not working at all). Rewards from work – Personal cost of work > Next best alternative Rewards would include salary, for example, and costs would include number of hours diverted from more attractive pursuits. This picture is complicated by imperfect information. We often don’t know what it is like in other places of work, and don’t have time to exhaustively analyse all our alternatives. This builds a certain sense of inertia into the equation – people are likely to stick with what they know rather than take a risk and will only choose from a limited pool of alternatives. This equation becomes far more helpful in a practical sense if we accept the following propositions: •

•

•

Rewards and costs cover a wider range of conditions than salaries and hours worked. Emotional, motivational and economic factors must be taken into account: anything that a potential employee could consider good or bad must feature. This could include levels of responsibility, opportunities for training, excitement and challenge on the plus side, for example. When we say ‘reward’ we are not talking about pay alone. Organisations possess factors which detract as well as attract. It’s not just about the personal sacrifice of having to work per se: I may be bullied in a particular institution, I may be confused about objectives, I may dislike my manager. People value costs and rewards differently. Some people may rate job security very highly, to others it is not important at all. Furthermore, even the same individual will value conditions differently over time. If my job is currently boring, I will value a little extra excitement very highly. Once my working life is charged with adrenalin, extra excitement will be no incentive and I will seek other factors. Therefore, we must consider reward on an individual basis.

We can therefore expand on the earlier equation. We will join a school if: Rewards from work

Next best alternative – Personal cost of work + Cost of searching where ‘reward’ includes both tangible and intangible elements and is a personal preference or perception. We will call a school’s net balance of tangible and intangible rewards, minus tangible and intangible costs, ‘Total Reward’. Increasing Total Reward will not only attract more candidates, it will engage and motivate existing staff, helping them to become more productive and encouraging them to stay longer. Obviously, increasing Total Reward has costs, some financial and others administrative or psychological. You will need to assess whether the benefits outweighs the costs, but given that the benefits include recruitment, productivity and retention this may be quite likely.

>

In terms of our recruitment policy, this has the following implications: 1 2

3

We can adjust the organisational conditions provided by our school more easily than the personal cost of working. We need to understand the next best alternative to make proper judgements on the relative value of our offer – what else would people be doing? Where else would they go? Because people value rewards differently, unless we can vary the total reward per person, it will not be equally attractive to all candidates. It may even attract the less suitable candidates more than the outstanding. Therefore we must build in individuality.

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We can approach these questions by inventorying all the possible benefits and disincentives, which could contribute to total reward, and then evaluating our school against them. In the process, we will need to be clear which are generic to all staff, and which can be varied from staff member to staff member, bearing in mind that discrimination can be a disincentive in its own right. McClelland, Maslow and Herzberg can help us in this task. Maslow’s hierarchy of need (Maslow 1943) is widely familiar and provides not only a checklist of possible benefits, but some indication of common trade-offs between them. In Maslow’s general-dynamic theory, ‘man is a perpetually wanting animal’ and ‘the appearance of one need usually rests on the prior satisfaction of another’. As soon as we’ve achieved one goal, our horizons change, and there is a standard order or hierarchy in how our needs change. Maslow suggests, for example, that we won’t value ‘self-actualisation’ highly until we have achieved a certain level of personal safety. Furthermore, once we have achieved a certain level of personal safety, any more will not satisfy or motivate us. Although this model offers some broad truths about the human condition, there are always individuals who break the rules – people who will break the hierarchy and sacrifice security for excitement or fame for example. And later commentators have suggested that we only require partial satisfaction before our attention turns to the next level. Nonetheless, as the following list indicates, it gives some food for thought about a school’s total reward package: • • • • •

‘Self-actualisation’ – development and realisation of potential ‘Esteem’ – self-respect and the esteem of others ‘Love’ – affection, belonging, friendship, social activity ‘Safety’ – security, freedom from pain, protection from danger ‘Physiology’ – food, drink, sleep

Frederick Herzberg, the ‘father of job enrichment’, investigated a wide range of organisations to discover the common factors that provoke extreme satisfaction or extreme dissatisfaction. Although this work was aimed at the motivation of existing employees, it has obvious implications for recruitment and retention. Herzberg’s list in Figure 5.2 gives us a further set of categories against which to evaluate our school’s total reward. Interestingly, there is no symmetry between the things that are highly satisfying and those that are highly dissatisfying – they are not opposites of each other. This splits the list into what Herzberg described as ‘hygiene’ factors and ‘motivational’ factors. Hygiene factors demotivate when they are wrong but don’t usually motivate when they are right. Thus, when administrative procedures are bad, it is a serious disincentive, but once you’ve improved them so far, they don’t become an incentive, they just drop off the list of considerations. Hygiene factors and motivational factors are distinguished from each in interesting ways. In Herzberg’s words: When our respondents reported feeling happy with their jobs, they most frequently described factors related to their tasks, to events that indicated to them that they were successful in the performance of their work, and to the possibility of professional growth. Conversely, when feelings of unhappiness were reported they were not associated with the job itself but with the conditions that surround the doing of the job. (Herzberg et al. 1993) Again, this indicates that employees’ trade-offs can change over time. It may not be effective to devote all resources to improving a single factor – once that factor has been improved to a certain point, which will differ for each employee, extra gains will cease to have much impact. Herzberg also noted that, in terms of improved performance mere satisfaction wasn’t enough – it was only extreme satisfaction that made a difference. David McClelland devoted his career to studying human motivation – the basic drives and needs which direct and energise our behaviour. This work has been taken on by Hay Group (which joined with McClelland’s own company in the 1970s) to look at the organisational conditions which shape these drives. McClelland found that much of

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Figure 5.2 Causes of satisfaction and dissatisfaction (Herzberg 1993)

workplace or social behaviour was driven by a combination, or profile, different in each individual, of three basic motivations: • • •

The Need for Achievement – ‘doing something better for its own sake, for the intrinsic satisfaction of doing something better.’ The Need for Affiliation – a concern for ‘establishing, maintaining or restoring positive affective relationships with another person or persons.’ The Need for Power – a need for ‘impact, control or influence over another person, group or the world at large.’ (Winter 1973, quoted in McClelland 1985)

Motives are important because, in McClelland’s analysis they ‘orient, select and energise’ behaviour. If a course of action or experience satisfies our motive profile we will pay more attention to it (or notice it), choose to engage in it over other possibilities, and pursue it more vigorously and persistently. Clearly motives can have a critical impact on our effectiveness at work and the basic choices we make there – do I raise my criticism of that person or keep the peace? Do I do that piece of work myself or delegate it? The three basic motivations have various subcategories and nuances. For example, the need for achievement can be characterised by either the need to avoid failure or to seek success. Affiliation can be either ‘anxious’, avoiding conflict, or more positive, seeking relationships. Power, of course, can be about seeking personal status and aggrandisement or about striving to make a difference to other people’s lives. Whatever the varieties, these traits are readily recognisable in ourselves and our colleagues and will affect the decisions we make. For example, an affiliative manager may avoid confronting poor performance in order to maintain harmonious relationships. A teacher with a need for achievement may constantly seek to raise standards and beat targets, but they may also be reluctant to delegate tasks to others for fear of losing the sense of personal achievement.

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Different environmental factors can arouse or depress someone’s underlying motivation. Even someone with a low need for power, for example, can come to want it with the right cues. More importantly, our motive profiles will cause us to seek and value different sorts of experiences, companions and working environments. An understanding of these factors can help us shape our working environment to suit different motives. Thus, someone with a high achievement drive, for example, will respond better in, enjoy more and be attracted to a particular sort of working environment. In particular they will seek a sense of control over their own destiny – a substantial element of chance, or someone else making a major contribution will not appeal to them. For that reason, achievement-oriented individuals seem to prefer moderate risks and difficulty. By contrast, those with a power orientation tend to be attracted to high-risk situations. They don’t care so much for the sense of having done it themselves, as opposed to luck, but do care for the impact and limelight that a dramatic success can bring. The provision of feedback is crucial to high achievers – how else can they tell if they’ve achieved things? They will naturally gravitate towards tasks with intrinsic feedback – a pile of completed reports building up, for example – but for more abstract or extended tasks they need managerial feedback that they’re heading in the right direction and doing well. Professional characteristics include motives and drives. Interestingly, the model of effective teaching includes a characteristic called the Drive for Improvement. This is a manifestation of the achievement motivation, suggesting that the type of teachers we want our working conditions to attract are those disposed to this motive, and that we should prioritise this above conditions that attract those motivated by power and affiliation. This picture is complicated somewhat: people usually have a mix of motivations: even the highest overachiever may have some need for affiliation, for example. Additionally, if we are recruiting for leadership positions, the need for power (of the social, rather than personalised kind) becomes more important than the need for personal achievement. We want leaders to empower others rather than do it all themselves. The importance of the achievement motive for teacher effectiveness, however, gives us some guidance on working conditions which might appeal to outstanding teachers. This is backed by Hay Group’s research into school leadership. School Climate, as used in the UK’s Leadership Programme for Serving Headteachers (run by the National College for School Leadership, see www.ncsl.org.uk), measures those working conditions that arouse

Figure 5.3 The incentives for different motive profiles

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the achievement drive, and hence attract and retain those motivated by achievement. In schools, Climate revolve around six factors: •

Clarity – ‘I know our goals and how I contribute.’ Clarity is formally defined as ‘The degree to which colleagues feel that everyone knows what is expected of them and that they understand how these expectations relate to the larger goals of the school’ and is composed of: A sense of mission and direction Understanding of expectations and personal contribution

•

Standards – ‘We are expected to do well, and to improve our performance.’ Standards is formally defined as ‘The extent to which colleagues think management emphasises improving performance by doing such things as setting challenging but attainable goals for the staff and the school as a whole’ and is composed of: Improvement, standards are rising Excellence, standards are high

•

Reward – ‘If I do well, it gets noticed and recognised.’ Reward is formally defined as ‘The degree to which colleagues feel they are being recognised for good work and that such recognition is directly and differentially related to levels of performance’ and is composed of: A sense of recognition and encouragement A clear link between personal performance and reward

•

Flexibility – ‘There are few unnecessary rules and procedures.’ Flexibility is formally defined as ‘The degree to which colleagues feel there are no unnecessary procedures, policies and practices that interfere with task accomplishment and that new ideas are encouraged’ and is composed of: Minimisation of unnecessary bureaucracy Encouragement of innovation

•

Responsibility – ‘I can get on with my job and make decisions.’ Responsibility is formally defined as ‘The degree to which colleagues feel that they can do their jobs without having to check everything with their boss and feel encouraged to take calculated risks’ and is composed of: A sense of autonomy and accountability Risk taking

•

Team Commitment – ‘People are proud to work here and with each other.’ Team Commitment is formally defined as ‘The feeling that people are proud to belong to the school, will provide extra effort when needed, and trust that everyone is working towards a common objective’ and is composed of: Pride and dedication Co–operation and congeniality

The dimension of Team Commitment also ensures the common need for affiliation is addressed. Organisations with positive climates experience lower staff turnover; schools with positive climates tend to get better Ofsted inspections and examination results. This makes climate one of the key working conditions to consider when analysing the total reward offered by your school and when trying to create an attractive place of work. Climate is also usually picked up quickly by people visiting the school, and so can leave a powerful impression on candidates. One of the chief forces for creating climate is the style of leadership employed by the headteacher and senior leadership team. Thus, visionary styles of leadership offer Clarity and coercive styles raise Standards but reduce Responsibility and Team Commitment. Schools seeking more information on climate and leadership are advised to review the report, Lessons of Leadership (Hobby et al. 2000), and the materials provided on the website of the National College for School Leadership.

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These findings reinforce both those of Herzberg and Maslow on the importance of ‘higher incentives’ on total reward: responsibility, the quality of leadership received, the sense of achievement and growth. Schools have a lot more flexibility to engineer these factors than salaries and benefits. Schools facing challenges, whether financially or socially, operate on the same playing field with the higher incentives. They may even have some advantages in their ability to offer growth, responsibility, achievement and excitement. This has been anything but an exhaustive survey of the literature on motivation and engagement. The aim has been merely to explore some basic principles that would enable us to build a practical inventory of the possible benefits and disincentives that might make up the total reward offered by a school. This is the first step towards a self-evaluation framework that will enable you to consciously engineer total reward. So far, we are clear that: 1

Total reward covers a broad range of both tangible and intangible incentives.

2

It contains both ‘hygiene’ factors, those irritants which must be eliminated, but whose converse will not attract, and ‘excellence’ factors which can be pursued in depth, which do attract, once the hygiene factors are eliminated

3

There are diminishing returns to the pursuit of any single factor: eventually it ceases to incentivise. This, coupled with the fact that different teachers value each factor differently, makes a generalist approach more effective than specialisation when seeking to attract and retain staff.

Before we construct this inventory we need to be able to rank order the items in terms of importance. To do this we consider how the available research on teacher recruitment and retention may weight the various factors.

Why teachers join and leave schools Concern about the current recruitment crisis has produced a wealth of evidence on what teachers seek in a career compared to what they actually get. These findings help us prioritise the various factors that might attract someone to your school. They also point out a fascinating and somewhat unexpected theme in teachers’ professional motivation. In 2003 the Guardian, the General Teaching Council and MORI surveyed 70,000 teachers (Guardian 2003). When asked why they joined teaching, the top five answers were: Working with young people Creative, mentally stimulating role Love of subject Dynamic and varied role Inspired by good teacher

54% 33% 26% 23% 21%

Only 3 per cent of those surveyed mentioned career progression and only 2 per cent mentioned the opportunity for professional learning or for working in the public sector. When asked why they remained in the profession, the top five answers were: Working with young people Personal achievement Creative, mentally stimulating role Dynamic and varied role Part of school community

42% 32% 25% 19% 18%

There are some fascinating implications for recruitment. Only just over half of teachers joined to work with young people as a prime motive, and less than half remain for that reason. And what does ‘working with young people’ mean? Is it a selfless commitment to helping others, or simple enjoyment of their company and their challenges, or a bit of both? Many of the remaining factors cited as incentives do seem to centre around the opportunity for an intellectually and creatively satisfying career, not so much about giving

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or changing the world as personally achieving something of value and distinction. Doubtless the opportunity to contribute to society is present – there are other careers that offer personal achievement – but, for recruitment, to misquote Kennedy, we must consider what our school gives to teachers (in terms of challenge, achievement, innovation and intellectual stimulation) as well as what they can give themselves. Furthermore, when thinking in recruitment terms, the opportunity to work with children is not a differentiating factor for any single school – all schools offer that, and so do many other careers, from sports coaches to paediatric medicine. Schools can more readily distinguish themselves through opportunities for variety, creativity and achievement. As well as drawing us back to the earlier discussion of McClelland’s study of the achievement motive, these findings are also reminiscent of Cciskszentmihalyi’s work on ‘flow’: [We] have all experienced times when, instead of being buffeted by anonymous forces, we do feel in control of our actions, masters of our own fate … Contrary to what we usually believe, moments like these, the best moments in our lives, are not passive, receptive, relaxing times … The best moments are usually when a person’s body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile. (Cciskszentmihalyi 2002) In Maslow’s words, this is part of ‘the desire to become more and more what one is, to become everything that one is capable of becoming’. This gives an important clue to the rank ordering of our inventory of total reward. If a school offers even a hint of ‘flow’ or ‘self-actualisation’, of the chance for each member of staff (and pupils as well) to personally tackle meaningful challenges, to be stretched and to receive the support that McClelland identified – credible feedback on performance, moderately challenging targets and sense of personal responsibility for events – it will rarely lack for applicants. We will discuss how you can create these conditions, and communicate their existence to candidates in a later section. The GTC/Mori/Guardian survey also reveals some of the likely hygiene factors in schools. When asked what demotivated them about work in schools, the top five answers were: Workload and paperwork Initiative overload Targets Pupil Behaviour Inspections

56% 39% 35% 31% 19%

These findings must modify our earlier discussion about challenge, achievement and stretch. How does this bear up in the light of dissatisfaction with targets and new initiatives? The difference lies in the origin – a sense of achievement comes from choosing your own targets, in discussion with those whose opinions you value, and from creating and pursuing your own initiatives, not being passive recipients of others’. Imposed targets, particularly those perceived to be unreachable, and confrontational inspections provide little sense of personal achievement. Initiative overload makes a sense of personal mastery and control all the rarer and more valuable. The survey also reveals a number of factors which are not connected to personal achievement, but which concern safety and security (pupil behaviour) and belonging or affiliation (a sense of community). When asked about their future expectations from a career in teaching, 45 per cent wanted to see a higher status and 38 per cent a more flexible career structure. Forty-four per cent of respondents wanted the opportunity to adapt to the individual needs of pupils (which would involve using one’s expertise, professional judgement and carefully forged relationships to achieve worthwhile goals). Only 11 per cent of respondents said that pay was a demotivating factor. Coming at the question from another angle, Steers and Porter present a useful framework for considering teacher reward. They helpfully split rewards along two axes:

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Figure 5.4 Steers and Porter’s Model of Reward

•

•

Intrinsic versus Extrinsic – feelings of ‘reward’ and satisfaction that arise within the individual, as opposed to inducements, praise and incentives given or imposed by others. Collective versus Individual – features of the institution, or rewards that can only be offered to everyone as opposed to targeted at individuals.

These two axes combine to help analyse different types of reward, as demonstrated in Figure 5.4. The practical differences between collective and individual rewards will be explored further in the section on ‘Individualising the offer’ at the end of this chapter, on page 110.

Auditing your school’s Total Reward We are now in a position to construct a rank-ordered inventory of the factors affecting the total reward offered by your school. This is the foundation of a self-evaluation process and of an action plan for improvement. Figure 5.5 presents a summary and Figure 5.6 presents the details of this inventory. It contains hygiene factors, which should be solved rather than excelled at, and which should be addressed first. Hygiene factors are followed by so called excellence factors, which should be excelled at, though not to detriment of other factors, and which form the core of your school’s proposition. The factors are presented in order of priority, the most important in each category last. The detailed inventory contains a large but non-exhaustive range of examples, which could form an immediate basis for change – possible actions may be obvious – but the next section contains more specific suggestions for change, and how to manage the process of change. In reviewing the detailed inventory, you will notice that several items appear twice, under different headings, representing different aspects. Thus, career progress is important for personal learning and growth, but also contributes to the satisfaction of the achievement drive by creating new opportunities and challenges. Among the hygiene factors, security is both a positive (providing protection) and, when excessive, a negative, creating excess bureaucracy and cumbersome procedures such as locks and codes.

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Figure 5.5 Summary of Total Reward factors

The inventory puts a heavy emphasis on achievement, and the environmental factors that contribute to achievement. The heading Values and Value (i.e. the perceived worth of the work) appears less substantial, but is barely less important. The section ‘Defining your values through the culture sort’ in Chapter 4, on page 62 provides more detail and the heading Culture in the Total Reward inventory is assumed to include the fifteen categories of culture presented there. Different people will swing to different poles for each category, although a scan of the definitions will reveal that some are more generically attractive than others. Two other components of the Total Reward inventory draw on work in other places of this book. Job Shape refers to the balance of accountability and problem-solving explored in section ‘Characteristics and the shape of jobs’ in Chapter 4, on page 54. Again, different people will prefer different shapes, although a sense of achievement is generally stronger under the ‘Creative’ or ‘Risk-taking’ profiles. Additionally, a number of factors under several different headings refer to dimensions of school climate. Most of these are linked to achievement, but the hygiene factor bureaucracy covers elements of Flexibility and the heading congeniality covers aspects of Team Commitment. As both the data on teacher motivation and the research into teacher effectiveness emphasise the importance of the achievement drive, the inventory gives prominence to this heading. Nonetheless, there are factors which appeal to those with strong needs for affiliation and power. Finally, for the first time in this discussion, we have introduced the tangible rewards of pay and benefits. Although hard to change, and not overwhelming in their influence, they must clearly be considered as part of the school’s total offering, if only to create strategies to work around them. Tangible rewards also include the more symbolic expenditures, such as funding coffee facilities, food, social events and so on.

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Figure 5.6 Total Reward: a detailed inventory

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It should be emphasised that this inventory will only help you improve your generic attractiveness. Improving and emphasising these issues will make your school a better place to work at and attract most people, but individual candidates will have different preferences and you will need to retain a degree of flexibility. After all, in the survey quoted previously no single factor appealed to more than 60 per cent of respondents. The section below, ‘Individualising the offer’, on page 110 details the construction of individualised packages. The audit or self-evaluation process covers the following steps: 1

The collection of data on conditions in your school, using the total reward inventory as a framework. Part 3, Practical 5, on page 207 contains a questionnaire, the School Total Reward Audit, to help structure the data collection stage of your self-evaluation. A completed example of this questionnaire and the resulting analysis is shown in Figure 5.7. The questionnaire poses a number of questions about the major categories of the inventory. There are a number of options for using this questionnaire, from a quick discussion among the senior leadership team, to universal completion by all members of staff. However, we would recommend that at least a cross section of staff complete it, paying particular attention to new recruits. If you are able to collect responses from people planning to leave, or who have recently left, this would also be illuminating. Part 3, Practical 5, on page 213 contains instructions for processing and analysing the data and it is worth debating the findings during a staff meeting. This will add qualitative data to the statistics, which will assist action-planning. Key questions to pose include: • • • •

2

Did the questions cover all the incentives or disincentives that influence the attractiveness of the school as a place to work? Are the main findings consistent with their own experience of the school? Are there specific examples of the strengths and weaknesses that could bring them to life or highlight solutions? What would they do to address the findings?

Analysis of the data and identification of strengths and weaknesses to answer the following questions: a b c d

What What What What

are our current strengths? are we good at, that we need to emphasise and improve? we weak at, that we need, and are able, to change? are we weak at, that we are prepared or forced to live with?

Items a and b will form part of your brand and proposition to candidates – things you will want to shout about (covered in Building a School Brand). Items b and c will shape your action plan for change (covered in Changing your School’s Total Reward). In addressing these items it is advisable to seek to attain and promote a broad range of strengths and to address them in order presented in the inventory. Remember also, that hygiene factors are rarely strengths, they can only be weaknesses – while you may want to eliminate excess bureaucracy, it would do little good to become famed as the school with the most relaxed procedures in the country.

Changing your school’s Total Reward The audit and analysis of your school’s Total Reward, as well as revealing your main proposition to candidates, may have identified areas for change. As the preceding section details, these may be either strengths to build upon, or weaknesses to correct (items b and c above). Identifying the areas for action, from the data, is covered in more detail in Part 3, Practical 5, on page 213; and in this section we assume you have already obtained your priorities.

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Figure 5.7 An example of a Total Reward audit and analysis There are, however, two categories of total reward not covered during the audit – job shape and culture. These are discussed in detail in Chapter 4, but we include some more advice on change below. There are some generic tactics which can be applied across all the categories of reward and a number specific to each category. Under the heading of generic tactics, the most

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important must be to work with your staff. Feeding back the results of any survey or audit is an important step in its own right, particularly if you want to perform more surveys in the future without a loss of enthusiasm. In presenting the main findings, check to see if they match people’s intuition and gut feel and if people can provide specific examples of what works and doesn’t work. It is helpful to have a copy of the questionnaire for reference, to establish a common understanding of the definitions. You could also ask people to work in small action groups, each devoted to a priority category and develop an action plan for improvement. The criteria could be to produce a document of recommendations which paints a clear picture of success and details a number of concrete steps (say three to five) to create it. Groups should also make an assessment of the resources, attention and costs required for each step. You will need to provide guidance in advance as to how budgets and other policies may constrain decisionmaking. It may also be helpful to provide the action groups with copies of the scoring table (Part 3, Practical 5, on page 216) for them to refine their targets. Make clear, too, whether the group is solving a hygiene factor or pursuing an excellence factor, as this will determine the appropriate scope of their ambition. Proposals for change can be shared among groups and other staff, revised after discussion and then submitted to the senior leadership team for approval. Members of the action group can be charged with implementation. Where action groups are studying change in areas like Safety, Pupils and Community and Attention, you may like to involve pupils, parents and other stakeholders (including community leaders and governors). Generic tactics will also differ depending on whether you are addressing strengths or correcting weaknesses. The tactics required to correct weaknesses may often be obvious merely from the audit itself – they consist of not doing the things identified. However, weaknesses may exist due to external constraints such as the past reputation in the community, budgets, culture and so on. These will require creative thinking. If you are improving on existing strengths, the challenge is likely to be one of two possibilities: spreading existing best practice throughout the school or raising the school’s ambition to an entirely new level. Best practice is spread by identifying its existence, winning the commitment of the exemplars to sharing and talking about their experience (not always easy, in the face of modesty), closely observing behaviour to draw out the replicable concepts, identifying the context-dependent elements (a department may offer good career progression because it has higher staff turnover), then piloting the changes with the coaching of the exemplars and frequent evaluation. Raising your school’s ambition and creatively addressing seemingly insurmountable weaknesses require similar tactics. One approach is to look outside the school, to seek the institutions which are most effectively meeting your priorities and learn from them. This should obviously include other schools at home and abroad but, to really lift the lid on the box, could look into other sectors: the NHS, local government, central government and businesses, both local and national. For particular inspiration seek out those schools with the same challenges as you, but to a much greater degree. If they can solve their problems, you have little excuse. Management literature, including journals like the Harvard Business Review, People Management, Human Resource Management or Fortune can be a useful source of information on work/life balance, growth and achievement. To widen the range of input, this could also be usefully offered as a project to older students. They could be asked to investigate practices in a range of institutions, particularly the trendier sorts that might excite them: publishing, music, internet, etc. You can scope out and manage their project using the same techniques as those suggested earlier for teacher action groups. There are two less obvious advantages to this tactic: charitable impulses may give students access to institutions denied to adults, and it will help increase their empathy for the role of the teacher. Naturally, there are some topics, including salaries, that it would not be appropriate to offer to students. To sustain greater ambitions, and widen the pool of creativity and resources, you may also wish to partner with local schools who face similar challenges in the field of reward. Performing and sharing the Total Reward audit in each school will give you a common

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source of data and you may find that a collective approach offers far more opportunities through economies of scale. In particular, schools collaborating could offer joint training, increased variety, career progression through careful exchanges, greater creativity and challenge through cross-school improvement projects, pooled crèches and childcare, larger social networks and social events. Collaborative schools could exert greater bargaining power with local suppliers (leisure facilities, travel operators and landlords for example). Eventually, you could even make the collaboration part of your brand and promote it strongly with candidates. There may also be funding and support available for such collaborative work through projects like Leadership Incentive Grants and network learning communities. Finally, Figure 5.8 details some category specific tactics to consider.

Resources It is no simple matter to provide more resources. Rather than increasing volume, it may be more feasible to re-prioritise. Inventory all the different resources staff use, from materials to ICT to buildings. Ask them to indicate which are most important to their job satisfaction and prioritise accordingly. It may also be possible to use external initiatives to provide resources. The trick here is to identify and shape the initiative to suit your school’s priorities rather than vice versa. Specialist school status is one such tactic. Alliances are another source of resources, enabling you to acquire facilities intended for one use, which can have broader application in their off time. This could include, for example, partnerships wih the local leisure centre and sports clubs, collaboration with institutions of Further and Higher Education and training alliances with local businesses. It may also be possible for your school to trade on areas with a surplus to acquire funding for other priorities. This could involve releasing staff to become trainers or inspectors, renting under-used space, selling services such as IT support.

Work/life balance Child care facilities, particularly emergency child care support when the childminder/ nursery/spouse is sick/closed/away on business is crucial area for concern here. Again, partnerships with schools or local businesses could provide economies of scale. Examine the provision of training in the light of external commitments (twilights, weekend work, early starts, holiday demands). Take the time to understand the priorities of individual staff members, their family commitments, hobbies and interest groups. People, especially those in senior leadership positions are often reluctant to admit these commitment for fear of seeming less than 100 per cent committed to the school. But it may be possible to accommodate their priorities and even utilise their expertise and experiences. More formally, job share, flexitime and home working are common procedures to improve work/life balance. Some of these may present difficulties given the operational demands of a school, but all are possible given some creative thinking. Flexitime, for example, can be highly structured – the employee doesn’t turn up when they feel like it but negotiates regular late starts and late finishes or early starts early finishes. Marking, planning and administrative tasks needn’t take place in school.

Figure 5.8 Tactics for improving specific categories of Total Reward

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The DTI runs a Work/Life Balance Challenge Fund to help schools and other organisations understand and improve this category. Finally, schools can most easily manage Work Life Balance by providing total clarity about school priorities and expectations, and by measuring staff on outputs not processes.

Security Fear and intimidation are not features of well-trod corridors, school entrance halls and the spotlight of attention. They happen in the hinterland of the school. Consider the approaches to the school, particularly shortcuts frequented by staff and pupils. The lighting and proximity of parking spaces are often concerns. Are particular buildings isolated? Graffiti and vandalism heighten a sense of intimidation and license more aggressive behaviour. See also Congeniality.

Stress Freely chosen targets are less stressful than imposed ones, even when more demanding. What are your procedures for setting personal and organisational targets? Is there room for negotiation, or even leadership by the recipients? Furthermore, do you need to accept all the targets imposed upon you from outside the school? Where can you push back? Schools tend to react to inspections and assessments in one of two ways: ‘they’re coming to tell us what we do wrong, which will make us look unsuccessful’ or ‘we being offered free consultancy, let’s make the most of it, but keep our own priorities about what matters to us’. Naturally the latter approach is less stressful, it is also largely determined by the behaviour and attitude of the head and senior leadership team. The sheer pace of change is a major complaint of most teachers. It is not the challenge and variety imposed, these are good, but the feeling that initiatives are not embedded and followed through before the next big thing occurs. This is a frequent problem of high performing schools. What procedures do you have in place for monitoring and evaluating the impact of change? How widely do you communicate the findings? Do people know that something has been successful? When you implement new procedures, do you continue to pay attention to them, and use them, after the first flush of excitement has gone?

Congeniality You can heighten congeniality be expanding the range of social activities – either by creating more of them, creating more variety or widening the number of people involved. This may involve welcoming spouses, families and connecting up with neighbouring schools. One of the biggest drivers in both the congeniality and security categories is your school’s reputation in the local community and community attitudes towards education. These can be built up over decades of experience, reaching back to parents’ own educations. Altering these attitudes will require a concerted campaign


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over the long term and, given its potential benefits to educational achievement, ought to feature prominently in the school development plan. This campaign might feature: •

Demographic and ‘Market’ Analysis – what are the major groupings in the community? What are their backgrounds and values? Who influences them? What do they want for their children?

•

Audit of Local Brand – what do these groups think of the school? How do they describe and value it? Where does it fit in their list of priorities? What was their own education experience?

•

Stakeholder Analysis – who are the local leaders and influencers, in the community and in local agencies and businesses? What do they think of the school? What relationships exist?

•

Campaign – using similar tactics to those presented in the section ‘Building a school brand’ on page 102, identify the core propositions and benefits that will change minds, target them at specific priority segments and influencers. Increase the permeability of school and community and the number of connections – join local groups, invite people inside, run adult training courses, community sports events.

•

Affinity – adopt a style and symbols that reflect the aspirations of the community; recruit locally, especially for support staff.

•

Celebrate – both your own successes and those of the community, communicate these messages both through your meetings and events, and also through more creative tactics: local press and radio, direct mailing campaigns, posters, window displays in empty shops, advertising, stands in the shopping precinct, the internet, paper and email newsletters, sponsorship.

Status Reputation and attention are not important to every member of staff, but if this has been identified as a priority, you could consider entering the school for awards and competitions; planning a PR campaign at the local or national level around major achievements; writing to ministers and other officials; investing in the symbols of prestige, like signs, logos. Plaques, medals and glossy brochures. An excellent, if old, reference for grass roots activism is Denis MacShane’s Using the Media (Pluto Press 1979; a more modern guide is Paul Richards’ Be your own Spin Doctor (Take That 1998). More positively, think about what it means to be a member of a professional community of schools. What do your peers in neighbouring schools look for in a good professional citizen? What support do they need? What achievements impress them? There are usually various pilots and research projects which can be used to showcase your schools achievements and innovations.

Growth Exit surveys can help you understand where people are going when they leave your school and what skills would help them.


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The opportunity to gain formal qualifications or accreditation matters to some people, and existing programmes and training can often be adapted to offer these. You could consider working with a local College or University to plan a more customised and intensive programme of professional study, involving larger numbers of staff working collaboratively on topics of relevance to the school. Some schools have even made studying for post-graduate qualifications a compulsory requirement for all staff. Think wider than teachers in providing training: support staff and learning assistants may also be seeking additional qualifications, some of which may help them take on increasing responsibility in school. Less formal training, around key skills, can also be both appreciated and reap organisational benefits: budget management, IT skills, languages, sports sciences, time management. On-the-job training is also a vital component of growth. Are you connecting ambitious staff to those role models who can inspire and stretch them? A programme of mentorship and coaching can support this. As can addressing the responsibilities and capabilities of your senior leadership team. Are these people role models? Do they regard that as one of their responsibilities? Do they know how to go about it?

Tangible rewards There is little advice we can offer on the salary front, beyond a close investigation of what other local schools really do offer, rather than what candidates tell you. It is also important to examine the symbolic gestures: coffee and tea, biscuits, lunches, drinks and social activities. You can raise the ‘real’ incomes of your staff by lowering their cost of living. This could involve, for example, joining with other schools to negotiate discounts and group memberships. Teachers make good tenants and house prices are often a significant barrier. Could you forge links with local rental agencies? Build a network among staff, parents, governors and neighbouring schools with space to rent? Could you loan NQTs their rental deposits (you can often earn interest on these)? For senior staff, pound for pound a relocation payment is often more valuable than a slightly higher monthly salary, given the huge expenses of moving.

Leadership Ironically, leadership is one of the factors that you have the greatest control over. You simply need to change the way you behave. This should also involve an evaluation of the roles and capability of the entire senior leadership team. Middle managers are perhaps people’s most regular exposure to leadership, and an investment in leadership development at this level could reap significant gains in terms of recruitment and retention. The first step is to determine what people understand by leadership – the responsibilities, the challenges, the useful behaviours. If done openly you may find a picture at odds with your conception of the role, with people struggling to match their values and self-image to their preconceptions of


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leadership. As a school you can create your own leadership code of behaviour and some core accountabilities for the basic ‘non-negotiables’. This could form a contract between staff and leaders. It may also be worth examining the management processes in the school, particularly performance management and appraisal, delegation, communications and development planning. How effective are these? It is difficult to assess leadership without feedback from those who are led – as management and staff perceptions are frequently very different. There are many tools and systems for feedback, including some of those developed by Hay Group (see www.transforminglearning.co.uk for example). In assessing your leadership capacity, you should take account of the Ofsted framework for leadership and management and the LIG Peer Assessment Tool where appropriate. Another helpful framework are the Leadership Styles used in the NCSL’s Leadership Programme for Serving Headteachers. Briefly, effective leaders are expected to possess a repertoire of the following styles of influencing: •

Coercive – the ability to command, to give ‘orders’ and expect obedience

•

Authoritative – the ability to paint a vision and inspire

•

Democratic – the ability to involve others and seek consent

•

Affiliative – the ability to create harmony and build meaningful relationships

•

Pacesetting – the ability to lead by example

•

Coaching – the ability to support and develop staff

Values The culture sort exercise in the section ‘Defining your values through the culture sort’ of Chapter 4 will help you identify the values that matter to you and your staff. Working in an environment that matches our values is a real source of satisfaction. Constantly emphasising the value of our work – the contribution to society, the privilege of working with children – is likely to wear swiftly thin. A strong culture can be communicated and emphasised through a range of tactics. Once your values have been clarified, examine the following ‘reinforcing behaviours’: •

Rituals – celebrations, punishments, initiations, What do these events communicate and celebrate? Who is involved?

•

Role Models – who embodies the values of the school? Who are the heroes? Who has status and what for?

•

Symbols – what do our displays, decorations, medals and art (visual, dramatic) say about our values? Where do we position symbols? Who gets to see them? Who owns

•

Taboos – what are the written and unwritten rules of behaviour? What are the truly heinous crimes? What is our professional etiquette and how is it enforced and communicated?

•

Permissions – what do people think they can get away with? What mistakes are repeatedly made?

•

Attention – what do people worry about? What do they talk about?

•

Theories – how do we believe the world works, particularly around our core tasks? What assumptions do we make about learning, teaching, organisational behaviour, human motivation, community politics, educational policy-making?


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Achievement As a sense of achievement is driven partly by the ability to take personal responsibility and by clear feedback on performance, leadership is an important determinant and many of the tactics from the section on leadership will be helpful here. Consider how tasks and responsibilities are delegated. Is anything delegated? How much space do people have in the delivery of responsibilities? A good benchmark for delegation is provided by Stephen Covey (1989): desired results, guidelines, resources, accountability, consequences. Providing sufficient space to decide how objectives will be met enables people to innovate where they want to. Achievement is most commonly aroused under a moderate level of challenge; this means that tasks are not too easy but not impossible either. Negotiating targets with the recipient, rather than setting them independently, can help both this and a sense of personal responsibility. In gauging challenge, there should always be a risk of failure unless the individual exerts the full range of their capabilities. The performance management system can play an important role in many of the processes described above: both in setting the appropriate level of challenge and providing feedback. It is important that feedback is credible – uncritical praise is not motivational. Your success in creating a sense of achievement can be measured through feedback on school climate, particularly the dimensions of clarity, standards and responsibilities.


Building a school brand Talking about ‘brand’ seems somehow inappropriate in relation to education. Brands, surely, are about business and, what’s more, about the less palatable aspects of business: advertising, logos, consumerist culture and million-pound marketing strategies; the sort of activity that encourages teenagers to pay £150 for a pair of trainers. The aim of this section is to rehabilitate the concept of brand and demonstrate its value, even its necessity to every institution. A brand is a pithy, honest and compelling statement of who you are and what you stand for. It reflects the reality of your organisation, it is principled and demands sacrifices in its pursuit. Most importantly, it is the same inside and out: the same for staff as well as stakeholders, for new recruits as well as senior leaders, for pupils and parents as well as teachers. In essence, it is a conscious, communicated sense of identity. This is something that every school needs, which can and should be unique. We use the word ‘brand’ rather than ethos, or mission or principles, to emphasise the need for communication. We have already suggested that it is not solely about communication, that you need to change the underlying conditions in your school rather than trying to paint a pretty picture but, in order to attract new recruits, reassure stakeholders and align internal effort, the brand needs to phrased in a persuasive fashion and run throughout our conversations and communications. We have already detailed a number of exercises that lay the foundations for a school brand, in particular the culture audit and the total reward self-evaluation. You will also have a range of existing documents, including your school development plan, brochures

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Figure 5.9 Four faces of the school brand for parents, mission statements, etc. In the context of this book, we are concerned specifically with the brand as it appears to potential recruits and existing staff, but this is a matter of nuance – it must combine with your identity and offer towards pupils, parents and other stakeholders, as summarised in Figure 5.9. To achieve this, the heart of the process involves culture – the enduring beliefs about what is true and what is right that are agreed upon by your school community. However, we have also seen that values alone are not the sole, nor always the most important motivator for employment: opportunities for achievement, a need for security, and resources, for example, will also feature heavily in teachers’ decisions. Thus the analysis emerging from your total reward self-evaluation will feature most heavily in the process outlined below, but it must be consistent with your school’s intentions for pupils and their learning, and the messages you send to other stakeholders. The actual task of defining a brand falls into two stages: a written statement or summary of the brand, from which other documents, statements and materials can be derived; and the particular derivations which appear in the media, which are detailed in the next section. For the basic statement of brand, refer to the culture audit and the strengths (items a and b) that emerged in the total reward self-evaluation. Mentally address your staff and potential recruits, using the material to answer the question ‘Why should I teach here?’ A useful format is an introductory paragraph, three to five bullet points and a summary paragraph. For example: Park School values all members of the school community, involving students and parents in our decision-making. We expect the best from our teachers and the best from our pupils. We have a strong governing body and supportive parents. We never stop innovating and look for initiative, enthusiasm and dedication. If you want to be challenged, enjoy change and value innovation, consider a career at Park. • • •

We focus on raising capability not chasing targets. We expect complete commitment to teaching, but value readiness to learn ahead of expertise. We are creating and piloting experimental programmes in citizenship which are attracting international attention.

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Now test your statement against the following principles of a strong brand, and their associated questions. A strong brand is focused, consistent, concrete, credible, persuasive, relevant and distinctive: •

Focused – emphasising a small number of characteristics, summed up swiftly – Is it short? – Can it be grasped on a single reading?

•

Consistent – appearing the same in all media, conversations and activity – Although this is aimed at recruits, would you say anything different to any other stakeholder? – Does it fit with the beliefs and values which emerged in the culture audit?

•

Concrete – not abstract, but rooted in and communicated through examples, anecdotes and details from everyday life – Does it conjure up an image or a voice? – Does it refer to things that actually happen in your school?

•

Credible – not claiming too much, not hiding the negatives and not contradicting what everyone knows about the institution – Does it hype the school or make the case too hard? – If you showed it to your staff, would they agree?

•

Persuasive – communicated with passion, energy and pride – When you review it, does it make you feel proud? – Does it address what you think is important? – Do you want to tell people about these things?

•

Relevant – offering something that people need and value – Does it address what we know teachers look for in a career?

•

Distinctive – it contains something original, even unique, perhaps controversial or contentious, it is more than mere platitudes that all would agree with – Does it say anything that wouldn’t also be claimed by every other school? – Are you offering challenge and difficulty? – Do you imply that not every recruit would be suitable for this school?

In formulating your recruitment brand, the following two exercises are valuable: •

Imagine that you have met your ideal candidate at a conference. You have thirty seconds before the next session starts – what would you say to encourage them to apply? Perform this exercise out loud before making notes. How does this conversation differ from your earlier statement? Why?

•

Take any key sentence from your proposition and reverse it to mean the exact opposite. Can you imagine anyone agreeing with or being attracted by the opposite meaning? If not, that sentence is largely a platitude – it may be true, you may mean it, but it won’t distinguish you from any other school. For example: ‘We exist to promote learning and provide an enjoyable educational experience’ would become: We exist to prevent learning and make school life a misery’. However: ‘Our teachers put learning before exam success’ would become: ‘Our teachers put exam success before learning’. And, although it is rarely admitted, some schools do believe this.

Judging our example brand statement by these criteria, we see that it is focused – relentlessly pounding the message about change and innovation; it is persuasive – possessing pride and

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energy; it is relevant – because it addresses genuine motivations; and it is distinctive – making claims that not everybody would value; such a statement would certainly put off some applicants. The statement provides a small number of concrete examples, but these could be enhanced. Such a revision would also improve its credibility. If it has a weakness, it does hype the school slightly. We cannot evaluate the brand’s consistency from a single statement – we would need to compare it with other communications and actions.

Communicating your brand: adverts, packs, visits and offers So far, we have looked at creating the enduring conditions within your school that will attract and retain the teachers you want. We have also captured, refined and condensed those conditions into a compelling statement of what your school stands for and what it offers its teaching staff. How do we ensure that recruits get to hear this message and experience the conditions? We have four key opportunities in the recruitment process: • • • •

The advert – the initial announcement of the vacancy The recruitment pack – the information sent to interested candidates The visit – face-to-face time spent at the school (going beyond the interview itself) The offer – the one-to-one request to join the school, which may begin during the interview process itself, but will spill over into the formal offer

Each stage has different characteristics, which alter the messages that are appropriate to that stage. In early stages we have (hopefully) large numbers of applicants, many of whom may be unsuitable. In the later stages, we have winnowed the numbers down to those that we are really interested in, and whom we may have an opportunity to get to know more personally. Therefore, our early communications are impersonal, formal and generic and designed to filter as much as to attract. Our later communications can be increasingly personalised, informal and targeted at the individual candidate’s preferences; because our need to attract and secure the right candidate will be increasingly urgent, and because we will have hard evidence on which to base our decisions, the filtering function of our communications will be much less important. The key turning point is the interview (and other conversations during the visit) and during the visit we will need to ask questions which determine how a candidate’s preferences differ from the generic picture of the total reward inventory. Before we examine each stage in turn, it is worth emphasising that the recruitment process itself can attract or repel candidates and, indeed, this is their first taste of how you really treat people. The most important factors to consider are efficiency, fairness and warmth. Does the process work? Is it perceived to be valid, rigorous and perceptive? Are candidates welcomed, put at ease and empathised with? Figure 5.11 contains a number of issues to help you ensure your school is not let down by its recruitment process.

Figure 5.10 The different levels of recruitment communications

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Figure 5.11 Candidate expectations for a fair and efficient recruitment process The advert. According to the framework presented in Figure 5.10, in the advert you have a very short space of time to say something very important to a large number of different people. By ‘advert’ we mean any initial announcement of a vacancy, which may be through a national or local newspaper, through a recruitment agency or over the internet. Having a clear and succinct brand statement will greatly aid the process of creating an effective advertisement, but even this is too lengthy for most media at this stage. In the advert, we want to filter and select as much as attract. However, even filtering, the appearance of exclusivity, can be attractive. By filtering we don’t mean arrogance or coldness in the advert, but a strong sense of what you’re looking for and your quality standards. Three questions may help hone the message: • • •

What is the single most important attribute you are looking for? What is the best thing you have to offer, that will appeal to the sort of candidate you want? What will best communicate your high standards and expectations?

Before designing and placing the advert it is worth considering the cost and effectiveness of the various media available to you. Schools can spend tens of thousands of pounds a year on recruitment adverts with no clear rate of return, and non–standard sources of adverts can often generate large pools of applicants. One school in our experience halved their advertising budget while increasing the number of applicants by switching to local media.

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Rate of return is best summarised as number of applicants per £100 spent. This can be enhanced by only counting suitable applicants. Tracked over time, together with some experimentation in the media used, this can generate an accurate targeting of recruitment spend. You can also ask current staff where they look for jobs, and which other papers and journals they read with a professional hat on. It is also critical to ask candidates where they first heard about the vacancy, particularly if you are using multiple channels. Many schools find that several cheaper adverts, repeated on a regular basis, are more effective than a single large or expensive advert. Several schools working together can also make more of a splash with their recruitment campaign, but only if they can agree on a consistent theme and set up procedures to prevent competition. Finally, if you are recruiting graduate trainees, think about the sort of media that suitable candidates, who may not yet have thought of teaching, may be searching in for jobs. It would require a different emphasis, a focus on the generic benefits of teaching rather than your school, but the impact of an advert stressing the creativity, challenge and personal achievement of teaching, amongst a range of mundane professional and managerial jobs, could be significant. The nature of the advert, as well as the location, will influence response rates and, unfortunately, the bigger, the bolder, the more colourful – and, of course, the more expensive – the better the response. It is possible to maximise the impact of your advertising spend through a number of tactics, however, without increasing the spend itself. First, understand the mentality of the advertising sales rep and thus the points of negotiation. They are looking to hit a financial target and are usually willing to take a cheaper advert rather than have empty space. In particular you can push by: • • • •

Enquiring just before the copy deadline, when there may be empty space and room for barter. Have the copy ready to send by email Asking for a discount for running two consecutive adverts Asking for two-tone or colour adverts for the price of a black and white Joining with other schools into a recruitment collaborative. If you buy many adverts on a regular basis, the journals may designate you as an ‘account’ and actively manage your relationship. This could involve first refusal on cheap, last-minute space or regular discounts

Major employers invest considerable money with agencies on professionally designed adverts to capture attention through colour, imagery, layout and language. Ironically, many schools have access to the resources of design agencies in house – the Apple Macs in the ICT suite, amateur photographers and the creativity and artwork of students. You may want to consider harnessing this talent by setting up your own in-house agency. This would provide valuable work experience for students and could be combined with visits to local or national agencies, and with elements of the National Curriculum. Should the exercise take off, it could be converted into a Young Enterprise initiative; you could even sell your services to other schools. The response procedures for your advert should be as efficient and simple as possible. Having to call twice for an application pack does not create the right first impression. Bearing in mind that many people must apply for jobs outside of school hours, an out-ofhours service or email contact address is essential. A simple tactic is to set up a dedicated recruitment phone line attached to an answering machine. The message requests a candidate’s name and address and promises to send a recruitment or application pack. The answer phone is checked and processed on a daily basis. It may be worth having a job reference to quote if you are advertising multiple positions. The recruitment pack. At this point there is still a vital filtering function to the recruitment communications, but you are also working hard to engage and attract candidates who have passed the first hurdle. In our typology, the recruitment pack covers all the information you send directly to candidates and usually demands a response. This could be conducted across an extended range of correspondence, but is most efficient in a single exchange. The recruitment pack has two objectives:

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• •

To request detailed application information from the candidate in a specified format for the sift (see Chapter 6, on page 114). To more fully communicate the brand you have created.

Traditionally we ask for a CV and/or completed application form from candidates but these can be expanded and enhanced using some of the techniques from the Critical Incident Interview. Most straightforwardly, if using an application form, you can ask for evidence against the characteristics of effective teachers, using the same sort of probes in writing, and code the answers in the same manner. The application form would therefore contain the same sort of questions as provided in the section ‘From characteristics to interview probes’ in Chapter 2, on page 19; taking care to retain the most critical probes for the actual interview itself. It is also possible to include more formal questionnaires for a candidate’s self-assessment. These have obvious limitations in the veracity stakes, but it is possible to include so called ‘lie detector’ questions among the legitimate probes. Candidates who disagree strongly with these are being less than frank. They include statements like: • • • •

I I I I

sometimes lie at work. sometimes make social gaffes or mistakes. am sometimes lazy or demotivated. am sometimes envious of other people.

The brand statement provides the core material for the recruitment pack, but this time it needs to be expanded on, rather than summarised. The recruitment pack will need to justify each of the assertions you make about your school with evidence in the form of statistics, facts and figures, quotes, pictures and references. Quotes from pupils and staff, attached to named and pictured people, are particularly compelling. Every school makes claims about itself, only those that are backed up remain in the mind. If you support professional development, list the courses and qualifications taken recently. If you educate the whole child, let a pupil talk about what it feels like. If you develop leaders, show what people go on to do when they leave. If you are innovative, list the projects and awards you have received. If you prize exam success, quote the SATs. Show pictures of the new sports hall, ICT suite, staff crèche or drama studio – but only if they reinforce the brand you have chosen. It is also reassuring to provide background detail on size, buildings, location, composition and structure. People are particularly keen to understand the sort of person who might be managing them, their style, their vision, even their age. Finally, if part of your school’s brand is about convenience and flexibility, or if you are concerned that people may have the wrong impression, you could put together a pack about the local area: cost of living, travel times, facilities and amenities, house prices, crime rates, employment opportunities for partners and spouses, population growth. This is a task that could be effectively combined across several local schools and local government websites have plenty of useful data, as will your staff. Again, this might be something that pupils would enjoy doing as part of geography or citizenship studies. The visit. This is the bit where you get found out, if the fundamental conditions in your school don’t reflect the brand and communications you have been putting out. It is impossible to avoid, keeping candidates cloistered away from the real school during their visit only invites suspicion and emphasises why recruitment marketing must be based on truth. If you have invested in the total reward provided to staff, then this is the opportunity to make it count. This means making your school as permeable as possible to candidates. The best technique for this is not the quick tour by the head or a senior leader, but a confidential, informal chat with a peer. If this takes place before the formal interview, it puts people at their ease and saves you a wasted interview if they are scared off. Aim to have candidates wait in the staff room rather than reception if possible, but make sure that staff are briefed and that people do come up to talk to them. It can also be illuminating to ask a pupil to take them on the guided tour of the school.

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It is possible to prepare a formal presentation on ‘why work here’ but this should be based on the brand statement, not on what pops into the interviewer’s head. If this is positioned at the end of the interview, it enables you to modify it based on what you have learned about the candidate’s preferences (see the section on ‘Individualising the offer’, page 110 below). Finally, however, if you have invested time with staff members in a full audit of your school’s total reward, why not share the raw data and analysis with the candidate? There can be few more honest and compelling statements of what it is really like to work there, and a few negatives only add to the power of this approach. If you believe presenting your current total reward audit to candidates would be self–defeating, wait until you’ve implemented your action plan and run the audit again. Any of the audits, assessments or principles outlined in this book could be made available to candidates if you want to be totally open. The offer. This phase is by no means a formality or foregone conclusion; properly conducted, it is a vital part of your persuasive process. Although most of a candidate’s decisionmaking process will have been shaped by the visit and the general efficiency of the recruitment process, there is still an opportunity to make a difference. More importantly, the offer is the first step in building a psychological contract with the candidate and shaping their expectations. In this section, we write, for clarity, as if the offer were a distinct, standalone process. In reality, you may well be testing and making parts of your offer during the interview or visit itself if a candidate is clearly outstanding and you are anxious to secure them. None the less, the principles provided here can be applied at any point. The first step is to think the offer through and prepare your thoughts along four headings. These will structure your conversation: •

Why them? (What did you see in them that makes you want to hire them?)

•

Why it would be a good move (What does your school have to offer generically?)

•

What you understand they are looking for

•

The ‘deal’.

In expressing your understanding of their preferences and motives, you are pulling together all the data collected during the interview and visit (their total reward preferences, their values, their motive profile). By replaying your understanding to the candidate, you give them an opportunity to correct you and also demonstrate the importance you attach to this part of the process. By the ‘deal’ we mean a prepared list or package of inducements and offers designed to appeal to them personally. It might be helpful to prepare for yourself a short table, crossreferencing your understanding of the candidate with the offer, as shown in Figure 5.12. The inducements are both symbolic and significant gestures designed to secure the candidate. They could include relocation expenses, a position of responsibility or an offer to support a programme of study, for example. A more complete list of possibilities is presented in the next section of this chapter. The crucial point, however, is that this list is ‘individual but not unfair’. It should be proportionate to what is offered to other holders of similar level jobs. This is not a bribe or recruitment bonus, but an attempt to shape their working environment and conditions to maximise their job satisfaction. In an ideal world, every member of your staff would think they were getting a better deal than any of their colleagues – because their package suited them exactly. The issue of fairness raises its head in many guises. When offers to new staff discriminate against existing staff (and people swiftly discover when they do), this damages morale. Additionally, few things create more bad blood than offering a smaller package because of someone’s background, lower expectations or reluctance to negotiate. For these reasons we recommend that you don’t bargain or keep additional offers in reserve. Offer what the job is worth, regardless of candidate, and make the first offer the final offer.

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Figure 5.12 Making the offer

As your first choice of candidate will not always accept your offer, it may be worth performing the exercise with your second choice – if you have one – in advance. As well as preparing you for the worst, it will also help you make a cost/benefit analysis of the offer. It may be that the package you realise you need to secure your first choice is far more onerous to the school than the second choice. So, just how much are they worth?

Individualising the offer We have repeated throughout this chapter that there is no single set of generic working conditions that will appeal equally to all candidates. Although certain factors are usually ‘good’ to everybody, they will be ranked differently – reward is a matter of individual taste; even the same amount of cash will be valued differently by different individuals, depending on how much money they already have. For this reason, although schools must invest in building rewarding working conditions through the generic factors listed previously, each candidate needs an individual package. This could result in minor variations from the norm, or quite unique offers. It is, of course, vital to provide equal pay for equal work, even where pay is considered in its broadest sense of total reward, but this can be built up from different components. The key is to be wary of tacit discrimination, manage the process openly and consensually, and keep basic pay and conditions equal. Personalised packages should be built from the intangibles. The construction of individual packages for candidates can range from mere emphasis on different aspects of your total reward package, for example, stressing the crèche facilities available to all, to genuinely unique offers. Figure 5.13 lists a broad range of possible components of a personalised package for your consideration. Obviously these are not selected or combined at random, but rather in response to your judgement of the candidate’s preferences. You will pick up clues throughout the recruitment process, particularly the visit, and it is always possible to ask them directly. We recommend a combination of direct and indirect approaches to fully elicit the right reward package, not out of any sense of secrecy, but because many people have never fully reflected on what they really want from work. These questions, in ascending order of directness, could easily be added to the end of the Critical Incident Interview. They will be a bit of a shock in that context as, for once, they invite conjecture, philosophising and speculation: • • •

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What did they like best about their old school? Why are they leaving? If money and other practicalities were no obstacle, what would they see themselves doing in ten years time? Describe a typical day – who are they with? What do they see? What do they feel like?


Figure 5.13 Elements of a personalised package

• • • •

Why teach? What do they look for in their ideal school or job? What concerns, questions or worries do they have about working in your school? What would it take to make them really want to join your school?

The Critical Incidents in the interview itself will also generate vital data on the candidate’s motivation, particularly evidence of an achievement drive (which can be coded against the dictionary of characteristics) but also a need for power or affiliation. Evidence for motives can be very subtle, and context–dependent (the same behaviour can be driven by different motives – some people make friends because they value the contact, others because they’re networking for influence) but the following cues may provide some guidance: •

Achievement. Candidates high in the achievement motivation may exhibit the following behaviours … Setting targets and goals Measuring their performance Restlessness and seeking new challenge A preference for moderate challenge (as opposed to high risk or easy tasks) Claiming and taking personal responsibility A tendency to do it themselves rather than delegate or collaborate Taking shortcuts or bending the rules to achieve goals Creativity and innovation

•

Affiliation. Candidates high in the affiliation motivation may exhibit the following behaviours … Swift learning of networks and relationships Active efforts to make or maintain relationships, friendships and human connections Concern for broken-down relationships and ‘bad blood’ Avoidance of conflict and argument Fear of rejection

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Passivity in competition Tolerance and a tendency to make allowances for others •

Power. Candidates high in the power motivation may exhibit the following behaviours … Concern for personal impact on colleagues or the world at large Enjoyment of attention and the limelight, taking action to put themselves forward Acquisition of symbols of status (cars, objects, office space, desk size) Alliance building and networking Aggression, domination A belief in centralised authority and means of control A strong sense of justice A preference and liking for work over social or family activity (People high in socialised power will exhibit strong self-control, self-awareness and emotional maturity)

Many institutions don’t fully enumerate all the benefits and incentives they provide their staff. As well as verbal communication of the offer, which can begin during the interview and visit if the candidate is impressive, it is worth following up in writing when making the formal offer.

Summary and overview of process It may sound like heresy in a time of recruitment crisis, but increasing your pool of candidates is not always a good thing; twenty unsuitable candidates are no better than one. Increasing the pool of suitable candidates is a better aim. And, ironically, this can be done far more effectively by raising your standards than lowering them, not to suggest exclusivity but rather dedication and ambition,. ‘You’re welcome on board, but we’re going to demand a great deal from you.’ So there is far more to recruitment communications than hyping your school. Yes, schools should have brands – an honest brand is a statement of individuality and pride – but the brand must reflect the genuine working conditions, the incentives and disincentives in your school. Candidates can sense these conditions during the visit and will soon leave if they make a mistake. Thus, this chapter has travelled far beyond advertising or branding. We began by examining some theories about human motivation and what people might look for in a job. This gave us a picture of total reward that includes but extends far beyond tangible benefits like salary. Indeed, an examination of a large and recent survey of teacher attitudes revealed that factors relating to personal achievement – challenge, creativity, worthy and freely chosen goals, the pursuit of technical excellence – feature heavily on their shopping list. Values and making a contribution to society matter too, but they don’t distinguish between schools as readily as achievement. Although we attempted to identify some universal incentives, factors that would be regarded as good by almost everyone, we emphasised that different people will attach different priorities to every incentive. To some, money is everything, to others it means relatively little. This introduces two major challenges. The easiest to overcome is that we must make customised offers, we must try to create a unique package, without practising discrimination, for each candidate. This means we have to find out what makes them tick. The greater challenge is when the total reward of our school appeals to unsuitable candidates. The Critical Incident Interview process ensures that we will rarely let through anyone without the potential for excellence, but there are many types of excellent teacher. They may be good – but only in a different school. We may face a disconnect between the reward package created by our culture, job shape, working conditions, etc. and the values, characteristics and relationships we are seeking in candidates. We must therefore not only improve our total reward but also shape it, use it as a targeted tool to filter as well as attract. By this point in the process we will, hopefully, have achieved a reasonably sized pool of promising candidates. We now need to choose between them by exposing them to the

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rigours of the Critical Incident Interview. This process has been described in detail in Chapter 3, but the interview itself is situated in the context of a range of other activities. The next chapter looks at the practicalities of the complete assessment and selection process, including some supplements to the interview as a means of gathering data.

Checklist

Review the Total Reward inventory.

Investigate the overall attractiveness of your school to candidates and existing staff using the Total Reward Audit questionnaire.

Process the results and analyse them to reveal areas of strength to communicate and areas of weakness to develop them.

Institute an action plan to address weaknesses in your school’s Total Reward.

Formulate a school brand using the analysis of the Total Reward findings and the brand principles outlined in this chapter.

Design your key recruitment communications – the advert, the recruitment pack, the visit and the offer – in the light of your brand proposition and the principles of effective communications.

Assess each candidate’s likely preferences for reward during the interview and visit, either directly through questions or by examining the Critical Incident data.

Personalise the offer to your chosen candidate(s) by addressing their preferences, taking care to maintain a fair and proportionate distribution of reward among all staff.

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6

Selection Making the right choice

The point of decision All our work so far has served to bring us to the position of finally meeting promising, enthusiastic candidates. We have already presented the showpiece of the selection process – the Critical Incident Interview. This chapter deals with the mechanics of the day which surrounds it, particularly the logistics of fitting a lengthy interview into an already packed schedule. The basic interview day is in a process of evolution as schools apply more formal processes. Nonetheless it remains a high pressured, stressful experience for both parties. Although the early stages of the recruitment process differ for Secondaries and Primaries, the day itself remains largely similar. As, traditionally, capturing what everybody recognised as the essence of outstanding teaching, the characteristics, relied on instinct rather than science, the basic process was to put candidates in front of as many ‘instincts’ as possible. Thus, a hectic series of meetings: the head’s welcome, the pastoral interview, the curriculum interview, the formal interview panel, the managerial interview, meet the pupils, group exercises, trial by lunch. These all rely, as a safety mechanism, on people – staff or pupils – being able to mention surreptitiously to the head comments like ‘that lady in the green jacket, there’s something not right. She was boring/angry/aloof/serious.’ This approach works, but is neither fair nor defensible. It does not produce documented evidence for a decision and leaves full room for prejudice and even bigotry. The stress and panic of this event is further heightened by the compression created by the recruitment crisis – schools rush to make an offer to their favoured candidate on the day itself for fear that the candidate will go on to another interview and accept a rival offer. This runs contrary to the norms in other sectors and militates against reflection and relaxed judgement. It may be that we need to challenge this pace, particularly where we have invested in creating highly attractive working conditions, and insist on time for consideration or for running interviews over several days. This will greatly enhance the Critical Incident Interview, but we also present a process that will enable you to make an offer on the same day if necessary. The reliability of the Critical Incident Interview, although not perfect, introduces a different standard of decision. It provides a level playing field, clear criteria for judgement and a wealth of evidence. This means we can combine the full range of interviews into the single Critical Incident Interview. This doesn’t entirely remove the need for other sources of data and, accordingly, we suggest below a structure for a number of activities throughout the day. We offer a demonstration timetable for managing the activities and then highlight a number of them for further discussion. First, however, we look at choosing the people you actually want to meet.

Shortlisting for interview Although the sift precedes the actual visit, which occupies the bulk of this chapter, we include it here because it concerns selection, rather than the communication-driven priorities of Chapter 5. Sifting is the process by which you review and reject applications to discover whom you would like to interview. In our model, the ideal number of inter-

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SELECTION: MAKING THE RIGHT CHOICE

viewees for each vacancy is between four and six. In the rest of this chapter we assume four. If you are investing in the considerable effort of a Critical Incident Interview, you want to reserve it for excellent prospects only. Elements of the previous paragraph may have disturbed some schools – even getting four candidates to apply for some positions would be a luxury and so sifting isn’t an issue. In these circumstances, the tactics differ. Chapter 5 on Attraction contains a wide range of tactics to improve the number of applications your school receives. These can be applied in a wide range of schools, regardless of circumstances. You may also wish to consider being pro-active in your hunt for candidates and actively invite specific people to apply. We aren’t recommending head-hunting staff from other schools, which merely increases competition in the sector, but looking at people in non-teaching careers who might be interested. Growing numbers of people are reconsidering their career options and looking for something more meaningful than the average corporate job. With a bit of investment in your brand, and the creation of a graduate training scheme, these people could be actively targeted. Look also at ex-teachers at the end of career breaks for parenthood and people in educational support roles, like consultants and advisers. With insufficient candidates, ‘growing your own’ becomes an increasingly attractive option, through graduate training schemes, investing in talented learning-support staff and holding on to your undergraduate trainees. In these circumstances, spotting and developing the behaviours of effective teaching is critical, because the people with potential will, by definition, not yet have the skills and knowledge. Likewise, with growing your own, the reality of working conditions is more important than the communication; everyone, from trainee to support assistant will have a clear idea of whether the school is a place they would like to develop a career at. Assuming you have arrived at a point where you have more applications than you need, the sift become relevant. The key here is to develop the ‘deal-breaker’ question – the nonnegotiable quality that you are looking for and which can be swiftly identified. Design your early recruitment processes – particularly the recruitment pack – to make this a top priority and automatically reject candidates who evade the question. With an application form, this is simple: it is the first question on the page. If you are accepting CVs, you could always request that in their cover letter they ‘Write telling us why …’ The nature of the ‘deal-breaker’ is unique to each institution. It could concern skills and knowledge (you need maths for a mathematics post), it could involve experience. More frequently, however, it is a cultural issue – you are looking for a certain set of values or attitude: ‘nobody could work here who didn’t believe that …’ or ‘someone would leave in a week if they weren’t prepared to …’. Getting at the more intangible attributes can pose difficulties in gathering unambiguous evidence through the imperfect medium of written communications. There are some creative possibilities however. You could extend the Critical Incident Interview techniques into the early process by requiring them to write about such an incident on their application form. Use the opening probes on page 19 in the section ‘From characteristics to interview probes’ of Chapter 2 for examples of these. Alternatively, use the probes for specific characteristics at the end of Part 3, Practical 1, on page 155 for a more bounded question. These sorts of requests are laborious for the early stages of the process – their inclusion will depend on whether you need to raise or lower the bar for sufficient applications. Another possibility would be to include some form of self-assessment questionnaire with the recruitment pack. You could modify the questionnaire provided in Part 3, Practical 5, on page 200 for this purpose. Be sure to include some of the so-called ‘lie detector’ questions detailed in the section ‘Communicating your brand: adverts, packs, visits and offers’, Chapter 5, on page 108 to check the candidates’ honesty. Before reviewing responses agree on the characteristics which are absolutely essential to the vacancy. This review could take input from the exercises about job shape and team roles detailed in Chapter 4, from page 53 onwards. A final possibility, and probably the most effective for intangible attributes like ‘fit’ or values, would be a short telephone conversation in advance of the invitation to interview.

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This could be delegated to various people in school, but it is likely that you would need to perform some form of initial sift to create a manageable number. Four people, working outside teaching hours, can make around twenty such calls a week and you may need to be prepared to phone during the evenings. Create a series of bullet points to script the conversation, and encourage people to rely on their instincts.

A structure for the day of the interview The process we present can cope with four candidates per day. This can be expanded if more people are trained in the Critical Incident techniques and can conduct interviews on the day. The four-candidate ‘building block’, however, can be run with the involvement of as few as four people and produce an offer by mid evening of the same day. It can also involve many more people if desired and make an offer later the next day. Our recommended structure has the following components: • • •

• • •

Introduction – a basic welcome to the school, overview of the day and presentation of key aspects of the brand, lasting twenty minutes and led by the headteacher. Pupil-led tour – a chance to see the school, get a sense of the pupils, their behaviour, the local community and to ask informal questions of the pupils, lasting thirty minutes. Informal peer discussion – a chat with a teacher of similar age, background and seniority to enable candidates to learn about the working conditions and total reward of the school, lasting thirty minutes. Observed lesson – a full fifty- to sixty-minute lesson, with an opportunity for structured feedback from the pupils afterwards. Critical Incident Interview – the two to two-and-a half hour centrepiece of the programme. Group exercise – an opportunity to observe candidates interacting with each other on tasks requiring team work, negotiation, leadership or empathy, lasting around thirty minutes.

These components can be applied to every group of four candidates using something like the timetable presented in Figure 6.1. This timetable requires the following participants from the school (more can be involved as resources permit): • • • • • •

One lesson observer (includes collection of feedback from pupils) Two interviewers (and preferably two note-takers) One to four peers, for the informal chat Four groups of two pupils each, for the pupil-led tour Two to four raters, likely to be formed of lesson observers, interviewers and note takers, and others as required Selection panel, again, likely to include interviewers and raters, plus head, governor(s) and senior leadership group

Thus, a minimum number of adult participants is four; a more comfortable number would be seven to eight. Key participants are likely to need to devote a half-day plus the selection panel in the evening. The pupils and peers will need to devote half an hour each. The heaviest drain is on the interviewers (assuming they are also involved in the rating process). The most gruelling schedule for them, assuming just two interviewers covering all four interviews, would be: 9:20 12:30 1:30 4:00 4:30 5:00 6:00

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Interview One Lunch Interview Two Rating & Coding (own Interview One) Rating & Coding (colleague’s Interview One) Rating & Coding (colleague’s Interview Two) Selection Panel


Figure 6.1 An interview day timetable

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Thus, each interviewer conducts two interviews and can then rate and code three scripts (preferably one of their own and two of their colleagues’). By adding one other person as a rater you can ensure that each script is rated twice, providing a form of quality assurance. This is a punishing schedule for the interviewer, however. If you can get other staff involved in the rating and coding, to lighten their burden, it would help enormously. Some of these components are self-explanatory and already well used as part of current recruitment practice, but it is worth commenting on those which are either unusual or which we recommend be modified from standard practice. If you need to drop elements from the programme, the order in which they are best removed is: pupil tour, introduction and group exercise. The remaining activities are the bare minimum we can recommend.

The observed lesson It makes basic sense to watch candidates in action, and evidence should be sought not only from the observer but from the pupils who experience the lesson. This feedback requires a certain structure to elicit meaningful information, but pupils have an insight into certain factors of effective teaching denied to adult observers. We recommend a fifty- to sixty-minute lesson as a minimum. Almost any candidate can bluff their way through a twenty-minute task, but the greater length introduces a real opportunity for the choices and judgements that will reveal the quality candidate. Things will go wrong, possibilities will emerge for going in different directions, the pupils will settle down and forget the observer; there is time also for the pupils to run the full gamut of engagement depending on the pace and interest of the lesson. For such a long observation it is essential to provide candidates with a full briefing as far in advance as possible. This will include lesson objectives, the wider context and current state of knowledge of the pupils and will offer them the opportunity to request any resources or materials they think they will need. To ensure a level playing field, you may decide to ensure that each candidate teaches the same lesson, but this will require a different class, for each. Alternatively, you may ask them to teach the same group of pupils, and this will require a different subject matter. Part 3, Practical 2 contains a lesson observation schedule, on page 156, which can be used by observers to ensure a common set of criteria. It is often helpful to focus the observation on basic skills and expertise, and the schedule focuses on those skills that emerged during the research into teacher effectiveness, and also captures the relevant Ofsted framework. One of the reasons that professional characteristics matter so much is that teaching isn’t just about good technique – knowing the subject and following the plan. Learning also requires an atmosphere of pace, engagement and trust, built through enthusiasm, humour, integrity, empathy, respect and determination. No one is better placed to comment on this motivational climate than the students themselves. The research into effective teaching which identified the professional characteristics also identified this climate as one of the predictors of pupil achievement and analysed it into nine dimensions: • • • • • • • • •

Clarity Environment Fairness Interest Order Participation Safety Standards Support

The transparency and explicit relevance of what goes on in class The comfort and attractiveness of the physical environment Justice and equality within the classroom Stimulation and fascination in class Discipline and structure in the classroom Pupil involvement and influence in the running of the class Absence of threat or fear Expectations of achievement and encouragement to improve Encouragement to try new things and learn from mistakes

These dimensions can be used to structure a discussion with pupils, which should take place as soon as possible after the lesson itself. Some questions to facilitate this, together with space for notes and evaluations, are listed in Part 3, Practical 5, on pages 218–220.

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You may also be interested to note the similarities between this model of classroom climate, experienced by pupils, and the model of whole school climate, experienced by staff, presented in Chapter 5 (on page 87) as part of a school’s total reward. Both are, after all, seeking to promote the same thing: willing engagement, enthusiasm and commitment. Many of the same things count for people whatever the age.

Group exercises for candidates If the observed lesson supports the interview’s verdict on classroom performance, the group exercises support the interview’s verdict on peer-to-peer interaction – the candidates’ team working or leadership skills. The basic aim is to get as many candidates as possible working together on a task, more or less clearly defined depending on your preferences, which requires some form of co–operation for success. They are provided with minimal structure, to foster initiative, and carefully observed throughout. As an added twist, it is also productive to require candidates to analyse their own and others’ performance, either alone or in the company of the other candidates; this really illuminates self-awareness and empathy. A typical structure for such an exercise might therefore be: • • • • • • •

Introduction to other candidates Briefing on the aims of the exercise, resources and boundaries (probably reinforced with a written briefing) Pause for reflection and questions Main exercise (observed) Exercise concluded, with opportunity for further questions Facilitated discussion around self-perceptions of performance Private discussion (during interview, for example) around others’ performance

The Culture Card Sort exercise presented in Chapter 4, with materials in Part 3, Practical 5, on page 194, is an ideal example of a group exercise. Not only does it provide you with valuable secondary data on candidates’ values but, to succeed, they must swiftly negotiate a decision-making structure, share information, make compromises and resolve disagreements. In the face of disagreement it is interesting to observe who imposes their own values and who accepts others’, or whether ingenious compromises can be found. Some of the other exercises presented in this book are also suitable for candidates, particularly the discursive approach to building your own model of teacher effectiveness (‘Customising and extending the model’ in Chapter 2, on page 21) and the team roles exercise (‘Understanding team roles and relationships’ in Chapter 4, on page 69). You can also exercise your ingenuity in inventing various group exercises to test characteristics of particular importance to your organisation. Group exercises can also be combined with more individual, cognitive tests. For example, a group of candidates can be asked to analyse a piece of data (performance statistics, inspection findings, correspondence), draw conclusions and write a report, response or action plan. They must then debate and defend their conclusions with other candidates to produce a consensus report. Both the analysis and the debate are rated, revealing those candidates who can extend their analytical skills into the domain of influence and persuasion. To support you in designing your own exercises, Table 6.1 cross-references a number of generic exercise types against the information they are designed to elicit. The generic types include: • •

•

Interviews – both Critical Incident and traditional types. Roleplays – where a candidate plays themselves or, more rarely, another persona, in a contrived incident. This could involve, for example, on giving negative feedback to a colleagues or calming an angry pupil or parent. Discussions – structured debates and conversations between candidates and/or staff members, usually to reach a particular objective, consensus or outcome. This could be combined with an In-tray exercise.

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•

•

•

In-tray exercises – candidates are presented with paperwork, documents and reports typical of their role and asked to reach a particular conclusion, provide a precise or prioritise; often there is a deliberate attempt to bury the important information in a mass of detail to test the candidates’ ability to get to the point. Presentations – formal input, with or without resources like slides (or sometimes leaving the candidate free to choose), either to a set topic or one of the candidate’s choosing. Candidates may be briefed well in advance or notified of the topic at the last minute, the audience may be large or small; presentations are commonly five minutes in length, with time for questions. Psychometrics – various commercially available paper and on-line tests of intellect, problem-solving ability, personality types, learning styles.

Table 6.1 Assessment techniques

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•

Lesson observations – the candidate is watched and assessed doing the actual job itself.

It is helpful to have as many observers as possible during the group exercise and to meet to compare notes as soon as feasible afterwards. If the group exercise takes place before the interviews it may be useful to follow up on some of the findings and probe for the thinking and motivation behind someone’s actions. There are some typical questions that ought to be addressed in such a discussion: • • • • • •

Did a ‘natural leader’ emerge? How helpful were they to the aims of the exercise? Was anyone withdrawn, non–participative or exceptionally quiet? What might have been the reasons for this? Did any conflict or disagreement emerge? How was it dealt with? What was the approximate percentage of contribution from each participant? How evenly was it distributed? Did anyone hog the limelight? Did anyone have any bright ideas that were rejected by the others? Did the group successfully complete their task?

Forming and running a selection panel The recruitment process we have described so far brings together a wide selection of evidence upon which to make a formal and final decision to recruit. The structure for the day proposed in a previous section enables you to assess this data immediately upon conclusion of the activities and make an offer on the same day. However, given the possible volume of evidence and the stress of the interview day, it may be ideal, if not always achievable, to postpone the selection until the next day. The data coming into the moment of selection will be the result of many weeks’ or months’ preparation, as well as materials generated in the few hours beforehand. It can be broadly divided into two categories, which are ranged against each other: the criteria for the post and the evidence on the candidate’s qualities. The criteria can include: the weighted and ranked characteristics of effective teaching, job shape, values and team roles. These are brought together in two key summaries: the person specification and the Rating Protocol. It can also be helpful to have copies of the job adverts and recruitment pack to hand, forming a briefing pack for the selection panel. The evidence on the candidate could include: primarily Critical Incident Interviews, coded and rated against the Protocol, but also statements or exercises on values, lesson observation notes and pupil feedback, informal feedback from staff members they have met, group exercise notes, CVs, application forms, self-assessment exercises and covering letters. Before this information can be considered, there is one vital task: the composition of the selection panel. Ideally, this should contain people involved in the interview day, who have met the candidates, and also some fresh, objective participants. Anyone who has coded and rated the interview notes should also participate. The selection panel should, of course, include the head, a governor and, probably, the head of the department the teacher is being recruited for. Selection panels can often be small, elite groups but, given the proposed involvement of the rest of the school in preparing the materials for recruitment, there is no reason the selection panel should not be significantly larger. A large panel requires careful facilitation and clear structure, with some tasks being broken down and conducted by ‘sub–committees’. It also demands that the participants have been thoroughly introduced to the model of teacher effectiveness (see Chapter 2) and that most of them have received training in Critical Incident Interviewing (see ‘Exercises to develop your skills’ in Chapter 3, on page 43). Members of the selection panel should have received the criteria in advance of the interview day, and should be expected to have familiarised themselves with it. They should also receive a pack of evidence on each candidate as soon as it can be compiled and be provided with some time for review. However participatory and open the selection process, it is crucial that the head and/or senior leadership team clearly retains the right of final decision. Recruitment is not

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democratic and leaders may need to make unpopular choices. Participants, therefore, should be clearly briefed in advance and have their expectations managed. This can be done symbolically as well as practically. It may be necessary, for example, for the leadership team to ‘retire’ to consider their verdict. Participants should never be asked to ‘judge’ a candidate, merely to offer evidence for or against them and to discuss their impressions. If the language in the preceding paragraphs has taken on a legalistic tinge, it is no accident. The courtroom process is a tried and tested mechanism for weighing ambiguous data and the selection panel will need to take on some of its characteristics. In particular, a number of key roles will emerge in the process we outline below. They may be shared or rotated or held tacitly, but effective selection panels will have a: • • • •

•

Judge – the head or a member of the senior leadership team who facilitates the process and makes the final decision. Champion – someone nominated to speak on behalf of the candidate and present the evidence collected about them. Devil’s advocate – someone nominated to critique the candidate’s credentials and the quality of evidence, to point out the gaps and ask the difficult questions. Clerk – someone to collate and co-ordinate the considerable volume of data, to ensure all participants are properly briefed and that queries can be followed up in the primary data. Expert witnesses – people who have actually participated in one or more of the events and exercise during the day and who can give direct verdicts.

In the structure for selection presented below we assume a relatively large number of participants, six to twelve, and around two hours in which to make a decision. The framework can be adapted for different size groups or different deadlines. 1 2 3

4

Preparation. The clerk prepares and distributes information, books facilities and co–ordinates diaries with nominated participants. Appointments. The senior leadership team nominate a champion and devil’s advocate for each candidate. Briefing. The session is begun with a summary of objectives, timings and nominated roles. The criteria are reaffirmed and the ownership of the final decision by the senior leadership team emphasised. It is also helpful to review the day and ask if there where any disasters, derailments or other surprises that might affect judgements. Group review of Critical Incident Interview Rating Protocols. The panel splits into separate groups, one for each candidate and led by their champion. They review the completed Rating Protocol and decide if: a The process was fairly conducted for that candidate b The candidate has strengths in each of the five clusters c The candidate also has strengths in the clusters and characteristics prioritised by job shape, team roles, etc. d The candidate has an outstanding breadth of characteristics. e The candidate does not have strengths in each cluster but is borderline. f There is anything inconsistent, unclear or out of the ordinary. Where necessary the group can refer to the original interview notes to seek supporting evidence.

5

6

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Plenary discussion. Coming back together as a whole panel, each champion presents their group’s findings. These findings are debated by the whole panel and challenged by the relevant devil’s advocate, expert witness and, indeed, anyone else. The judge can summarise the discussion at this point. Values, roles and additional data. Steps 4 and 5 are repeated for non-interview data. This can include any relevant data (and the group may wish to seek additional commentary from the expert witnesses) but will likely focus on values, lesson observation feedback and group exercise results. This secondary data will become particularly important if:


a Several candidates pass the threshold for characteristics and you must choose between them. b No candidate passes the threshold in terms of characteristics but there are one or more borderlines and you must make a selection now. c You have identified other non–characteristics data, for example a particular value set, as being crucial or even a ‘show stopper’. 7

8

9

10

Decision. We can’t mandate any process or structure for this point as it depends on too many variables: the nature of the candidates, the quality of the data, your decision-making style. It could be obvious or painfully hard. It is always important, however, to nominate a second or third choice, if possible, in case your ideal candidate turns you down. So think of the decision as a rank ordering rather than a ‘pass or fail’ choice. Recommendations for induction. After making a decision, it can be helpful to use the selection panel to plan the first steps for induction. Having carefully considered the school’s needs and the candidate’s strengths and weaknesses, what support, guidance and resources do they think would be helpful? Are any of them willing to help? Offer. Obviously, you need to communicate the decision swiftly to your favoured candidate and then on to the second choice if they turn you down. When making the offer, particularly if it is not too late at night, consider weaving in the recommendations on an individualised package made in Chapter 5. Debriefing. There are two groups you need to keep informed about the recruitment decision: the rest of the school and the unlucky candidates. If you have the energy to provide detailed feedback (you certainly have the evidence) the information collected as part of the process could offer valuable professional development and career guidance; and the courtesy can only help your school’s reputation. Candidates, both successful and unsuccessful, have a legal right to see all notes and information collected or written about them during the recruitment process. Bear this in mind when making your comments and assessments and in the level of detail you provide to rejected candidates.

Summary and overview of process In this chapter we have shown how to combine the Critical Incident Interview with a range of other techniques to make a complete interview day. We have also shown how to work as a group to make decisions based on the data from this day. The most useful additions to the Critical Incident Interview are those which place the candidates in simulacra of real life situations, such as observed lessons and group exercises. These have a lot in common with the Interviews – they are both focused on behaviour in context, rather than philosophy or intentions. And, like the Interview, they are slightly contrived as all the techniques are artificial, pressured and removed from actual day-to-day work. The ideal would, of course, be to shadow the candidates unannounced for a number of days. These are the next best techniques. We have also recommended getting pupils involved in the recruitment process, not just as passive recipients of the lesson but also by providing their feedback on the impact of the teacher’s characteristics on their engagement and interest. From this starting point, it becomes possible to envisage a wider role for the pupil voice in school management. Current staff may be interested in exploring the climate they create, and pupil feedback can become a source of data for professional development and performance management. The selection panel itself can include a wide range of school members, although the final judgement remains the prerogative of the headteacher and their senior leadership team. The panel will rarely get to work with clear-cut data. In recruitment, most evidence is ambiguous, contentious and open to challenge. For this reason, and to assist with the consideration of large volumes of data, we recommend a ‘judicial’ approach to decisionmaking, with people to put the case for and against. It is, of course, possible, and sometimes desirable to conduct the panel more quickly and more exclusively. The format presented here is for an ideal world.

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And so there the recruitment process ends. You have your ideal candidate (or perhaps your second choice), possessed of the characteristics of effective teachers, sharing the values you hold dear and compatible with their colleagues. You’ve built the sort of school that people want to join and want to stay in. You’ve even taken the time to discover their individual preferences and cater to them. So you know they’ll accept and begin a long and happy career. Well, perhaps not quite. Many an efficient recruitment process is wrecked by neglect of the new recruit. It is rare that a candidate is a perfect fit – they will often require support and development. Even an experienced recruit will need to learn the unique procedures and politics of your school. If you’ve hired an innovator or disruptor (see ‘Defining your values through the culture sort’ in Chapter 4, on page 62) they will need sponsorship and coaching. The next chapter, on Induction, ensures a proper conclusion to the perfect recruitment process.

Checklist

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Review the numbers of applications you receive. If sufficient, design sifting criteria and process to reduce the number invited for interview to between four and six.

Plan the structure of the interview day, including introductions, tours, informal chats, group exercises, observed lessons, the Critical Incident Interview, rating and selection.

Allocate staff to the various roles and prepare materials, including timetables, person specifications, interview protocols and rating protocols.

Observe each candidate teaching for a sixty-minute lesson and seek feedback from the pupils afterwards. Use this feedback during the selection panel and cross-check with candidate’s own views of the lesson.

Observe all the candidates in a group exercise to test their teamwork and influencing skills. Forward this information to the selection panel and debrief the candidates afterwards to cross-check with their own views of the exercise.

Conduct the Critical Incident Interviews.

Code and rate the Critical Incident Interviews.

Collate all information gathered during the day (completed rating protocols, completed interview protocols, lesson and group exercise observations), add to information received during the application process (application forms and CVs), plus the person specification, and forward to the selection panel.

Evaluate the selection data as a panel and decide on your first and second choices.

Review the available evidence on reward preferences and construct a personalised offer.

Make the offer.

CHAPTER TITLE

Induction

7

Ensuring the best start

Walking in the door Can you remember what it felt like when you first joined your current school? Can you remember what it felt like to start your first-ever teaching job? What did you want? The recruitment process is not complete until a recruit is fully settled into the school. Our earlier efforts – spotting the characteristics of outstanding teachers, ensuring a match with culture and team roles, building favourable working conditions and calculating a unique motivational package – will be entirely wasted if we neglect or mistreat a recruit in their first months on the job. An effective induction process reduces early stress and anxiety, brings recruits up to fully effective performance more quickly, communicates the culture of the institution and addresses any development needs identified during recruitment. Induction has two key functions, therefore: 1

Support and guidance to settle the recruit in, covering both: a Orientation – provision of the basic information required to perform b Acclimatisation – induction into the culture and ethos.

2

The foundation of a performance management and professional development process that maximises the potential identified during selection.

The Critical Incident Interview process described in this book puts us in a particularly strong position for the latter. The rigour, depth and formality of these functions will depend on the nature of the candidates you are receiving. In particular, if you are recruiting to a graduate trainee scheme, recruiting NQTs or other candidates with less than perfect skills and knowledge, you will need a powerful and lengthy induction, recapitulating many of the functions offered by teacher training institutions. Induction is like teaching: it consists in part of the provision of scaffolds around someone’s work – strict procedures, monitoring, breaking apart of complex tasks, accessible advice – and then their gradual removal. The less experienced the candidate, and the lower the current skill level, the stronger and longer the scaffolding required. Unfortunately few development programmes are designed with the care and detail that we reserve for pedagogy and, although there is something to be said for dropping people in at the deep end, this has to be a calculated rather than negligent act. In particular, in this chapter, we will emphasise that the evidence generated by a rigorous recruitment process, especially through Critical Incident Interviews, should be used through the induction period and throughout early professional development. It should also be shared, sensitively, with the new recruit to enable them to understand and take ownership of their own development. After all, few people are lucky enough to have the light of a Critical Incident Interview cast upon their career and their performance.

The orientation and acclimatisation of new staff This section addresses the formal and informal information that new recruits need in order to function, and it is often the latter that is harder to obtain and more important to success and satisfaction.

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Formal information covers the who, what, where, when and why of the school. • • • • •

Who do I ask about … What do I do if … Where do I find … When do I need to … Why must I do that …

Many schools capture this information in an induction manual. This is normally owned by a senior member of staff and updated from time to time. In fact, however, the people who most closely understand what information is needed are those who have most recently joined the school. If you are creating or refreshing an induction manual, this could be a task delegated to an action group of recent joiners. As well as collating their own experience, they can involve all members of staff by posing the question ‘In retrospect, what three things do you wish you’d known about this school in the first week?’ Once the induction manual has been created, ownership could pass in turn to the most recent joiner. Every recruit should have a duty to contribute at least one tip or revision to the document, to keep it alive. It is, of course, vital that the school’s senior leadership notice and recognise these contributions. In the communication of formal information, you may also want to include welcome interviews, guided tours and longer induction programmes; shadowing is a fast way to learn about both people and processes. The formal orientation information is seldom a critical stumbling block. The informal and tacit rules provide the most trouble. The school culture and the informal relationships within the team feature strongly under this heading and the earlier exercises in this book, in Chapter 4, provide a wealth of information for recruits. This may well be worth sharing explicitly if possible; many new recruits have found participation in, or review of, the Card Sort exercise particularly illuminating. In our discussion of culture we remarked that celebrations and rituals help to propagate culture, particularly those associated with initiation. Ask yourself what key, public milestones are placed in front of recruits and what values do they express? Whom are they expected to visit? Are they formally welcomed? Do they have to make a speech? What happens when they enter the staff room? Consciously or unconsciously, most new recruits ask themselves ‘what does it take to succeed here?’ and answer it by looking at who appears to be succeeding then modelling their behaviour. Who appears to be succeeding in your school and do you want new recruits modelling their behaviour? If not, you may need to direct them to appropriate role models through introductions, careful allocation of tasks, public praise or more formal mentoring arrangements.

Performance management and professional development It is rare that a candidate will emerge from the recruitment process without some development needs. The Critical Incident Interview will help you to target development needs precisely, provide evidence to share with the candidate and plan a programme of support. This should be merged with the performance management process, with at least one personal objective focused around the development of professional characteristics. The ideal starting point would be to share all the data generated during the recruitment process, excepting the deliberations of the selection panel itself. This would mean that recruits get to see their rating protocol and even the notes or transcript of the interview itself. Both these items of information will need careful introduction and the recruit should be coached in their interpretation rather than left to fend for themselves. It is worth noting, that both successful and unsuccessful candidates have a legal right to see any information recorded about them during the recruitment process, so don’t record anything you wouldn’t want them to see (don’t obscure the hard messages either – as long as you can back it up with evidence it’s legitimate).

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You may want to approach the setting of development priorities in the following order: • • • •

Developing characteristics in clusters which are weak; Developing characteristics which are school priorities (from job shape, team roles, etc.); Developing the characteristics required of the next level of the profession; Developing the characteristics of personal importance to the recruit.

The development of professional characteristics is not a process that can be imposed on an individual. Habits rarely change without protracted and often painful personal commitment. Richard Boyatzis has studied the constituents of long-term behavioural change in his research on self-directed change. Common to the success stories are: • •

•

• •

•

A discontinuity or dissatisfaction with current performance, often shocking or traumatic, which Boyatzis characterises as a ‘wake up call’. This discontinuity is usually created by a mismatch between the individual’s selfimage and their aspirations; a change in either can provide the stimulus. Although we are often able to change someone’s self-image, through feedback and conversation, and there are many training programmes aimed at this, we tend to be much weaker about developing aspirations. Aspirations do not flourish in a high-stress environment. They grow when a person has the space to reflect and dream, and works within conditions of psychological safety which enable them to express those aspirations. The discontinuity must be captured and expressed in explicit, tangible goals for change. People then need space, both logistically and psychologically to experiment, to trial the new behaviours in low-risk environments. Although room for experimentation is difficult in schools, it is not so much the threat to children’s education as the fear of appearing foolish in front of one’s colleagues that creates the most difficulty. Behavioural change needs to be a social activity, because we are often changing our social behaviours. Colleagues and pupils can be a powerful force to sustain personal development. This requires that they know you want to change, know what success looks like for you and understand the rules of engagement – when you want feedback, when you want them to look the other way, for example. Many people find it helpful to set up relatively formal systems to communicate the rules of engagement – triggers, symbols, body language, etc.

Although self-direction is important, a common reason for failure is lack of follow-through from the people who spurred us on in the first place. We have an intense conversation about development needs, and why they are crucial to the school, then our mentor or manager’s attention wanders and we feel we can let things slip. The mentor or manager need to keep the consequences of change or not changing explicit and in the front of both parties’ minds. This will involve formal reviews and a willingness to hold someone accountable for their own goals – just because someone chose their development targets doesn’t mean we don’t expect them to achieve them. Equally important, however, is to minimise the threat of consequences during the experimentation phase. Adroit use of the performance management framework can support many of these goals. All candidates are supposed to set objectives for improving their professional practice. The Critical Incident Interview provides rigorous data for these objectives and also provides a means of checking progress. It may not be desirable to conduct a full interview, but a single critical incident, focused on the characteristic in concern (Part 3, Practical 2 provides some useful probes) can provide a useful benchmark. It is advisable to conduct these during a mid-year progress review, rather than a formal end-of-year appraisal, to maintain their objective, open and developmental aspect. Professional characteristics can be effective for the performance management of teachers post-threshold. To move up the upper pay scale, they must demonstrate sustained and significant performance and the higher levels of the Rating Protocol provide stretching targets in this regard, particularly tracking a teacher’s impact on practice across the school.

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Evaluating your recruitment process Even after your candidates have been selected and settled in, the recruitment process is not complete. You still need to evaluate the process and plan improvements. The rigour applied to your evaluation should depend on the number of candidates you recruit on a regular basis, and the priority that recruitment has to your school but, whether formal or informal, there are two key areas to question: • The reasons for candidates’ decisions • The effectiveness and efficiency of your processes The two areas are obviously connected. The first involves getting into people’s heads and understanding why they responded as they did to your recruitment efforts. The second means optimising your process to create the right decisions. We recommend collating the data generated on these areas into a file or database and tracking changes over time. For the first, candidates’ decisions, you will need to collect data at six points, each progressively harder to track. In Figure 7.1 we describe these points and the appropriate techniques for collecting information. Although responses will be varied and personal, we recommend structuring the conversations and coding responses against the total reward inventory, to enable comparisons. An example is shown in Figure 7.2. The data from these conversations will enable you to assess whether your working conditions are viewed in the same light by candidates as they are by staff; whether your brand is compelling and whether you are communicating your strengths clearly. As well as gaining an understanding of candidates’ thought processes and reasons for arrival or departure, you will need to evaluate the technical effectiveness of the process. For this, you need to capture data on the variables of each campaign (for each vacancy or batch of vacancies) and the results. By ‘variables’ we mean the features of the process under your control, including for example: • Number of adverts placed • Size, position and design of adverts • Media used • Brand and core propositions advertised • Dates posted • Nature of the vacancy (seniority, subject, etc.) • Process (number of rounds, speed of response, application form versus CV) • Any new or experimental features tried during the campaign Against this, track results like: • The number of applications • The number of strong or acceptable applications (i.e. number invited to interview)

Figure 7.1 Recruitment evaluation – understanding candidates’ decisions

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Figure 7.2 Recuitment evaluation – tracking candidates’ decisions • • • •

Number of candidates offered a post Number of candidates who accept your offer Type of candidates who apply (age, experience, demographics, etc.) The length of stay of the hire (this may, hopefully, take a long time to come through)

You may also like to feed in data collected under the heading of candidates’ decisions – why the successful applicant chose you, why the candidate who rejected you did so, and so on. An example of this sort of data is provided in Figure 7.3. Finally, we recommend that you meet as a senior leadership team on a quarterly or annual basis, and certainly before commencing the next recruitment drive, and review the collected data.

Figure 7.3 Recruitment evaluation – campaign efficiency

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Summary and overview of process In this chapter we have briefly detailed the major challenges of induction. Our aim was to ensure that the detailed evidence generated by the Critical Incident Interview was fully exploited for development as well as selection. It is often valuable to make interview criteria, notes and transcripts available to the new recruit and coach them through using them. Induction proceeds through early orientation and acclimatisation to the first steps in performance management. Not only can the Critical Incident Interview help to set objectives, it can track progress towards them. We also discussed the type of environment in which people feel they can change their engrained habits and characteristics. Features include room for aspirations, a stimulus or dissatisfaction, psychological safety and room to experiment, the involvement of colleagues, the setting of explicit targets and followthrough on measurement. This follow-through should contain real consequence for both success and failure. Finally, recruitment ends with evaluation. This focuses on the thought process of those who join the school, those who leave and, vitally, those who never apply. We link this understanding to tracking of key campaign variables and response rates. A proper evaluation will not only suggest immediate improvements, but will allow us to experiment and test new approaches. It will also warn us of a decline in responses rates and possible impending crises.

Checklist

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Ask newly recruited staff to prepare an induction manual.

Pass ownership of manual to each new recruit, to add tips.

Plan an induction programme, including interviews.

Identify acceptable role models and steer recruits towards them.

Share interview materials, criteria and evidence in discussion with new recruit.

Set a professional characteristic as a development objective.

Examine the psychological safety of behavioural change in your school and the opportunities for low-risk experimentation.

Follow through on goals.

CHAPTER TITLE

Conclusions

8

We’ve covered a lot of territory in this book not normally associated with recruitment, from our school’s values to the effectiveness of our teams, from the shape of jobs to the quality of working conditions. Creating the sort of school where our recruits will want to stay is as important as getting them through the door in the first place. And the moment they walk through the door, they will sense if the basic conditions are right. The moment they read your advertisement, they will sense if you know what you are looking for and have a school you are proud of. Good schools are built from good teachers, working together well. There is only one task more important than choosing and attracting recruits with the characteristics and values necessary to become effective teachers, and that is developing and inspiring the talent we already possess. We therefore see recruitment as rooted in the key human processes of schools, informed by them and informing them. Recruitment is the start of professional development, because it identifies strengths and weaknesses; recruitment builds culture because it is a core ritual of school life; recruitment implements strategy because it begins to draw together the team of teachers and leaders who will make your school the place you intend it to become. In the current crisis, recruitment is too often a source of stress and anxiety – how will we ever fill that place? In itself, this can be a self-fulfilling prophecy. Recruitment should be a source of pride, looked forward to as an opportunity to affirm what you stand for and take you one step nearer to achieving your goals. For, in an organisation driven by the quality and motivation of its people (almost the definition of a school) there is no strategy without people. The myriad of daily decisions that bring your vision alive rest within their discretion. Systems and processes, action plans and task forces, protocols and procedures – these will not drive a school forward. Your NQT, your literacy co-ordinator, your deputy and their colleagues will. They may even add something of their own to the vision. So, what qualities will these posts require in your school in three years’ time?

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Schedule of potential INSETs and training activities

There are many exercises, debates and investigations proposed within this book. Any of these could provide a useful input to more general development activities within school, such as INSET days and other training events. This would combine improvement of the recruitment process with broader school improvement. Below, we detail the most suitable events and some basic logistical details, including intended outcomes, likely duration, required resources and suitable participants : 1 Models of teacher effectiveness Outcomes:

Understanding of and engagement with the models of effective teaching; generation of characteristics unique to your school

Duration:

From two hours to several weeks

Resources:

Meeting rooms, time, facilitation

Participants:

Whole school, Volunteers and Action Groups

Reference:

‘Customising and extending the Model’, Chapter2, on page 21

2 Critical Incident Interview training Outcomes:

Improved interviewing skills, higher accuracy in recruitment decisions

Duration:

Three hours

Resources:

Meeting rooms, tape-recording equipment, interview training checklists, willing volunteers, time

Participants:

Anyone who will be interviewing candidates

Reference:

‘Exercises to develop your skills’, Chapter 3, on page 43

3 Job shapes

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Outcomes:

Shared understanding of balance between accountability and problem-solving; more satisfying jobs; identification of priority characteristics for recruitment

Duration:

One to two hours

Resources:

Job Profile questionnaires and grid, whiteboard or flipchart, facilitation

Participants:

Whole school

Reference:

‘Characteristics and the shape of jobs’, Chapter 4, on page 54

POTENTIAL INSETS AND TRAINING

4 School culture and values Outcomes:

Understanding of the importance of culture to school effectiveness and improvement; map of your current culture in the eyes of staff; map of your desired culture in the eyes of staff; identification of values expected in recruits

Duration:

Two hours

Resources:

Culture Sort Cards and Grids, whiteboard or flipchart, facilitation

Participants:

Whole school

Reference:

‘Defining your values through the culture sort’, Chapter 4, on page 62

5 Team roles – Characteristics portfolio Outcomes:

Increased understanding of colleagues and team members; identification of gaps and weak spots in the team’s ‘portfolio’ of characteristics; identification of priority characteristics for recruiting into that team

Duration:

One hour

Resources:

Professional Characteristics Self-Assessment and Summary Sheet, meeting rooms

Participants:

Any whole team

Reference:

‘Understanding team roles and relationships’, Chapter 4, on page 69

6 Team roles – Social roles Outcomes:

Increased understanding of self, and colleagues; understanding of current informal relationships and dynamics in team; identification of additional criteria for recruiting into that team

Duration:

Thirty minutes

Resources:

Social Roles handout, meeting rooms

Participants:

Any whole team

Reference:

‘Understanding team roles and relationships’, Chapter 4, on page 69

7 Total Reward audit Outcomes:

Map of the sources of satisfaction and dissatisfaction in your school; priorities for change and for communication in your brand;

Duration:

One to two weeks for questionnaire completion, processing time, staff meeting for discussion

Resources:

Total Reward Audit questionnaire and analysis table, meeting room, administrative support for processing questionnaires, facilitation

Participants:

Whole school

Reference:

‘Auditing your school’s Total Reward’, Chapter 5, on page 90

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8 Total Reward action research Outcomes:

Improved staff retention and larger numbers of applicants; action plans for improving total reward and increasing job satisfaction, collaboration opportunities with other schools

Duration:

Several weeks

Resources:

Total Reward analysis, meeting rooms, time, leadership support

Participants:

Volunteers and Action Groups (and pupils)

Reference:

‘Changing your school’s Total Reward’, Chapter 5, on page 94

9 Building a school brand

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Outcomes:

Clear, compelling and distinctive statement of your school’s identity; shared vision of your mission and direction; increased number of applicants

Duration:

Two hours plus drafting time, plus another hour for review

Resources:

Total Reward analysis, mission statements, Culture Sort analysis

Participants:

Senior leadership team (and volunteers)

Reference:

‘Building a school Brand’, Chapter 5, on page 102

CHAPTER TITLE

References

Atkinson, J.W. (ed.) (1958) Motives in Fantasy, Action and Society, Princeton: Van Nostrand. Belbin, M.R. (1995) Team Roles at Work, London: Butterworth-Heinemann. Boyatzis, R.E. (1982) The Competent Manager: A Model for Effective Performance, New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Cciskszentmihalyi, M. (2002) Flow: The Classic Work on How to Achieve Happiness, London: Rider. Covey, S.R. (1989) The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, New York: Fireside. De Bono, E. (2000) Six Thinking Hats, London: Penguin. Deal, T.E. and Kennedy, A.A. (1982) Corporate Cultures: The Rites and Rituals of Corporate Life, Cambridge MA: Perseus Publishing. Dimmock, C. (2000) Designing the Learning-Centred School: A Cross-Cultural Perspective, London: Falmer Press. Flanagan, J.C. (1954) ‘The Critical Incident Technique’, Psychological Bulletin 51, 327–58 Goleman, D. (1999) Working with Emotional Intelligence, London, Bloomsbury. Guardian (2003) http://www.educationguardian.co.uk/microsite/gtc Hargreaves, D.H. (1994) The Mosaic of Learning: Schools and Teachers for the Next Century, London: Demos. Hartle, F., Everall, K. and Baker, C. (2001) Getting the Best out of Performance Management in your School, London: Kogan Page. Hay Group (2000) Research into Teacher Effectiveness: A Model of Teacher Effectiveness, HMSO. Crown copyright material is reproduced with the permission of the Controller of HMSO and the Queen’s Printer for Scotland. Herzberg et al. (1993) The Motivation to Work, New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers. Hobby, R., Forde, R. and Lees, A. (2000) The Lessons of Leadership, London: Hay Group. Hopkins, D. (2001) School Improvement for Real, London: RoutledgeFalmer. Hopins, D. et al. (1997) Hopkins, D., Ainscow, M. and West, M. (1994) School Improvement in an Era of Change, London: Cassell. Litwin, G.H. and Stringer, R.A. (1968) Motivation and Organisational Climate. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Maslow, A.H. (1943) ‘A theory of human motivation’, Psychological Review 50, 370–96. McClelland, D.C. (1973) ‘Testing for competence rather than for intelligence’, American Psychologist 28, 1–14. McClelland, D.C. (1985) Human Motivation, Glenview, IL: Scott Foresman and Company. McClelland, D.C. and Dailey, C. (1972) Improving Officer Selection for the Foreign Service, Boston: McBer and Company. Mitrani, A., Dalziel, M. and Fitt, D. (eds) (1992) Competency Based Human Resource Management: Value Driven Strategies for Recruitment, Development and Reward, London: Kogan Page. Mortimore, P., Sammons, P., Stoll, L., Lewis, D. and Ecob, R. (1992) School Matters, California: University of California Press. Spencer, L.M., Klemp, G.O. and Cullen, B.C. (1977) ‘Interim report #1: Work environment questionnaires and Army unit effectiveness and satisfaction measures’, submitted to U.S. Army Research Institute for the Behavioural and Social Sciences. Spencer, L.M and Spencer, S.M. (1993) Competence at Work: Models for Superior Performance, New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Spencer, L.M., McClelland, D.C. and Spencer, S.M. (1994) Competency Assessment Methods: History and State of the Art, Boston: Hay McBer Research Press.

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Steers, R., Porter, L. and Bigey, G. (2003) Motivation and Work Behaviour, New York: McGraw-Hill Education. Stoll, L. and Fink, D. (1996) Changing our Schools: Linking School Effectiveness and School Improvement, Buckingham, Open University Press. Weiss, T.B. and Hartle, F. (1997) Reengineering Performance Management: Breakthroughs in Achieving Strategy through People, Boca Raton, FL: St Lucie Press. Zullow, H.M., Oettingen, G., Peterson, C. and Seligman, M.E. (1988) ‘Pessimistic explanatory style in the historical record’, American Psychologist 43(9), 673–82.

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Part 3 Practical exercises and materials

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These ‘practicals’ contain numerous forms, questionnaires and facilitation guides to assist you in the exercises outlined in this book. They may also be helpful in a wide range of circumstances. You may photocopy them for internal use only in your school. If you would like electronic copies of any form, for editing and adaptation, again for internal use only, these can be downloaded from: http://www.transforminglearning.co.uk/recruitment

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Practical 1 Professional characteristics

The dictionary of characteristics of effective teachers This dictionary describes in detail the characteristics discovered during the research into effective teaching. Each characteristic is explained succinctly, with the following information: Title and summary – the name and essence of the characteristic Core question – to identify its presence Why it matters – the justification and importance of the characteristics Levels – detailed criteria for the display of increasingly powerful levels of the characteristic. Each characteristic has between three and five levels Progression – an explanation of the scale used for the levels, which differs from characteristic to characteristic – some grow in complexity, others in frequency or strength. The dictionary is the foundation to much of the work in this book, and can also be widely applied in professional development and performance management. In particular, when coding Critical Incident Interviews, the scales and descriptors will allow you to judge the presence and strength of a characteristic Different levels of the profession require different levels of characteristics. Accordingly, we provide a key showing the level of each characteristic expected for: Main Professional Grade

Post Threshold

Outstanding / AST

Finally, it needs to be re-emphasised that not every effective teacher possesses every characteristic in every cluster. Rather, they have strengths across all five clusters, and use different combinations of characteristics in different ways. The Rating Protocols in Practical 3 detail the different combinations required at different levels of the profession.

Dictionary contents Professionalism Challenge and support Confidence Creating trust Respect for others Thinking Analytical thinking Conceptual thinking Planning and setting expectations Drive for improvement Information seeking Initiative

140 140 141 142 142 143 143 144 145 145 146 146

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Leading Flexibility Holding people accountable Managing pupils Passion for learning Relating to others Impact and influence Teamworking Understanding others

147 147 148 149 150 151 151 152 153

PROFESSIONALISM Challenge and support A commitment to do everything possible for each pupil and to enable all pupils to be successful Core question Are the teacher’s actions based on the desire for each pupil to attain high levels of achievement?

Why it matters Caring about the whole child and its learning, and communicating this through action, is an essential part of building the self-esteem needed for learning to take place. Expressing positive expectations of pupils – that they can and will learn and be successful – is one of the most powerful ways to influence pupils and raise achievement. It is one of the distinctive behaviours of high-performing teachers who radiate confidence in their pupils and their potential, and never give up on them. Pupils only get one chance to have their school education. They are entitled to expect the best possible provision. Effective teachers therefore not only care, but also take a firm line. This means they refuse to accept mediocrity or second-best provision, and challenge others – parents, colleagues, and pupils themselves – in the best interests of the pupil. This tough caring is particularly important in meeting the requirements of pupils with special needs, including those of high ability. It is an important part of a drive to address the needs of all pupils.

1

Cares for the pupil Ensures the day-to-day practical well-being and safety of pupils. Does not tolerate bullying and tackles it immediately.

2

Expresses positive expectations

Says to pupils ‘You can do it’. Builds self-esteem in pupils by, for example, setting tasks which will allow them to succeed, giving rewards which are valued, and praising them when they have done well.

3

Strives for the best possible provision

Acts relentlessly in the interests of all pupils. Strives to secure the best possible provision. Persists in working for the best possible educational outcomes for all pupils, even when the going gets tough.

4

Challenges others in the pupil’s best interests Challenges others to bring about the best educational outcome for all pupils, persisting in overcoming barriers. Is prepared to be appropriately stern in the best interests of the pupil.

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This scale develops in terms of the degree of firmness demonstrated in the support teachers give pupils, and the challenges they need to issue in the best interests of their pupils. At the lowest level this characteristic is about caring for pupils in a practical, immediate way. The second level combines challenge and support through the teacher expressing positive expectations of pupils. The higher levels express care for the pupils through the teacher’s striving to secure the best possible provision for them, and challenging others to do likewise.

Confidence The belief in one’s ability to be effective and to take on challenges Core question Does the teacher believe in his or her own ability to succeed, and does he or she rise to challenges?

Why it matters Effective teachers believe in themselves and have the conviction to be ambitious: for their pupils, for the school and for themselves. Confidence for many teaching practitioners stems from experience. It readily communicates itself to others. It builds the optimism needed to try things out, to aim high and to succeed. Self-confidence is also fundamental to challenging poor performance and bringing about step change. Effective teachers see themselves as, and act as, ‘leading professionals’. They have the emotional resilience to deal with challenging pupils, and the stamina necessary for a sustained contribution in the classroom. Being confident about personal skills and believing in the value of their work in what they know is a demanding job, helps teachers to have a strong sense of identity, and to set boundaries for themselves so they know what they can and should take on.

1

Shows confidence Demonstrates self-confidence in most situations. Expresses optimism and confidence in own ability to do things.

2

Actively contributes

Contributes positively, giving personal views in staff meetings and in meetings with parents. Gives an objective and independent opinion.

3

Expresses a professional view

States confidence in him or herself as a professional. Refers to and draws on own experience when doing something new or handling a difficult situation.

4

Rises to challenges

Takes on new or difficult challenges willingly and positively. Expresses confidence in own ability to succeed against the odds. Challenges or expresses a different perspective from that of others, including senior colleagues, on a professional issue, when appropriate.

This scale develops with the degree of challenge taken on in a situation. The teacher is able to express a professional view with confidence, in level 3, as a result of his or her experience. They have ‘been there’ in a range of difficult situations in which they have succeeded, giving them emotional resilience and a confidence that they will also succeed in new situations. At level 4 the teacher’s confidence has grown to the extent where they can take on stretching challenges, feeling optimistic about being able to succeed.

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Creating trust Being consistent and fair. Keeping one’s word Core question Can you depend on the teacher to accomplish what he or she has agreed to do? Is he or she consistent and fair?

Why it matters Professional dependability is essential in the school environment where colleagues have to rely on each other. Teachers who show it win pupils’ respect and trust, and earn their confidence. Being sincere and genuine creates an atmosphere of trust, and allows pupils to act naturally, express themselves honestly, and not be afraid of making mistakes – an essential starting point for learning. It also helps build rapport with pupils. Strong modelling of this characteristic by teachers, paraprofessionals (for example, non-teaching assistants) and all those involved in the life of the school creates an ethos of mutual trust, and makes the school a dependable point of reference in what for many pupils can seem a turbulent world. 1

Acts reliably Delivers what he or she promises. Makes clear commitments and honours these.

2

Acts fairly and consistently

Acts fairly and consistently over time. Applies rewards and sanctions consistently.

3

Lives up to what he or she professes to believe

Lives up to his or her stated values and beliefs. Avoids giving ‘mixed messages’ by saying one thing and doing another.

4

Lives up to professed beliefs even when difficult to do so Even when it is difficult to do so, or there is a significant personal cost, acts consistently in accordance with own stated values and beliefs

This scale develops in relation to the degree of risk involved in behaving consistently with stated beliefs. At the lowest level this characteristic is shown by acting reliably. The second level is demonstrated by the teacher demonstrating consistent behaviour over time and the teacher acting fairly. The higher levels of the scale are about the teacher acting consistently with his or her stated beliefs, even when this is difficult to do or there is a personal cost.

Respect for others The underlying belief that individuals matter and deserve respect Core question Does the teacher show respect and consideration for others?

Why it matters Listening to others and valuing their contribution is fundamental to the empathy and exchange that is at the heart of education and learning. Effective teachers demonstrate that they respect and value others, so that pupils do the same and are encouraged to share their experiences and insights. Teachers, when they explicitly value others, shape pupils’ and colleagues’ perceptions of themselves. This helps them to recognise their unique talents, to feel special, and to have the confidence to succeed. It increases the motivation in all to achieve more than they ever thought they could. When teachers show that they respect others it becomes more likely that people throughout the school community will learn from others with diverse backgrounds, and learn to be good citizens.

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1

Listens Actively listens to pupils and others. Does not interrupt. Shows interest in, and acknowledges, what others say.

2

Values others Behaves in a way which shows pupils or others that they are valued as individuals, and for what they contribute. Gives repeated messages about this.

3

Values others despite provocation

Acts in a way which shows pupils or others that they are still valued, even when they have done something unacceptable. Maintains positive expectations against the odds.

4

Creates a community where there is mutual respect

Takes a number of steps over time to create a feeling of community in the class or in the school. Encourages pupils and others to value each other when there are differences of view and background. Consistently and publicly praises achievements of pupils who have succeeded against the odds.

At the lowest level this characteristic is shown by active listening, and acknowledgement of what others say. The scale progresses through explicitly valuing others, even when this is difficult. The highest level is shown through the regular display of actions which create an ethos of mutual respect.

THINKING Analytical thinking The ability to think logically, break things down, and recognise cause and effect Core question Does the teacher analyse situations and data in a logical and systematic way?

Why it matters Planning programmes of work requires a focus on evidence and data relating to pupils and their attainments. Data can be quantitative: for example, about prior attainment, progression data, inspection findings; or qualitative, such as views and opinions. Thoroughness in preparation, based on an accurate assessment of the stage pupils have reached – for the lesson, the term and the year – creates a framework for teaching and learning. Objectives and learning outcomes need to be clearly set out. Learning should be split into easily digested parts that make sense and have a logical flow. Milestones need to be specified so that pupils have a sense of progress and can measure their achievements against learning objectives. By demonstrating analytical thinking themselves, and asking why, teachers can show pupils the importance of a logical approach and get them to question why they are doing what they do on a regular basis. Analytical thinking also helps to monitor pupils’ progress, so that teaching schemes can be regularly adjusted to accommodate learning differences and other variables. Reflecting on degrees of success, and analysing why some things went better than others, is crucial. It helps not only by encouraging a flexible approach, lesson by lesson, but also in making improvements year on year, and improving professional practice.

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1

Breaks down problems Breaks down tasks or problems into key parts. Makes lists of actions required and resources needed before a lesson.

2

Recognises cause and effect

Shows that he or she can analyse the reasons for actions and behaviour. Analyses the reason for something. Demonstrates an ability to think through an implication. Prioritises. Makes clear, logical lesson plans, and structures coherent programmes of work.

3

Analyses variables

Considers several possible causes for any given situation. Demonstrates consideration of multiple implications.

This scale develops on the basis of increasing complexity. The more variables there are for the teacher to analyse, the greater the sophistication of thought required to see cause and effect.

Conceptual thinking The ability to see patterns and links, even when there is a lot of detail Core question Does the teacher have the ability to recognise patterns and concepts, apply models of best practice to school situations and create new ideas and approaches?

Why it matters Effective teachers develop lessons and programmes of work which deliver the curriculum in such a way that they provide breadth, balance and continuity, and match the level and needs of their classes and the individuals within them. They therefore move easily between the big picture and the detail. They also make links between areas of the curriculum, so that learning can be consolidated across different subjects, and think about connections they see outside the classroom and beyond the school, to enhance and enrich teaching and learning. Pupils will progress if they fully understand concepts and subject content, so the ability to clarify and simplify complex ideas and communicate them is very important.

1

Uses common sense Uses common sense to cut through detail, resolve problems and get things done.

2

Sees patterns

Recognises patterns in behaviour, situations and performance data. Makes comparisons and links.

3

Uses concepts

Creatively adapts and applies concepts, ideas and best practice from other schools or other situations. Refers to theories of how people learn when planning lessons and programmes of work.

4

Makes the complex simple Helps pupils and others to understand something complex by finding a new and creative way to explain it in simple terms.

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The lower levels of the scale are about cutting through detail and recognising patterns. The third level introduces an innovative quality in the thinking that takes place, and is about using and adapting concepts, ideas and theories that already exist, including applying concepts and theories embedded in subject knowledge. The highest level is about helping others to understand by inventing a new way to explain and clarify something complex.

PLANNING AND SETTING EXPECTATIONS Drive for improvement Relentless energy for setting and meeting challenging targets, for pupils and the school Core question Does the teacher constantly strive to raise pupil achievement and to surpass challenging targets?

Why it matters Setting stretching and achievable targets, taking past performance into account, makes attainment more likely. Measuring and affirming improvement motivates pupils and others. This creates a focus on excellence and lays down exactly what is to be achieved. Measuring progress and results provides motivation for pupils and others. This is about moving out of the comfort zone and providing challenge and excitement in the learning process. Achieving more than you ever thought possible builds self-esteem. Success breeds success. The more pupils achieve, the more they believe they will succeed. This makes them want to achieve more, leading to more success, not only as classroom learners but in life. The commitment of teachers to their own continuing professional development reminds them of what it is like to be a learner, and helps them develop their own skills and characteristics. This helps them to empathise with pupils, and models the importance of continuous lifelong learning. In this way the school becomes a genuine learning community with a vibrancy and liveliness about it – making pupils want to be there and to participate.

1

Wants to do a good job Strives to do a good job. Thoroughly plans, delivers and evaluates lessons. Keeps required records. Is dissatisfied when he or she is prevented from doing a good job. Seeks to learn.

2

Sets own standards

Sets own standards and measures lessons against these in order to improve learning outcomes. Reflects on what should be done better next time.

3

Creates improvements

Acts positively to improve the quality of teaching and learning, and achieves a measurable improvement. Improves own classroom practice or brings about a specific improvement for the school by accomplishing something better, more quickly, or more effectively.

4

Sets and tackles challenging targets

Sets and works relentlessly to achieve ambitious targets for all pupils, appropriate to their level, whatever their capabilities; and for him or herself, including those relating to personal continuous professional development. Communicates the importance and urgency for all pupils to maximise their full potential. Continuously focuses on tracking and measuring personal and pupils’ performance against objectives.

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The Drive for Improvement increases as the scale develops, being expressed first through teachers setting standards for themselves, and then through creating improvements. At the lowest level this characteristic is demonstrated by the wish to do a good job. The highest level refers to raising the bar – setting ambitious targets for self and others, and working to achieve these.

Information seeking A drive to find out more and get to the heart of things; intellectual curiosity Core question Does the teacher seek out information from a range of sources?

Why it matters Effective teachers seek information about pupils, pupil attainment and progress, subject and curriculum content, best practice, and new developments in the school community and beyond. Having a deeper understanding of pupils, their background, and their prior learning and attainment, helps teachers know what will motivate them and adapt their approach. As a result, pupils are likely to feel recognised and valued as individuals. This capability is at the heart of accurate formative assessment. Teachers who continuously gather information about pupil progress and attainment are able to pace and adapt programmes of learning so they continue to be relevant and appropriate. Finding appropriate resources and the best practice of others enhances teaching and learning, keeps approaches and programmes of work fresh, and avoids reinventing the wheel. Seeking out relevant inspection and research evidence can help improve planning and teaching. Often the opportunity to gather information presents itself in the moment, so effective teachers are alert to connections and relevance, and seize the information before the chance is lost. Most importantly teachers who have a driving curiosity are modelling a characteristic that has always been key to learning, and is likely to be even more so in the future. This is a particularly contagious quality and rubs off on pupils – they become equally curious about their surroundings and why things are the way they are, and want to find out more for themselves. 1

Finds out

Asks direct questions to get a first-hand understanding of what is going on.

2

Digs deeper

Gets to the root of things by asking incisive questions. Goes beyond the obvious questions.

3

Gathers information Gathers information or resources from a range of sources, for a specific purpose. Does in-depth research to find out about a particular topic or issue.

4

Uses own systems Systematically gathers and stores information, day by day, that will be relevant to teaching or learning, or to the school.

This scale develops on the basis of the amount of effort being spent on gathering information. At the lowest levels this characteristic is shown by the teacher personally investigating. Level 3 is demonstrated through a range of sources being tapped for specific information. The highest level shows more systematic and regular gathering of information

Initiative The drive to act now to anticipate and pre-empt events Core question Does the teacher have a bias for action, and does he or she think ahead to anticipate and act on future needs and opportunities?

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Why it matters In addition to the careful planning of mainstream lessons and programmes of work, effective teachers think ahead. This enriches the curriculum and makes learning relevant and coherent, and enables planning of special events, or being able to tie in programmes of work with local, national or world events. Technology is reshaping future teaching and learning methods, and effective teachers think ahead to take advantage of opportunities this and other developments provide. They are ahead of the game, so they can make lessons and programmes of work relevant to the way life will be for pupils after they leave school. The ability to act immediately and decisively is important – to give and take in a hectic, fast-moving school environment with pupils who are lively and energetic; to deal with problems before they escalate; and to seize opportunities. Alert, action-oriented teachers stand out, and they command respect with colleagues as well as pupils.

1

Seizes opportunities and sorts out problems Acts immediately to seize opportunities as they occur and to tackle problems.

2

Acts decisively

Is decisive in a crisis situation. Defuses potential conflicts before they escalate.

3

Thinks and acts ahead

Thinks and acts ahead of time, to seize an opportunity or to sort out a problem.

4

Prepares for future opportunities Anticipates and prepares for possible problems or opportunities that are not obvious to others. Takes action to create an opportunity or to avoid a future problem.

The first two levels show immediate action in relation to opportunities, problems and crises. The higher levels show initiative being demonstrated within a progressively longer time horizon.

LEADING Flexibility The ability and willingness to adapt to the needs of a situation and change tactic Core question Can the teacher be flexible and adapt to meet changing circumstances?

Why it matters Getting the best for pupils means being open-minded about new approaches and being prepared to try things out. Pupils in any one class have a range of abilities, and learn in a variety of ways. Effective teachers differentiate their teaching so that all pupils learn in the lesson. This requires teachers to draw on a range of teaching techniques and to match these to the needs of pupils and of the situation. Flexibility is also one way of obtaining value from experiential learning, so that real and unpredictable material, especially material which pupils bring with them into the class, can be used fruitfully.

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Spontaneity generates vitality in learning, helps to make it enjoyable, and may help the growth of creative and imaginative approaches to problem-solving.

1

Keeps an open mind Expresses willingness to try out new ideas and approaches. Accepts that others have a point of view.

2

Adapts procedures

Makes sensible alterations to normal classroom procedures when the situation demands it, to achieve an objective.

3

Changes tack

Reacts to pupil responses, and changes what they are doing if an approach is not working, drawing fluently on a range of approaches and teaching techniques to do so. Takes advantage of unexpected events and weaves them into the lesson. Deviates from a lesson plan to pursue a warmth of interest that arises in a learning situation.

This scale develops according to the scope of the changes being made. At the lowest level this characteristic is expressed through keeping an open mind. The next level indicates an ability to adapt procedures when this is needed. The highest level shows an ability to change a planned approach in response to a situation or pupil responses and interest.

Holding people accountable The drive and ability to set clear expectations and parameters and to hold others accountable for performance Core question Does the teacher set out clear expectations for others and hold people accountable for performance?

Why it matters Stating expectations and defining boundaries are needed in order to focus learning and minimise distraction. Clarifying accountability builds a sense of community with shared norms of behaviour. Clear and predictable routines create safety and security. Being clear about expectations, and contracting with pupils or colleagues in relation to their behaviour and performance, helps individuals to take responsibility and be accountable for themselves and their actions. It is an essential part of enabling pupils to gain a clear understanding about what return they will get from their efforts, and to appreciate what will and will not happen as a result of the actions they choose to take. When performance is not up to expectations, effective teachers act quickly and capably to achieve the high standards they set. This means that problems can be addressed while performance is recoverable.

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1

Makes expectations clear Says clearly what behaviour and what standards of work are expected from pupils and colleagues. Contracts with pupils what they can expect from him or her as a teacher. Is crystal clear about what is to be achieved.

2

Sets boundaries

Sets clear limits and boundaries for behaviour and what can and cannot be done, in order to support learning.

3

Demands performance

Holds pupils and others accountable for what they have undertaken to do. Challenges them to meet agreed standards, and tells them when work is not good enough.

4

Confronts poor performance

Acts when pupils or colleagues do not work to the required standard, and takes steps accordingly. Having confronted poor performance, takes timely and decisive action to ensure performance recovery.

This scale develops on the basis of the firmness with which the teacher holds others to standards. The lower levels are about making expectations and parameters, and accountability, clear. The higher levels are demonstrated when others need to be challenged to deliver what they agreed to do.

Managing pupils The drive and the ability to provide clear direction to pupils, and to enthuse and motivate them Core question Does the teacher manage pupils to work together effectively and achieve high levels of performance?

Why it matters This characteristic is key amongst all the characteristics in the model in creating a climate in the classroom, and in the wider school community, that drives improved outcomes in terms of pupil attainment and their spiritual, moral and cultural development. This is because managing pupils well creates clarity about direction, and emphasises standards and performance improvement, two key drivers for raising achievement. This direct, causal link with performance is a measure of the teacher’s success in motivating pupils. It matters because it generates and focuses the extra effort everyone can bring.

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1

Gets pupils on task Quickly gets pupils on task, beginning lessons by stating learning objectives. Recaps and summarises points covered. Provides clear instructions about tasks and focuses pupils’ attention.

2

Keeps pupils informed

Makes sure pupils understand why they are doing something. Describes how the activity fits into a programme of work. Keeps pupils up to date by providing information and feedback on progress.

3

Makes every class effective

Consistently makes any class or group effective by getting the right pupils working together on appropriate things. Removes barriers which are preventing the class or groups working effectively together.

4

Takes actions on behalf of the class

Speaks positively about the class to others and builds up its image. Goes out of his or her way to obtain the extra materials and resources the class, group or team needs: for example, by engaging the support of parents, the community or commercial organisations.

5

Takes the role of leader Ensures the class and groups fully achieve their objectives at all times. Fully motivates every pupil and gets everyone wholly involved in achieving what needs doing. Always establishes a positive, upbeat atmosphere and takes pupils forward together.

This scale develops on the basis of the strength and completeness with which the teacher takes on the role of managing. At the lower levels this is shown by clearly conveying what needs to be done by pupils and why, providing information and feedback that they need. The scale develops with the teacher tackling obstacles to pupils’ working together effectively. The fourth level is about building up the image or reputation of the class with others and also taking care of the class by getting additional resources. The highest level is shown by the sustained provision of motivating climate for all pupils.

Passion for learning The drive and an ability to support pupils in their learning, and to help them become confident and independent learners Core question Does the teacher demonstrate a passion for helping pupils to learn, and act to facilitate this?

Why it matters Having a deep drive to help pupils learn, and to develop in them a repertoire of learning skills and strategies, means the emphasis and endeavour in the classroom is targeted on pupils’ learning development. The degree of energy behind this characteristic is significant in ensuring that every pupil is supported in his or her learning. Effective teaching to enable learning at the basic level is about providing a rich learning environment to begin with, which accesses and appeals to the different ways pupils learn. Clear explanations and demonstrations are used to introduce new material and ideas to pupils, and to help them see the standards they should be aiming for in their work. Supported practice – guidance for pupils as they explore new content, or skills and approaches - is key, so that pupils can try things out for themselves and embed learning. Effectiveness at this level is

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about successfully differentiating and layering teaching, so all pupils have an opportunity to progress. Enabling all pupils to progress, or to make leaps and bounds in their learning, and consolidate and internalise concepts at a deep level is a further level of sophistication. It matters because it progressively builds a basis for broad and deep understanding by the pupil. Teachers who equip pupils with independent learning skills enable them to become lifelong learners, able to respond positively to the challenges of a rapidly changing world.

1

Creates a learning environment Makes effective use of a range of learning stimuli and experiences which appeal to the different ways pupils learn. Makes the classroom attractive, comfortable, and stimulating as a space.

2

Shows how Gives a clear teaching input about a subject. Demonstrates how something is done. Shows what success looks like. Asks questions to encourage pupils to participate and to check understanding.

3

Supports practice

Provides all pupils with relevant and stimulating opportunities to practise, take on and internalise new knowledge and skills, at a level appropriate to them as individuals and recognising learning style preferences. Gives individual encouragement and support, especially when pupils have difficulties. Uses a repertoire of questions to engage pupils and extend their learning.

4

Drives for understanding

Gets pupils to work out answers for themselves by asking challenging and appropriate questions. Gives individualised formative feedback, to get pupils thinking and making breakthroughs in their understanding. Uses approaches which lead pupils to have their own insights, and which allow pupils to understand for themselves.

5

Motivates pupils to learn independently Continuously provides pupils with opportunities to experience learning as enjoyable and satisfying, to increase their self-motivation. Consistently provides a range of opportunities for pupils to direct their own learning; provides independent learning options, and enables pupils to access these. Encourages self- and peer-evaluation. Builds pupils’ capacity to question themselves.

This scale is developed on the basis of the extent to which the teacher seeks to ignite a desire to learn in the pupil. At the lowest level it is about creating a space which is conducive to learning. Levels 2 and 3 are about giving clear teaching input and demonstrations, and providing differentiated opportunities for practice. Progressively, , the teacher moves away from centre stage, making fewer, but highly targeted, interventions to support learning. The higher levels are about developing independent learning and motivation in pupils.

RELATING TO OTHERS Impact and influence The ability and the drive to produce positive outcomes by impressing and influencing others Core question Does the teacher use vivid actions and deliberate influencing strategies to persuade pupils and other adults to produce desired outcomes?

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Why it matters Influencing is fundamental to creating an environment where pupils feel motivated to learn. It enhances engagement with learning. It is needed to make learning vivid and fun, and to create not just memorable lessons but also memorable years for pupils. Enthusiasm for a subject or specialism drives teachers to encourage pupils to share their passion for it. Consequently they will find ways to put it across in an appealing way. Effective teachers calculate lesson content so that it is intellectually stimulating and challenging, as well as offering plenty of variety, so that pupils enjoy learning and want to be there. The ability to influence is also important when pupils are finding the going tough, when they experience a setback, or when they are flagging. Here creativity really helps; and having a range of teaching techniques and knowing when to use them is critical. It is critical for all teachers, particularly those in leadership roles, to be able to influence others. To do this they draw on an understanding of, and sensitivity to, the politics of the school. Successful influencing is particularly important in dealing with parents. It is also critical in influencing colleagues to work together in achieving optimal learning outcomes.

1

Uses logic to persuade Persuades using facts and figures. Uses a logical argument, for example, to get agreement or to support a view.

2

Takes actions to persuade

Takes a number of different steps to persuade others, using several different lines of argument.

3

Calculates an impact

Sets out to make a lesson work for pupils, planning to deliver it in a way which will appeal to them. Does something that will make learning vivid or memorable. Consciously manages pace in a lesson to maximise learning outcomes. Uses rewards to influence behaviour and performance positively. Plans to make a particular impression to influence a parent or a colleague

4

Influences indirectly

Influences with and through others – including parents and other pupils – to support learning.

This scale develops in terms of the complexity of influencing and the degree to which efforts to influence are tailored to get results. The first three levels are about influencing through persuasion. The third level is about making a personal impact by planning an approach designed to persuade. The highest level in the scale is demonstrated by the teacher influencing others indirectly by using third parties.

Teamworking The ability to work with others to achieve shared goals Core question Does the teacher work effectively with others to achieve shared goals for pupils and the school?

Why it matters Teaching is a demanding job, and co-operation and support help create the positive climate needed for continued success. Asking for others’ views is also vital, to build a common commitment to change and for increasing effectiveness. Only in this way can the expertise and creativity of all of those who work in the school be maximised.

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Teamworking between all school colleagues, including support staff and others in the school community, is necessary to ensure an integrated and coherent approach that makes sense to pupils and facilitates their learning. This enhances the delivery of wider school values, policies and practices. Liaising with parents, carers and colleagues means that teachers are working together in partnership to build up an understanding of the whole child and to promote individual development. This informs the careful planning of learning programmes that reflect pupils’ learning in different areas and meet pupils’ needs. Effective teachers show that teamworking matters because co-operative effort is important in learning and later life. This sort of modelling conveys the importance and value of belonging to a community and being involved with others.

1

Helps and supports others Willingly helps others out. Co-operates with, and supports, colleagues and parents when asked.

2

Shares information Keeps colleagues informed and shares good ideas. Communicates effectively with parents about their children’s progress.

3

Gets inputs from others

Asks colleagues, parents and others for their opinions and their ideas. Asks for feedback on their own work.

4

Builds team spirit

Makes people feel proud of being part of the team. Speaks positively about the team and its achievements to others. Brings issues which hamper effectiveness of the team into the open, and supports the team in overcoming these.

This scale develops on the basis of the degree of support given to the team effort. The lowest level is about helping out and providing support to others, progressing to active sharing of information. Level 3 is shown through actively seeking and acting on others’ inputs. The highest level is expressed with the teacher doing a number of things over time which build team spirit, and tackling obstacles to the effectiveness of the team.

Understanding others The drive and ability to understand others, and why they behave as they do Core question Is the teacher aware of what others are feeling and thinking? Does he or she understand the meaning of, and reasons for, other people’s behaviour?

Why it matters Effective teachers respond to pupils and others as individuals with unique gifts and talents. Having tuned in to pupils, teachers can sensitively frame approaches and tailor materials to take account of others’ strengths, and the things that may have an adverse impact on learning. They may also identify enthusiasms or interests that can be used as a springboard for further learning. People feel valued when they feel truly understood, and when other people take the trouble to find out who they are. Effective teachers are able to use this understanding, and go on to build pupils’ self-esteem and gain their trust, knowing what is likely to motivate them as individuals. Attending to others and their underlying feelings and concerns, so important in learning exchange, provides a model to pupils and others.

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1

Is sensitive to body language Observes pupils and others and works out how they are feeling from their non-verbal behaviour.

2

Understands meanings

Understands the significance of the behaviour of pupils and others, even when this is not overtly expressed. Deduces the meaning of what others are doing when they are giving ‘ mixed messages’ – saying one thing but doing another.

3

Understands ongoing behaviour

Demonstrates objectivity in assessing others’ strengths and weaknesses and is able to assess these accurately. Makes sense of the reasons for someone’s ongoing patterns of behaviour.

This scale develops on the basis of how thoroughly the teacher understands the individual. At the basic level this characteristic is expressed in understanding others’ non-verbal behaviour on any one occasion. Level 2 goes deeper, because the teacher understands the significance of behaviour when it is difficult to do so. Level 3 is demonstrated through an understanding of patterns in others’ ongoing behaviour.

Key Matrix showing levels of characteristics demonstrated in the roles

Characteristics

Challenge and support Confidence Creating trust Respect for others Analytical thinking Conceptual thinking Drive for improvement Information-seeking Initiative Flexibility Holding people accountable Managing pupils Passion for learning Impact and influence Teamworking Understanding others

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Main Grade

Threshold

Outstanding

2 2 2 3 2 2 2 1 2 2 2 2 3 2 3 2

3 3 3 3 2 2 3 2 3 3 3 3 3 3 4 3

3 4 3 4 3 3 4 4 3 3 4 4 4 4 4 3


Interview probes for specific characteristics

Professionalism Challenge and support

Tell me about a time when you fought for your pupils’ best interests

Confidence

Tell me about a time when you took on a big new challenge

Creating trust

Tell me about a time when you stood up for your beliefs or point of view in the face of challenge

Respect for others

Tell me about a time when you showed respect for others who had a different perspective

Thinking Analytical thinking

Tell me about a time when you were confronted by a complex situation that you solved

Conceptual thinking

Tell me about a time when you explained to others a complex situation to help them understand

Planning and Setting Expectations Drive for Improvement

Tell me about a time when you found a better way to do something

Information-seeking

Tell me about a time when you investigated or researched a problem

Initiative

Tell me about a time when you acted ahead of time to deal with a problem or seize an opportunity

Leading Flexibility

Tell me about a time when you made a real change in the way you teach

Holding people accountable

Tell me about a time when you confronted or dealt with poor performance

Managing pupils

Tell me about a time when you built a rapport with a difficult class

Passion for learning

Tell me about a time when a group of your pupils really took flight as independent learners

Relating to Others Impact and Influence

Tell me about a time when you persuaded others to take a specific course of action

Teamworking

Tell me about a time at work when you worked in a team to achieve a common goal

Understanding others

Tell me about a time when you spotted a colleague or pupil who needed help but was reluctant to ask

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Practical 2 Observation schedule for teaching skills

HANDOUT 1

Logistics: Candidate name Observer name Date of observation Start time Finish time Lesson information: Year group Subject Key stage Grouping (please tick) Grouped by age

Mixed ability, no ability groups

Ability groups in mixed ability class

Setted for this subject class

Banded for range of subjects

Other

© 2004 RoutledgeFalmer

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This page may be photocopied for use within the purchasing institution only

O B S E R V AT I O N O F T E A C H I N G S K I L L S

Time

Activity (code) Plus full notes about what’s

No. of pupils on task

happening in the classroom

(every 5 minutes)

HANDOUT 1 (continued)

Total no. in class

Activity code: TOTAL

TOTAL

MINUTES

MINUTES

1 = Whole class interactive

5 = Classroom management

2 = Whole class lecture

6 = Testing/assessment

3 = Individual work

7 = Transition between

4 = Collaborative group work


activities


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Teaching skills assessment Six-point scale: na = Not appropriate in this class

3 = Some evidence seen in this class

1 = No evidence seen in this class

4 = (Somewhere between points 3 & 5)

2 = (Somewhere between points 1 & 3)

5 = Considerable evidence seen in this class

High expectations:

na 1 2 3 4

5

na 1 2 3 4

5

na 1 2 3 4

5

na 1 2 3 4

5

Does the teacher encourage high standards of (tick all which apply) effort? accuracy? presentation? Does the teacher use differentiation appropriately to challenge all pupils in the class? Does the teacher vary motivational strategies for different individuals? Does the teacher provide opportunities for students to take responsibility for their own learning? Does the teacher draw on pupil experiences or ideas relevant to the lesson? Planning: Does the teacher communicate a clear plan and objectives for the lesson at the start of the lesson? Does the teacher have the necessary materials and resources ready for the class? Does the teacher link lesson objectives to the National Curriculum? Does the teacher review what pupils have learned at the end of the lesson? Methods and strategies: Does the teacher involve all pupils in the lesson? Does the teacher use a variety of activities/learning methods? Does the teacher apply teaching methods appropriate to the National Curriculum objectives? Does the teacher use a variety of questioning techniques to probe pupils’ knowledge and understanding? Does the teacher encourage pupils to use a variety of problem-solving techniques? Pupil management/discipline: Does the teacher keep the pupils on task throughout the lesson? Does the teacher correct bad behaviour immediately? Does the teacher praise good achievement and effort? Does the teacher treat different children fairly? Does the teacher manage non-pupils (support teachers/staff) well? © 2004 RoutledgeFalmer

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Time and resource management:

na 1 2 3 4

5

na 1 2 3 4

5

na 1 2 3 4

5

Does the teacher structure the lesson to use the time available well? Does the lesson last for the planned time? Are appropriate learning resources used to enhance pupils’ opportunities? Does the teacher use an appropriate pace? Does the teacher allocate his/her time fairly amongst pupils? Assessment: Does the teacher focus on (tick all which apply) understanding and meaning? factual memory? skills mastery?


applications in real-life settings? Does the teacher use tests, competitions etc. to assess understanding? Does the teacher recognise misconceptions and clear them up? Is there evidence of pupils’ written work having been marked or otherwise assessed? Does the teacher encourage pupils to do better next time? Homework: Is homework set either to consolidate or extend the coverage of the lesson? Is homework which had been set previously followed up in the lesson? Does the teacher explain what learning objectives pupils will gain from homework?

Pupil progression Now judge the observed lesson in terms of pupil progress. This is not an assessment of the teacher. It is a judgement of the progress made by pupils during the lesson. For this question use the standard OFSTED seven-point rating scale (not the six-point scale used above) and justify your rating below.

Grades 0–7

Evidence and evaluation

Pupil Progress

Use grades 0 or 1–7 where: 0 = insufficient evidence

4 = satisfactory/ average

2 = very good/well above average

6 = poor/well below average



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Please use this free format sheet to note down any further comments (general or specific) based on your observation of the lesson. Note whether any Information Communication Technology was used during lesson – if so, explain context. Note whether any environmental circumstances (e.g. bright airy class, broken windows, open plan etc.) had an impact (positive or negative) on the lesson – if so, explain context.


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Please use this free format sheet to note down comments based on any follow-up discussion with the teacher. The aim of this sheet is to collect information that explains the teacher’s intent behind the behaviours you observed.

What have you been focusing on in terms of teaching and learning over the past few years?

Use open-ended questions to get more information, for example: • What was your thinking behind doing/saying x, y, z? • What was going through your mind when you did/said x, y, z?

Establish whether specific actions were standard or situational.

Please prompt in the following areas, as appropriate: • • • • • • • •


homework evidence of marking use of praise disciplinary issues interruptions to class resource constraints teaching rules of conduct being broken any N/As circled in the Observation Good Practice Summary



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Practical 3 Materials for conducting the interview This practical contains the forms and materials which directly support the Critical Incident Interview process. Primarily, this means a customisable pro forma for the interview itself and the rating protocol. There are three different rating protocols for different levels of the profession. We also include a sample transcript of a successful interview for illustrative purposes.

Interview protocol This section contains a protocol to guide the Critical Incident Interview itself, embodying all the key concepts introduced in Chapter 3. It is both a reference guide for the key stages of the process and a framework for notes. It also contains some tips to keep to hand during the interview. It should be used by both interviewer and note-taker. There are five sections: • • •

A cover page with personal and logistical information A tip sheet (keep this separate and handy throughout the interview) Forms for: – The Introduction – Each Critical Incident – The Conclusion

It will need some customisation, and some information to be completed in advance of the interview. The main areas to consider are: • •

•

•

How many Critical Incidents you want in the interview. Photocopy as many of the relevant forms as required. The probes to start each Critical Incident off. These are detailed in the section ‘From characteristics to interview probes’ of Chapter 2, on page 19 and will vary depending on your choice of Free Flow, Semi- or Fully-Structured approaches. Enter the relevant probe at the top of the Critical Incident form. Whether you are recording or taking notes. If you are taking notes you will need to add blank paper to the protocol after each Critical Incident form. You should add around ten pages. Whether you are including any of the suggested questions around values and reward preferences, detailed in ‘Defining your values through the culture sort’, Chapter 4 on page 62 and ‘Individualising the offer’, Chapter 5 on page 110, respectively, or debriefing questions after the observed lesson or group exercise. The conclusion form contains space for these and should be modified accordingly.

The administrator or organiser should photocopy, prepare and collate the interview protocols, completing the candidate information and distributing to every participant in the interview panel. Panellists should be given a clear responsibility to check their notes for legibility and return to the administrator immediately after the interview (to enable coding and rating to be completed). You may ask candidates to perform the culture sort, or other similar exercises; in which case the appropriate materials should be prepared and added to the pack. Interviewers will also need to be briefed on the appropriate procedure.

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CONDUCTING THE INTERVIEW

Critical incident interview protocol – cover sheet To be completed in advance … Candidates name: Date of interview:

HANDOUT 2

Position applied for: Interviewer name: Note-takers:

Recorded?

Notes?

No. of Critical Incidents planned: The conclusion sheet includes (please tick): Values questions Reward preferences Observed lesson debrief Group exercise debrief To be completed during interview … Start time: Finish time: No. Critical Incidents completed: Additional comments:



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Critical Incident Interview protocol – tip sheet F A C T

Feelings Actions Context Thoughts

We can only use statements In the first person singular – In the past tense – Spontaneous – Concrete –

that are: ‘I did that’ ‘On Tuesday I …’ Don’t prompt! Direct actions, thoughts and feelings Including actual words spoken in incidents

Probe for this detail. Good probes include: • ‘If I were there, what would I see?’ • ‘Can you give me an example of a time that you ...?’ • ‘You said “we”. What did you do specifically? What part did you play?’ • ‘Can you tell me what you actually said to them?’ • ‘That was a good overview. Now, let’s go back and get the details.’ • ‘How were you feeling then?’ • ‘How did it start?’ • ‘That’s exactly the kind of incident I was looking for’ • ‘What did they say? What did you say?’ • ‘So what happened after that? What were the critical next steps?’ • ‘Who’s the “we” here?’ DO

DON’T

Ask for actual conversation Interrupt if you are not getting the detail Probe for intent – ‘what was your thinking behind that’ Check context – who said what, where and when

Accept generalisation Accept the royal we Accept retrospective judgements – ‘Looking back, I feel …’ Interrupt a rich incident Use the word ‘why’


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Critical Incident Interview protocol – introduction

Ensure privacy, peace and freedom from interruption

Introduce yourself and any other participants

Check that the candidate is settled / has any initial needs or questions answered

Introduce the Critical Incident process:


Unusual, but rigorous First person singular, past tense, actual actions, thoughts and feelings Looking for great deal of detail and no false modesty Frequent interruptions normal – don’t worry

Provide example or metaphor to illustrate. Explain number of incidents and length of interview

Explain and concluding elements (debriefs, values, reward, etc.)

Any questions? If recording, begin recording and obtain permission

If recording, check equipment is working

Begin first incident …



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Critical Incident Interview protocol – incident A good incident has: • • • • •

Opening probe (free flow – semi-structured – fully structured) Headline (subject – action – result) Summary Timeline (start – milestones – finish) Plenty of codable data

Incident number Opening probe

Headline: Summary:

Timeline: Date

Milestone

Insert extra pages for notes as required. © 2004 RoutledgeFalmer

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Additional notes and comments: Please use this space to capture any general observations, comments or reflections




167



Critical Incident Interview protocol – conclusion Please: Provide time for the candidate’s own questions Let them know about the next steps Thank them for their time and interest

We also include four optional sections. Omit any section not required. Values: You may ask the candidate to perform a culture sort, in which case you will be briefed accordingly. Record their top six cards here: Card number

Title and description

Otherwise, pose the following questions: What professional values guide your career and decisions?

Do you have any guiding principles or beliefs which shape your choices as a teacher?

What would be your ideal school ethos or culture, where you would feel most at home?

Or explore a relevant critical incident in more detail for their motivation


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Reward preferences (Select the most appropriate questions) What did you like best about your old school? Why are you leaving?

If money and other practicalities were no obstacle, what would you see yourself doing in ten years time? Describe a typical day – who are you with? What do you see? What do you feel like?


Why teach?

What do you look for in your ideal school or job?

What concerns, questions or worries do you have about working in this school?

What would it take to make you really want to join this school?



169


Group exercise debrief


(If the candidate has participated in a group exercise before the interview, and you have feedback on their performance) •

Recap on the aims of the exercise and your understanding of what actually happened.

•

Record answers to the following questions:

Did you feel it was a successful exercise?

How did you feel you contributed to the group’s performance?

What is your opinion of other people’s performance?

In your view, did a natural leader emerge and was anyone withdrawn from the process?

How could the group’s processes be improved?

How could your own contribution be improved?


170



Lesson observation debrief (If the candidate has taught a lesson before the interview, and you have feedback on their performance) Recap on the lesson objectives, nature of the class and your understanding of what actually happened.

•

Record answers to the following questions: In your view, was it a successful lesson? Why?

Were the lesson objectives met?


•

Upon reflection, what would you have done differently?

Did you deviate at all from the lesson plan? Why?

Were all groups of pupils equally engaged in the lesson?



171



Could you rate your performance – very good, good, average, poor – and make a few comments on your performance in the following areas: Clarity

Very Good Environment

Good

Fairness

Good

Poor

Average

Poor

Justice and equality within the classroom

Very Good Interest

Good

Average

Poor

Stimulation and fascination in lesson

Very Good Order

Good

Average

Poor

Discipline and structure in the lesson

Very Good Participation

Good

Average

Poor

Pupil involvement and influence in the running of the lesson

Very Good

Good

Average

Poor

The safety of all participants in the lesson

Very Good Standards

Good

Support

Average

Poor

Expectations of achievement and encouragement to improve

Very Good

Good

Average

Poor

Encouragement to try new things and learn from mistakes

Very Good © 2004 RoutledgeFalmer

172

Average

The organisation of the physical environment

Very Good

Safety

The transparency and explicit relevance of the lesson

Good

Average

Poor



Rating Protocols This is the key document for making decisions about Critical Incident Interview data. There are three different versions depending on the level of post you are recruiting for: • Main Professional Grade • Post Threshold • Outstanding /AST The protocol for the Main Professional Grade is designed to be a very stretching entry level standard. That labelled ‘outstanding’ would also be suitable for teachers with leadership responsibilities. The rating protocol will help you assess the presence of each characteristic and whether you have enough characteristics within each cluster to count that cluster as a strength. Each characteristic contains a description of the level expected at this grade – the criteria.

Instructions for use • • • • • • •

•

Familiarise yourself with the Dictionary of the Characteristics of Effective Teachers in Practical 1, on page 139 Review the appropriate rating protocol Browse the notes or transcript until you reach an item of codable data. (see ‘Probing for FACT’ and ‘Analysing and rating the interview data’ in Chapter 3, on pages 28 and 42) Mark the codable data on the notes or transcript Compare the data against the criteria on the Rating Protocol until you find the right characteristic If it matches the criteria, add a tick to the tally for that characteristic If you believe the characteristic is present but falls short of the criterion level, add a cross. If the characteristic is very strongly present, or at a higher level, add a star. To examine the criteria for higher and lower levels of each characteristic, review the Dictionary of the Characteristics of Effective Teachers. When you have finished, work back through the tallies and judge each characteristic on the following basis: Tally

Mark

No evidence

leave blank

One tick or several crosses

‘WEAK’

Two or more ticks or stars

‘PRESENT’

Many ticks or stars

‘STRENGTH’

There is a strong element of judgement in these thresholds as longer or shorter interviews, and better or worse interviewers, will produce more codable data and more examples. Make a judgement relative to the levels of other characteristics, asking the basic question: are you confident that the candidate regularly and habitually displays this characteristic? The table will then support you in analysing the cluster – showing you how many, and which combinations of, characteristics are required in each cluster. If this criteria is met, mark the cluster with a tick. For example, looking at the main professional grade, to have a strength in the Professionalism cluster, you must have both Challenge and Support and Respect for Others (shown by the word ‘Yes’ in the Required column of the table), but only one of either Confidence or Creating Trust (shown by the phrase ‘One of’ in the Required column of the table). The completed protocol should be attached to the back of the Interview Protocol as part of the pack that goes to the selection panel. The panel may also be making judgements on the basis of values, lesson observations and group exercises and this data is stored in the Conclusions section of the Interview Protocol. This information and the Rating Protocol should be close at hand. References: ‘Analysing and Rating the Interview Data’, Chapter 3, on page 42.

173

174 2

2 2 3

2

2 2 1 2

Challenge and support

Confidence

Creating trust

Respect for others

Analytical thinking

Conceptual thinking

Drive for improvement

Information seeking

Initiative

Is decisive in a crisis situation. Defuses potential conflicts before they escalate.

Asks direct questions to get a first-hand understanding of what is going on.

Sets own standards and measures lessons against these in order to improve learning outcomes. Reflects on what should be done better next time.


Shows they can analyse the reasons for actions and behaviour. Demonstrates an ability to think through an implication. Prioritises. Makes clear, logical lesson plans, and structures coherent programmes of work.


Acts fairly and consistently over time. Applies rewards and sanctions consistently.

Contributes positively, giving personal views in staff meetings and in meetings with parents. Gives an objective and independent opinion.

Says to pupils ‘You can do it’. Builds self-esteem in pupils by, for example, setting tasks which will allow them to succeed, giving rewards which are valued, and praising them when they have done well.

Criteria/level description


Level

Characteristic


Rank

Rater:

Date:

Candidate:

Rating protocol – main professional grades/entry

Tally

One of

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

One of

Yes

Strength

Cluster

= Just below

= Clearly above

= Target level

Required

Tally key:

HANDOUT 3 P R A C T I C A L E X E R C I S E S A N D M AT E R I A L S

2 2

3

2 3 2


Managing pupils


Impact and influence

Teamworking


Understands the significance of the behaviour of pupils and others, even when this is not overtly expressed. Deduces the meaning of what others are doing when they are giving ‘ mixed messages’ – saying one thing but doing another.

Asks colleagues, parents and others for their opinions and their ideas. Asks for feedback on their own work.

Takes a number of different steps to persuade others, using several different lines of argument


Makes sure pupils understand why they are doing something. Describes how the activity fits into a programme of work. Keeps pupils up to date by providing information and feedback on progress.

Sets clear limits and boundaries for behaviour and what can and cannot be done, in order to support learning.

Makes sensible alterations to normal classroom procedures when the situation demands it, to achieve an objective.



2

Level

Flexibility

Characteristic


Rank

Tally

Yes

One of

Any two

Required

Strength

Cluster



175

176 3

3 3 3

2

2 3

2 3


Confidence

Creating trust

Respect for others

Analytical thinking

Conceptual thinking


Information seeking

Initiative


Gets to the root of things by asking incisive questions. Goes beyond the obvious questions.

Acts positively to improve the quality of teaching and learning, and achieves a measurable improvement. Improves own classroom practice or brings about a specific improvement for the school by accomplishing something better, more quickly, or more effectively.


Shows they can analyse the reasons for actions and behaviour. Demonstrates an ability to think through an implication. Prioritises. Makes clear, logical lesson plans, and structures coherent programmes of work .



States confidence in him or herself as a professional. Refers to and draws on own experience when doing something new or handling a difficult situation.




Level

Characteristic


Rank

Rater:

Date:

Candidate:

Rating protocol – Post Threshold

Tally

Any two

Yes

Yes

Yes

Any one

Yes

Strength

Cluster

= Just below

= Clearly above

= Target level

Required

Tally key:


3

3

3

3

4

3


Managing pupils



Teamworking




Sets out to make a lesson work for pupils, planning to deliver it in a way which will appeal to them. Does something that will make learning vivid or memorable. Consciously manages pace in a lesson to maximise learning outcomes. Uses rewards to influence behaviour and performance positively. Plans to make a particular impression to influence a parent or a colleague.


Consistently makes any class or group effective by getting the right pupils working together on appropriate things. Removes barriers which are preventing the class or groups working effectively together.

Holds pupils and others accountable for what they have undertaken to do. Challenges them to meet agreed standards, and tells them when work is not good enough.

Reacts to pupil responses, and changes what they are doing if it doesn’t work, drawing fluently on a range of approaches and teaching techniques to do so. Takes advantage of unexpected events and weaves them into the lesson. Deviates from a lesson plan to pursue a warmth of interest that arises in a learning situation.



3

Level

Flexibility

Characteristic


Rank

Tally

Any one

Any two

Required

Strength

Cluster



177

178 3

4

3 4

3 3

4


Confidence

Creating trust

Respect for others

Analytical thinking

Conceptual thinking


Sets and works relentlessly to achieve ambitious targets for all pupils, appropriate to their level, whatever their capabilities; and for him or herself, including those relating to personal Continuous Professional Development. Communicates the importance and urgency for all pupils to maximise their full potential. Continuously focuses on tracking and measuring personal and pupils’ performance against objectives.

Creatively adapts and applies concepts, ideas and best practice from other schools or other situations. Refers to theories of how people learn when planning lessons and programmes of work.

Considers several possible causes for any given situation. Demonstrates consideration of multiple implications.

Takes a number of steps over time to create a feeling of community in the class or in the school. Encourages pupils and others to value each other when there are differences of view and background. Consistently and publicly praises achievements of pupils who have succeeded against the odds.


Takes on new or difficult challenges willingly and positively. Expresses confidence in own ability to succeed against the odds. Challenges or expresses a different perspective from that of others, including senior colleagues, on a professional issue, when appropriate.




Level

Characteristic


Rank

Rater:

Date:

Candidate:

Rating protocol – outstanding/AST

Tally

Any two

Yes

Yes

Yes

Any one

Yes

Strength

Cluster

= Just below

= Clearly above

= Target level

Required

Tally key:


179

3 3

4

4

4

4 4

3

Initiative

Flexibility


Managing pupils



Teamworking




Influences with and through others – including parents and other pupils - to support learning.

Gets pupils to work out answers for themselves by asking challenging and appropriate questions. Gives individualised formative feedback, to get pupils thinking and making breakthroughs in their understanding. Uses approaches which lead pupils to have their own insights, and which allow pupils to understand for themselves.

Speaks positively about the class to others and builds up its image. Goes out of his or her way to obtain the extra materials and resources the class, group or team needs: for example, by engaging the support of parents, the community or commercial organisations.

Acts when pupils or colleagues do not work to the required standard, and takes steps accordingly. Having confronted poor performance, takes timely and decisive action to ensure performance recovery.

Reacts to pupil responses, and changes what they are doing if it doesn’t work, drawing fluently on a range of approaches and teaching techniques to do so. Takes advantage of unexpected events and weaves them into the lesson. Deviates from a lesson plan to pursue a warmth of interest that arises in a learning situation..


Systematically gathers and stores information, day by day, that will be relevant to teaching or learning, or to the school.



4

Level

Information seeking

Characteristic


Rank

Tally

Any two

Any two

Any two

Required

Strength

Cluster



HANDOUT 6


Sample interview transcript This excerpt begins just after the candidate has provided a timeline for their first critical incident. Codable statements have been underlined. You may like to use the dictionary to assess which characteristics they are examples of. INTERVIEWER:

OK, Thank you for the timeline. That gives me an idea about where we start. Which I guess is at the meeting on the 15th? As we begin, can I remind you that I’m looking to replay the event in cinematic detail. I want to feel like I’m there, watching what you did, hearing what you said.

CANDIDATE:

Yes. Well … we planned a –

INTERVIEWER:

Uh –

CANDIDATE:

Oh, yes. I wanted to shock the heads of department.1 I wanted them to see that their complaints about the scheme were unfounded. I think I was a bit angry, to be honest. We were in the library, after school – hot day – and I think there were nine of us. I was sitting on the table at the front. The head … I can’t remember where … oh, yes, they weren’t in at first, but then came in at the back. I don’t think anyone noticed her at first. I was worried about what I had to say in front of her, but knew I had to do it.2

INTERVIEWER:

That’s perfect! I can picture the scene. What did you do next?

CANDIDATE:

Well … I told them to it was the best thing for the pupils.

INTERVIEWER:

Can you remember what you actually said?

CANDIDATE:

It was something like ‘Look at the figures. See, St John’s is at 36% and they have it worse than us.’ I flicked through some slides I’d prepared, showing the trend over time.3 I could see it was having an impact because some people were nodding and some people weren’t meeting my eye.

INTERVIEWER:

What made you take that approach?

CANDIDATE:

To make them see as clearly as I did, the urgency of the situation. We need to achieve a much higher level 4 and we could do it. I always think-

INTERVIEWER:

Ah! No philosophy! Those are the rules. Please don’t take my interruption the wrong way. You know the ground rules. Now, what happened next?

CANDIDATE:

No, that’s OK. Well, after I gave the presentation I sat in silence, which got uncomfortable. Then David, who’s the new head of sports, spoke from the back. It takes a lot to get David to contribute in a group. He prefers to think things through and often comes back for a chat later.5 Anyway, he said something like ‘It won’t work, we don’t know how to do that. We try that sort of thing and it never


180



works. I’m tired of watching the students at work, and not knowing what to do.’ And it was then that it struck me! I’d always assumed that the apathy was from lack of concern. That they couldn’t be bothered. But it was lack of confidence, fear of failure 6 – that was holding things back. INTERVIEWER:

What exact thoughts went through your mind at that point?

CANDIDATE:

Exactly that. What I said. And my anger drained out and I realised my tactics were wrong. I think I said to myself ‘you’re part of the problem’. I was haranguing, not building confidence. I’d seen this before with pupils – rising levels of mutual frustration, feeding off each other. I thought some of the same tactics might apply.7 Calm yourself, modify the body language (I realised I was standing, so I sat down), look for the positive and create a positive way out for us all. I said ‘Look, what we’re good at is process. We’ve worked on ‘high reliability’, we document, we track, we follow through. That’s rare enough. Let’s make that work this time. Let’s do a process.’8 And that was that really. I didn’t want further discussion in that frame of mind – we were running out of time anyway – but wanted to do some planning.

INTERVIEWER:

How were you feeling at that point?

CANDIDATE:

Phew. Thoughtful. Pleased that the obstacles were coming down, that we could start doing something.9 There was a way forward.

INTERVIEWER:

… The next milestone on your timeline, we called Planning. This was immediately after.

CANDIDATE:

Yes, this was where I put the team together.

INTERVIEWER:

Is there a time, or an event, or something that captures the planning process? That I can visualise you doing something?

CANDIDATE:

That’s difficult really. It was thinking. But I guess, you can picture me at home on Thursday evening. In the study, glass of wine. Piece of paper in front of me. I was doodling out the different steps in the process. We needed the learning support assistants fully skilled up in the new schemes and fully utilised by May. We need the teachers to know how to work with them. This meant we needed the materials finalised in March time.10 But first of all, we had to get people to think they could do it. It started to come together as a series of stages: big goal – scheme in summer terms and result next year. First step, a working group of enthusiasts. Build a process. Next step disseminate. Then write the materials. Train the staff. Brief the LSAs.11 Picking the working group was the first thing. I got started right away.

INTERVIEWER:

How did you pick them?




181



CANDIDATE:

It was largely obvious to me. Julie, Swarnjit and Harun had to be part of it.

INTERVIEWER:

What was your thinking behind those choices?

CANDIDATE:

Julie because she was the only person who talks to everyone in the school, not stuck in her department. Swarnjit ’cause he was creative and Harun brought him down to earth. They make a good team.12

INTERVIEWER:

Now, the next milestone is lunch at the White Horse. Can you set the scene for me?

Notes – codable data 1

Impact & Influence

2

Confidence

3

Impact & Influence

4

Drive for Improvement, possibly Challenge & Support

5

Understanding Others

6


7

Conceptual Thinking

8

Impact & Influence

9

Drive for Improvement

10

Analytical Thinking

11

Analytical Thinking

12

Teamworking


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CHAPTER TITLE

Practical 4 Interview training materials

These materials are designed to help you train and develop your skills in Critical Incident Interviewing. They are a series of checklists to use during practice, or when shadowing live interviews.

Self-assessment checklist This section contains two checklists to use when practising individual Critical Incidents: one for the interviewee and one for the interviewer. The aim is to encourage you to reflect on the experience and spot gaps but also to compare what it feels like to be on the other side of the desk. You felt you were struggling as an interviewer, but did the interviewee even notice, for example? The checklists contain broad and open questions, rather than tick boxes. Reflect on each, make some notes and discuss with your counterpart. Each checklist follows the same basic structure, with some minor changes to wording.

183


HANDOUT 7

Interviewer Was this a successful or unsuccessful interview? Do I think I generated a lot of codable data? Were there any significant lengths of time during which no codable data was gathered? Did I make the opening probe as planned? Did I ask for, and get, a headline? Did I ask for, and get, a timeline? Do I personally feel clear that I understood where the event started and finished? Did I understand the background, where it took place, who was involved? Did we cover all the milestones in the timeline? How often did I have to interrupt the candidate and remind them of the requirements for detail? How did this feel? How often did the interviewee lapse from: First person singular? Past tense? Verbatim conversation? Actual fact rather than conjecture or generalisation? What was the most uncomfortable part of the interview? What would I like to improve next time?


184


INTERVIEW TRAINING

Interviewee Was this a successful or unsuccessful interview? Do I think I provided a lot of codable data? Were there any significant lengths of time during which no codable data was gathered?

HANDOUT 8

Did the opening probe work? Could I think of a relevant event? Was I asked for a headline? Was I asked for a timeline? Did we cover all the milestones in the timeline? How often was I interrupted and reminded of the requirements for detail? How did this feel? Did I speak in the first person singular? Did I speak in the past tense? Did I report verbatim conversation? Did I stick to the facts or did I generalise? Was it a pleasant or unpleasant experience from my point of view? Where there any points I felt confused or unclear about expectations? What tips could I give the interviewer to help get the best our of candidates like me?



185


Interview observation checklist This checklist is designed to be used by one or more observers watching a single Critical Incident. Rather than the more reflective questions posed of the participants themselves, this checklist asks observers to quantify strengths and weaknesses. The aim is to benefit the observers during the interview as much as the participants during the feedback. The process will be most effective if observers make a concerted effort to note down examples of the points they are making, especially probes or interruptions that were particularly effective. These should be shared with the rest of the room. Below we list all the key features (good and bad) of a Critical Incident. Place a mark in the tally column each time one occurs and then calculate the total at the end of the incident. Enter verbatim examples in the space provided. Familiarise yourself with the list of features before the incident starts, as you will need to jump about within the list as each feature crops up. The far left column notes whether the feature is a strength or weakness. A review of the total column after the incident should quickly reveal the candidate’s strengths and weaknesses, and thus identify the main areas for improvement. The examples will indicate what needs to change or preserved. Participants should examine each other’s checklists, and ‘borrow’ particularly effective probes and tactics – look out particularly for those that neatly drive the candidates down into codable detail rather than encouraging or reinforcing generalisation.

186

INTERVIEW TRAINING

Feature

Tally

Total

Examples

ǁ

Candidate says ‘we’

................... ...................

ǁ

Not sure who said or did what

................... ...................

ǁ

Candidate talks in the present tense, or about current views or feelings

................... ...................

+

Interviewer’s probe moves candidate down into detail

................... ...................

ǁ

Interviewer’s probe lifts candidate up into generalisation

................... ...................

+

Candidate quotes verbatim conversation

................... ...................

+

Candidate describes actual thoughts and feelings at the time

................... ...................

+

Interviewer interrupts to remind of requirements for detail

................... ...................

ǁ

Several minutes without codable data

................... ...................

ǁ

Interviewer interrupts while candidate is providing good codable data

................... ...................

+

Interview rewards or reinforces good behaviour

................... ...................

ǁ

Interview lets a potentially rich vein of data slip without probing

................... ...................

ǁ

Interviewer puts words in candidate’s mouth or asks leading questions

................... ...................

ǁ

Interviewer talks for more than three sentences at a time

................... ...................


HANDOUT 9


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HANDOUT 10

Answers to the coding exercise in Chapter 3* A

Not codable

–

a broad generalisation and espoused belief

B

Codable

–

candidate repeats thought process verbatim

C

Codable

–

clear thought process and actions

D

Not codable

–

interviewer prompts the response

E

Not codable

–

candidate uses ‘we’. What did they do?

F

Codable

–

clear explanation of thought process at the time of the event

G

Not codable

–

this is a generalisation about behaviour. Did they actually do this?

H

Codable

–

candidate’s last statement makes this a concrete event

I

Not codable

–

candidate’s role and feelings unclear

J

Not codable

–

candidate’s role and feelings unclear; can’t tell how they persuaded.

*Figure 3.2 on page 31. © 2004 RoutledgeFalmer

188


INTERVIEW TRAINING

Practical 5 Audits and self-evaluation tools

This practical contains a series of questionnaires and their guides. These are frameworks for the self-evaluation activities outlined in Chapters 4 and 5, starting on pages 53 and 81 respectively, but can be used in a wide variety of circumstances. Each item contains a guide to use and a reference to the relevant chapter(s).

Job profile exercise – questionnaire and grid The aim of this exercise is to decide, as a school, the shape of teachers’ jobs – their balance between creativity and accountability. We have called this the job profile or shape. The aggregate of individual job shapes is the ‘School Profile’. You should conduct this exercise twice: once for people’s current experience and once for their ideal. Photocopy the questionnaire and hand it out to participants; it contains instructions for completion and scoring. Mark their scores on the grid (you could use different colour pens for different departments or groups). The grid is designed to be either enlarged through photocopying to A2 or A1 size, or copied out by hand on to a whiteboard. If copying by hand, be sure to include the numerical scales. Reference: ‘Characteristics and the shape of jobs’, Chapter 4, on page 54.

189


H A N D O U T 11

Job profile questionnaire The aim of this questionnaire is to discover your ideal job profile. It is split into two sections: •

Section A: Accountability – two scales to measure your responsibility for results and freedom to act

•

Section P: Problem-solving – two scales to measure the degree of creativity and challenge you face

Your job profile is the ratio between the two. We are interested in your actual and ideal job shape. Step one: Please look at the four scales on the next page. Each contains a series of descriptions. Please circle the description that most closely matches your job now. Step two: Calculate a total for each section by multiplying the numbers in the descriptions you have circled and record the score in the appropriate space at the foot of the page. Thus, if you thought you were responsible for broad outcomes (5)and your impact was contributory (2), your score for actual Accountability would be 10. Step three: Now repeat the exercise for your ideal job. Please mark the ideal description on each scale with a cross. Calculate the ideal scores for each section as above and record at the foot of the page. •

These scores will enable you to place your actual and ideal job shapes on a grid that your facilitator will provide. The scores for section A: Accountability measure your position against the vertical axis. The scores for section P: Problemsolving measure your position against the horizontal axis.


190


A U D I T S A N D S E L F - E V A L U AT I O N

Section A: Accountability I am responsible for … 1 2 3 4 5 6

7

8

Very Little. There are no expectations for what I should deliver Obedience. I fulfil someone else’s instructions precisely Efficiency. I am expected to organise myself to meet given objectives in a timely and orderly fashion Prioritisation. I am expected to decide among competing priorities to achieve given objectives Broad Outcomes. I order my own work and objectives to produce success in line with the general policy and values of my school and the education system Hard Targets. I must deliver clear, measurable results, which determine my personal success or failure, and choose ‘how’ I will do so. I am not responsible for derailments and disruptions from outside my responsibility Strategy. I am not only responsible for today’s results but am expected to plan ahead to build capacity for success and anticipate obstacles in a defined area. Success is defined by the mission and values of my organisation. I must co-ordinate with, but am not responsible for, the activities of my peers Organisational success. I take lead responsibility for the overall long-term success of my school, without excuses. Success is scrutinised publicly and judged against the values and targets of the education system

H A N D O U T 11 ( c o n t i n u e d )

The impact of my work on the school is … 1 Indirect and incidental 2 Contributory, providing advice and counsel but without final decision over direction 3 Shared, working with others to make critical decisions with important results 4 Distinct, a set of results is clearly and distinctly attributable to my actions and decisions 5 Primary, leading others and with authoritative control over decisions, even though others may contribute Section P: Problem-solving Thinking in my job is characterised by … 1 Following very detailed and precise rules, high-established routines, constant supervision 2 Detailed instructions, with close review and frequent verification 3 Precedents and assistance available for all situations, I have clear procedures but I may develop my own routines 4 There are many precedents and procedures but I must decide which apply in any situation. I have some leeway in problem-solving and can develop my own procedures 5 Conduct governed by policy not procedure; I’m given the ‘what’ but can decide ‘how’; I develop my own methods, procedures and solutions 6 Establishing my own plans and determining priorities; I am supplied with broad objectives and general principles 7 Thinking across broad departmental or functional areas; I determine strategy within the context of the school’s overall strategy and mission 8 Setting the strategy of the entire school, governed by the interests of its constituents and stakeholders The intellectual challenge in my job is … 1 Repetitive – I have no need to exercise judgement 2 Patterned – I can decide among clear, familiar choices 3 Interpretative – I deal with some unusual situations but by reference to past experience 4 Adaptive – I face highly variable and complex problems requiring analysis and comparison of consequences 5 Uncharted – I frequently confront the unknown, inventing new concepts with little or no precedent to guide me Scores: Accountability

Problem Solving

Actual Ideal © 2004 RoutledgeFalmer


191

School profile grid

40 38 36 34

Section A: Degree of accoduntabiliy in Role

HANDOUT 12


32 30 28

DELIVERY

RISK TAKING

SAFE

CREATIVE

26 24 22 20 18 16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2 2

4

6

8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30 32 34 36 38 40

Section P: Amount of problem-solving in Role


192



School culture quiz Here are eight questions to get you thinking about your school culture. The answers should reveal something about your institutional values. And the topics of the questionnaires say something about the different mechanisms by which values are reinforced and communicated.

HANDOUT 13

The questionnaire can be used in private or as a group. Working with a group, read the questions aloud and ask people to note down their answers. Share the responses either by going round the room question by question or working in smaller groups. This exercise works best with less than twenty participants. Debate what the answers say about your school and whether you would like things to be different. Reference: ‘Defining your values through the culture sort’, Chapter 4, on page 62.

Eight questions about culture Your biggest celebration this year – what did you celebrate? The most respected person in the school – what are they respected for? Please name: •

The first thing you notice in the school reception area

•

Something that commonly happens in other schools that could never happen in your school

•

The behaviour, in an adult, that is most frowned upon

•

Something that people regularly ‘get away with’ (things you know are wrong but still do – e.g. arriving late for meetings)

Something that people worry about a great deal Complete the following sentence: ‘We will raise standards of achievement most effectively if we focus on …’

Respectively, the questions deal with rituals, role models, symbols, taboos (twice), permissions, attention, theories of the world.



193


School culture card sort and table This ‘card sort’ exercise helps make a relatively abstract subject concrete and forces prioritisation. In debates around culture and values, it is too easy to make everything important. To really create a strong ethos, and a compelling character for a school, it is necessary to focus on some elements above others. Photocopy two sets of cards for each of the groups you would like to work with (three to five people per group is ideal) and cut them up. Photocopy one ideal and one actual grid for each group. The grids themselves contain instructions for completion. The groups should sort the cards in order of priority, debating their choices and negotiating compromises if necessary. They should do this twice, once for their ideal culture and once for the culture as they perceive it now. The groups should sort the cards on a table or desk, rather than on the grid itself. It is absolutely vital, however, that they use the exact number of cards required for each row – they can’t add an extra card to a row just because it is hard to make up their minds. Ask the groups to note the number of each card in the appropriate space on each grid. If you want to create your own cards, or substitute some of our suggestions for ones of your own, feel free. The card sort routine can be used for any situation where a number of statements, attributes, qualities, etc. need to be prioritised. Reference: ‘Defining your Values through the Culture Sort’, Chapter 4, page 62.

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HANDOUT 14

School culture cards 1 Measuring and monitoring targets and test results

7 Respecting professional autonomy – Creating a space to call your own – Perfecting your patch

13 Preventing mistakes – Making sure nobody and nothing slips through – Planning for all eventualities

19 Investing time with those who can achieve the most

25 Creating a pleasant and collegial working environment

2 Raising capability – Helping people learn – Laying foundations for later success

8 Working together – Learning from each other – Sharing resources and ideas – Investing in others

14 Taking calculated risks for worthwhile goals – Try it and see

20 Focusing on the value added – Holding hope for every child – Every gain a victory

26 Making sacrifices to put pupils first

3 Respecting authority – Providing direction

9 Recognising personal circumstances – Making allowances – Toleration – It’s the effort that counts

15 Single minded dedication – Relentless pace

21 Dignity – Reserve – Respecting privacy – Keeping a lid on it – Self control

27 Mastering your subject – Gaining expertise – Sharing knowledge

4 Taking initiative and responsibility – Participation at every level – Healthy dissent

10 Keeping promises – Confronting poor performance – Taking ownership

16 Warmth – Humour – Repartee – Feet on the ground

22 Admitting mistakes – Providing challenging feedback – Letting people know how you feel

28 Admitting you don’t know – Listening to dissent – Curiosity and humility

5 The school comes first – No–one is bigger than the school – Doing what is expected of you

11 Embedding – Evaluating – Measured reform and taking stock

17 Setting achievable goals and realistic expectations – Incremental improvements

23 Promoting excellence – Pushing the boundaries of achievement – World class

29 Keeping up with initiatives – Doing what’s required – Following policy

6 People come first – Everyone can make a contribution and deserves control over their own destiny

12 Experimenting – Trying new things – Looking to the next big idea

18 A hunger for improvement – High hopes and expectations

24 Creating opportunities for everyone – Widening horizons – Fighting injustice

30 Anticipating initiatives – Making them work for us – Picking and choosing



195



School culture grid – actual Arrange the thirty cards on a table or desk, following the pattern drawn below. You will need to discuss and negotiate their meaning and their placement. Try to describe your school’s culture now, rather than how you would like it to be. If you can’t agree, capture the experience of the majority of people in your group. When you are done, to provide a permanent record, write each card’s number in the appropriate place on the grid below. It is vital that you follow the pattern in placing your cards. You can only have one card on the top row, two on the next, and so on. This may require you to make some hard choices and prioritise. Name of group: Date: Very characteristic of our school 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Not characteristic of our school


196



School culture grid – ideal Arrange the thirty cards on a table, following the pattern drawn below. You will need to discuss and negotiate their meaning and their placement. Try to describe your school’s culture as you would like it to be. If you can’t agree, capture the aspirations of the majority of people in your group.

HANDOUT 15

When you are done, to provide a permanent record, write each card’s number in the appropriate place on the grid below. It is vital that you follow the pattern in placing your cards. You can only have one card on the top row, two on the next, and so on. This may require you to make some hard choices and prioritise. Name of group: Date: Very important or valuable 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Not important or valuable



197


School culture card sort facilitation guide If you have used the card sort and grids on the previous pages with a group of colleagues, you may want to provide immediate feedback to stimulate discussion. This is an example of the sort of chart you may wish to produce to summarise the findings. One group calls out its top three rows (six cards) from the Actual grid, write these up, with their numbers and place a tick next to them •

Other groups check if each card is in their top three rows (add a tick) or bottom three rows (add a cross)

•

The next group calls out its top three rows, excluding any cards already mentioned, and the exercise is repeated until all groups have done it.

•

Highlight areas of consensus and disagreement as directed in ‘Defining your values through the culture sort’, on page 67.

•

Now repeat the exercise with the Ideal grids.

•

Taking each of the statements on the Ideal summary chart in turn, ask each group to examine the gap between that statement’s positions on their Actual and Ideal grids. Thus, if card six is on the Ideal summary chart, each group examines the position of card six on their own grids and subtracts the number of the Ideal row from the number of the Actual row. For one group, for example, card six may be at the top of their Ideal grid and in row seven on their Actual grid. This gap is six.

•

Record the gaps on the Ideal summary chart and calculate the average gap. The statements with the largest gaps are where you have most ground to make up in pursuit of your aspirations. It is particularly significant if an Ideal statement upon which there is considerable consensus also has a large gap.

Reference: ‘Defining your values through the culture sort’, Chapter 4, on page 62.

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Example Actual summary chart No.

Card

Ticks

Crosses

1

Measuring and monitoring targets and test results

12

Experimenting – Trying new things – Looking to the next big idea

20

Focusing on the value added – Holding hope for every child . . .

15

Single minded dedication – Relentless pace

22

Admitting mistakes – Providing challenging feedback . . .

10

Keeping promises – Confronting poor performance – Taking ownership

19

Investing time with those who can achieve the most

28

Admitting you don’t know – Listening to dissent – Curiosity and humility

25

Creating a pleasant and collegial working environment

HANDOUT 16

Example Ideal summary chart No.

Card

Ticks

2

Raising capability – Helping people learn – Laying foundations for later success

12

Experimenting – Trying new things – Looking to the next big idea

20

Focusing on the value added – Holding hope for every child …

16

Warmth – Humour – Repartee – Feet on the ground

7

Respecting professional autonomy – Creating a space to call your own

9

Recognising personal circumstances – Making allowances – Toleration

29

Crosses

Gap (Actual – Ideal) 9, 6, 6 = 7

0, ǁ1, ǁ3 = ǁ1.3 1, 4, 5 = 3.3

7, 3, 7 = 5.6

ǁ1, 0, -7 = ǁ2.6

2, 4, 3 = 3

Keeping up with initiatives – Doing what’s required – Following policy

0, ǁ1, -2 = ǁ1

6

People come first – Everyone can make a contribution

6, 6, 9 = 7

25

Creating a pleasant and collegial working environment

3, 3, 3 = 3



199


Professional characteristics self-assessment guide The questionnaire and summary sheet on the following pages are designed to facilitate a team’s self-evaluation of their professional characteristics, with a view to spotting holes in the team ‘portfolio’. These holes can help weight the characteristics sought during recruitment or identify team development needs. We are assuming that it is possible for colleagues with a strength in a particular area to compensate for those with weaknesses in that area. There are two stages to the process. First, individuals complete the Self-Assessment Questionnaire. This is a rough and ready estimate of characteristics and depends upon the individual’s honesty and self-awareness. It should not be used for recruitment or assessment on its own. When people have completed their self-assessments, you will need to generate a team wide summary. The Summary Sheet facilitates this. Pass the Summary Sheet around and ask people to : •

Tick characteristics for which they score thirteen or more

•

Cross characteristics for which they score eight or less

As an option, you can also ask people to initial their ticks. Use this if you want to lay the foundations for development work, with people pairing up to address shared weaknesses, or matching strengths and weaknesses. You can also alter the threshold scores for ticks and crosses to suit your needs (for example, if you have a particularly self-confident group). With the summary sheet complete, total the number of ticks and crosses as a percentage of the participants in the group (number of ticks divided by number of ticks and crosses). Individual characteristics with less than 25 per cent ticks or more than 50 per cent are of some concern; circle them on the summary sheet. Whole clusters in which every characteristic is circled are of major concern. Mark these clusters with a cross in the final column. The Summary Sheet can then form an input to debate or the person specification. Reference: ‘Understanding team roles and relationships’, Chapter 4, on page 69.

200


HANDOUT 17

Professional characteristics self-assessment •

Step One: Considering your time at work over the past twelve months, please assess how characteristic each statement is of you. Tick or mark the appropriate box.

•

Step Two: When you’ve finished, go back and calculate your total for each section. For example, if you ticked a five, a six and a three for section one, your total is fourteen. Record this score in the last column.

Some Slightly what Very 1 1

2

3 4

5

6 TOTALS

I listen carefully, without interruption, to people and show an interest in what they say I demonstrate to people that they are valued as individuals I create a feeling of community in the class/school by encouraging people to value and respect one another when there may be differences of view and background

2

I foster each pupil’s self-esteem by stating confidence in them, setting them achievable tasks and rewarding their success I seek the best provision for pupils, striving for the best educational outcome even in the face of difficulties I challenge people to achieve the best educational outcome for a pupil even in the face of strong resistance by the pupil, parents or others

3

I am generally confident in my ability I contribute a constructive and independent opinion in meetings and discussions I believe, based on my track–record, that I can handle new or difficult situations

4

I honour commitments and promises I act in accordance with my values and beliefs (i.e. I walk the talk) I act in accordance with my values and beliefs even when there is a significant personal cost involved

5

I break problems into simple groups of tasks or activities (e.g. making a list of items, such as a “to–do” list) I think about the immediate causes and implications of a given situation and use this to plan lessons and structure coherent programmes of work I trace problems back several steps to identify multiple possible causes and implications for dealing with the situation

6

I use common sense to cut through detail and focus on what is important I use and adapt ideas and theories from other schools and situations I find new and creative ways to explain complex ideas simply and clearly



201



Some Slightly what Very 1 7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

3 4

5

6 TOTALS

I set and apply my own standards to measure my and others’ performance I make specific measurable improvements to the quality of teaching and learning I continuously track and measure my own and my pupils’ performance against challenging standards of excellence I probe beneath surface answers to get at the root of a problem or situation I gather information or resources from a range of sources, for a specific purpose I systematically gather and store information that will be relevant to pupil learning or the school I act immediately to seize opportunities or tackle problems as they occur I defuse potential conflicts by acting decisively I anticipate and prepare for opportunities or problems not obvious to others I’m willing to explore new ideas and approaches I make sensible alterations to normal procedures when the situation demands it I read and react to the needs of the pupils and the situation to make learning interesting and relevant I set clear standards and expectations of people’s behaviour I hold people accountable for achieving their objectives and tell them when work is not up to standard I convey clearly and positively the consequences of not meeting required standards of work and behaviour and act swiftly to confront poor performance I state objectives for a class/meeting, manage time effectively and give clear instructions for task completion I explain the reasons behind tasks and provide feedback and updates on progress I go out of my way to get extra materials and resources needed by the class/group I make the classroom an attractive, comfortable and stimulating space I shape individual and group work to provide pupils who have different ways of learning with stimulating opportunities to practise and learn I encourage pupils to make links with existing learning and challenge them to solve problems and understand issues I rely on logical arguments to persuade others, (e.g. to get resources or to support a view) I take a number of different steps to persuade others, using a number of different lines of argument I take action calculated to make learning vivid or memorable I interpret non–verbal cues to understand how people are feeling I understand the significance of the behaviour of people, seeing the real cause even if this is not expressed I demonstrate a deep understanding of behaviour and accurately understand what lies behind people’s ongoing behaviour I openly communicate information and good ideas to people (e.g. keeping parents up to date with their children’s progress) I actively seek opinions, ideas and feedback on my work from colleagues, parents and others I build the team spirit by making people feel proud to be part of the team Have you completed step two? © 2004 RoutledgeFalmer

202

2



HANDOUT 18

Professional characteristics – team summary sheet •

If you scored thirteen or more on a characteristic please add a tick to the tick column

•

If you scored eight or less on a characteristic please add a cross to the cross column

You may agree as a team to add your initials to the ticks or crosses. Your facilitator will then tally the results and calculate a percentage. Any characteristic with less than 25 per cent ticks or more than 50 per cent crosses is of mild concern. Circle these. Any cluster in which all the characteristics are circled is of major concern. Mark with a cross.

Ticks Professionalism 1

Respect for Others

2

Challenge and Support

3

Confidence

4

Creating Trust

Thinking 5

Analytical Thinking

6

Conceptual Thinking

7

Drive for Improvement

8

Information Seeking

9

Initiative

Leading 10

Flexibility

11

Holding People Accountable

12

Managing Pupils

13

Passion for Learning

14

Impact and Influence

15


16

Teamworking


Crosses

%

Cluster           

    

Planning & Setting Expectations

Relating to Others

%

      

        

      


203


Team social roles – a generic framework These roles and their descriptions make up an experience–based list of the types of social or informal roles that can be helpful to team functioning. They describe the type of roles people habitually fall into during discussion, debates and other collective activity. The roles are important because they ensure a division of labour and bring a wide range of perspectives to team tasks. They are somewhat more shallow than the professional characteristics as, although we have our familiars and favourites, they are hats we can often put on and off depending on what other people are wearing. These team social roles are negotiated tacitly, sometimes shared and sometimes neglected. They shape the style of our contributions (when, for what purpose, directed at whom), the areas and tasks that we ‘own’ or are left to us, our focus of attention, and, to some degree, our satisfaction and engagement. These generic descriptors can be used as a handout to facilitate a team’s self-assessment. Team members can circle the roles they fulfil and tick the roles they see others fulfilling. Where are the gaps? Reference: ‘Understanding team roles and relationships’, Chapter4, on page 69.

204


Team social roles Circle the roles you fulfil in this team Tick the roles you see other people playing in this team People, including yourself, often play more than one role.

HANDOUT 19

Critic The critic is the team member who points out the difficulties in any situation or plan of action. It is easy for them to be perceived as pessimists or doomsayers, but they keep the team’s feet on the ground. Social secretary The social secretary helps the team bond and get to know one another. They take responsibility for social events and get-togethers. They pay attention to new joiners and to people’s lives outside work. It is possible for them to be perceived as distracted from the main task of the team, but they help create an atmosphere of collegiality. Guru The guru is a widely respected source of wisdom and experience, someone who has faced the problems of the team before and to whom people turn for the resolution of imponderables. It is possible for the guru to become a semi–detached member of the team. Visionary The visionary has the bright ideas. They see connections with other ways of doing things, they hunt out best practice, they propose innovations. The negatives side is widely known: a tendency not to follow through, to measure and evaluate, but to move on to the next exciting initiative. Analyst/engineer In some cases forming a productive partnership with the visionary, the analyst engineer is the person who makes things work. They relish breaking apart big scary problems into their chains of cause and effect and implementing solutions. While methodical, unlike the ‘worker’, they take initiative and fight for their viewpoint. Worker The mainstay of most teams, workers turn up and get the job done. They are loyal, conscientious and reliable. They need clarity about direction and boundaries and become stressed and anxious in conditions of uncertainty. Joker The joker breaks the tension and brings people down to earth. Unlike the rebel, they don’t have an agenda; unlike the critic, they don’t try to reform. © 2004 RoutledgeFalmer


205



Ambassador The ambassador can also become a semi–detached member of the team. They are the ones who know what’s going on outside. The ones with the contacts and network, who are engaged in the politics of the organisation. They can represent the team’s case and needs to outsiders and bring in news and gossip. Quartermaster The quartermaster has the resources. They get what the team needs. They know where to obtain things and where they are kept. They know who can help. Conscience The conscience of the team has an eye to the ethics of a situation: what is fair, what is our duty, are we treating people as they deserve? Yes, the plan may be effective, but is it the right thing to do? The ‘Conscience’ role is often submerged, rising up in times of crisis, but if the team is consistently crossing boundaries, could become merged with the role of rebel. Rebel The rebel is the instinctive maverick and differs from the critic in that they initiate dissent. They rebel against the big picture rather than the details, they want to revolutionise not reform. They enjoy rebellion for its own sake. This may take the form of petty rebellion against rules and procedures or a grander questioning of purpose and values. Chairperson The chairperson is concerned with how the team functions. They call the team to order, manage the process and express conclusions. This is not a complete leadership role in itself – the chairperson doesn’t carry a vision, for example – but they are concerned with the team’s effectiveness and look across roles. They frequently exercise the initiative in raising topics and being people together. Shop steward Represents the views of the ‘workers’ to management – either the management of the team or those outside. They may or may not have consulted the other team members or gained their consent before doing so. They can channel essential feedback but also distract with attention to internal hygiene factors rather than the goals of the team. They are likely to question or challenge the impact of changes on working conditions inside the team. Cheerleader The supporter and enthusiast, the person you turn to for compliments and optimism. This may be one-on-one, as a shoulder to cry on or counsellor, or as a group, as the person who offers praise and is the first to agree. This role can build team spirit, but is not a ‘critical friend’.


206



School Total Reward audit Total Reward is the net combination of all the incentives and disincentives to working in a particular school. It includes pay and tangible benefits, but it also covers a wide range of more intangible and often more powerful factors. In recruitment, in particular, schools often have more freedom to vary the intangibles and so these should be a major focus. Understanding and improving Total Reward is critical to creating the sort of place that teachers want to join, and this widens the pool of acceptable candidates. It is not a quick or cosmetic fix, because improving Total Reward will require change on many levels, often cultural. Nonetheless, it may not require substantial financial investment. The Total Reward Audit is based on the analysis and inventory presented in ‘Auditing your school’s Total Reward’ in Chapter 5, on page 90. It does not, however, include all the factors mentioned, as there are better tools for assessing Job Shape and Culture, presented in other parts of the book. Photocopy and distribute the questionnaire to all members of staff, allowing fifteen minutes for completion. As the questionnaires come in, tally the responses on the Total Reward Audit Summary Sheet, which will guide you through the analysis. This analysis will reveal your strengths and weakness, and highlight areas for improvement. It will also reveal the aspirations and priorities of your existing staff members. You can cut the data by age, experience or role, and it may be of value to explore the different needs of different groups. The completed analysis is the input to the change exercise outlined in ‘Changing your School’s Total Reward’, on page 94. Reference: ‘Auditing your School’s Total Reward’ and ‘Changing your School’s Total Reward’ in Chapter 5.

207


HANDOUT 20

School Total Reward audit The aim of this questionnaire is to explore and diagnose the benefits and disadvantages of working in your school, with an emphasis on those factors which might enhance motivation or job satisfaction, or encourage people to stay. This data will feed into an action plan to improve key aspects of your working conditions. •

Step One: We have listed twenty-eight areas of reward. For each area, we have provided a range of level descriptors, from poor to outstanding. Please circle the description that most closely matches your current experience.

•

Step Two: After you have assessed each area, return to the start. Now imagine you have ten points to ‘spend’ on your most important categories. Allocate your points, in any combination, to the area or areas that are most important to you and your job satisfaction (not necessarily areas that need improving). If one area was of overwhelming importance, you could put all ten points in that area, or you could put one point in each of ten areas. Please record your allocation in the final column.

•

Step Three: When you have completed the questionnaire please return it to your facilitator or administrator for processing. Individual responses are anonymous. If you feel the demographic data might identify you, leave it blank.

Age: Years Teaching: Role: (manager, main grade, SMT, LSA, etc.)


208



Poor

Good

Category

1

2

3

4

1

Physical resources

We have entirely inadequate equipment and resources

The quality of equipment and resources is patchy and often poor

Equipment and resources are satisfactory and sufficient to the task

We have excellent equipment and resources

2

Tools and support

There are no pre-prepared materials, schemes or procedures

Pre-prepared materials and procedures are scarce or poor

There are plenty of satisfactory materials and procedures

I have access to high-quality procedures, materials and guidance

3

Work/life balance

I frequently sacrifice my external interests for the demands of the school

There is sometimes a conflict between school and life outside, school usually wins

By and large I can balance work and life

The school makes great effort to accommodate my life outside work (family, hobbies, commitments)

4

Safety

I often feel threatened and intimidated

I occasionally feel threatened and intimidated

Threat and intimidation is very rare in school

I amsafe from threats and intimidation at all times in the school and the neighbourhood

5

Support

Colleagues and pupils are cynical and hostile

Colleagues and pupils can be dismissive or uninterested

Colleagues and pupils are warm and approachable

Colleagues ands pupils are highly respectful and supportive

6

Workload

I feel stretched to breaking point by new initiatives and the hours worked

There are too many new initiatives and I work too many hours to cope

The pace of change and the hours demanded are stretching but manageable

The pace of change and the hours demanded of me are reasonable

7

Scrutiny

My teaching is often examined and criticised by external agencies

My teaching is frequently the subject of inspection and examination

8

Procedures

Rules and procedures in school are mostly bureaucratic and unhelpful

Some rules and procedures in school are bureaucratic and unhelpful


Points

HANDOUT 21

External agencies External agencies pay a significant pay fair and but not unreasonable moderate attention attention to my to my work work Most rules and procedures in school are necessary

The rules and procedures in school are necessary and often helpful


209



Category 9

Paperwork

1

2

3

4

There are far too many lengthy forms and reports

I sometimes have to complete a great deal of paperwork

Paperwork is usually kept to a necessary minimum

The forms and reports I must complete are concise and important to the running of the school

10 Reporting

I have to It is hard to seek permission make changes for every and most change, decisions require however minor clearance

There is some need for clearance in my basic job but I’m mostly independent

I don’t have to seek permission to get my basic job done but I can always get help

11 Pupils and community

Pupils and their parents dislike school and undervalue my work

Pupils and their parents have little interest in the school or my work

Pupils and parents are largely supportive of the school and my work

My pupils and their parents clearly respect and value the school and my work

12 Relationships

I cannot make friends and connections in this school

It is hard to make friends and build connections in this school

It is easy to make friends (if I want to)

I have meaningful friendships among my colleagues (to the extent that I want them)

13 Co-operation

14 Reputation

15 Attention

16 Training

My colleagues Some of my Most of my are largely colleagues can colleagues are self-interested, be self-interested helpful and willing unhelpful and and to stand in when uncommunicative uncommunicative necessary

210

My colleagues are always willing to stand in for me, back me up and let me know what’s happening

This school is widely regarded as unsuccessful

This school is not known locally or nationally to any degree

Nobody from outside pays any attention to this school

We rarely get visits or outside interest

We are often visited We are often the and appear in subject of attention the local by the national media media or government agencies

I have received no useful training or development

I have received some training and development, some of which has been relevant

I have received a satisfactory level of training and development


This school is well regarded among professionals

Points

This school is widely recognised nationally for innovation or excellence

The school has invested heavily in developing my skills, expertise and characteristics



Category

1

2

3

4

There are only a few people in this school who can teach me anything

I can learn much from many of my colleagues

I am inspired by the people I work with and learn a great deal from them

I have gained My progression responsibility and in terms of points extremely responsibility slowly (or not and points is at all) below my expectations

My progression in terms of responsibility and points is in line with my expectations

I’ve moved quickly up the pay spine and gain significant additional responsibility

17 Role models I have nothing to learn from those around me 18 Progression

19

Employability

Being at this school does not look good on your CV

Being at this school neither helps nor hinders your prospects

Being at this school is an asset when seeking positions or promotions elsewhere

When people leave this school, they almost always find good positions and promotions elsewhere

My salary is far worse than a teacher of my experience would normally receive

My salary is less than a teacher of my experience would normally receive

My salary is broadly in line with what a teacher of my experience would normally received

My salary is better than a teacher of my experience would normally receive

We pay for everything that isn’t directly work related

My school rarely funds anything that isn’t directly work related

My school sometimes funds the little things, like coffee, lunches, trips, etc.

My school usually takes the trouble to fund the little things, like coffee, lunches, trips, etc.

22 Vision

I don’t know where we’re going or what’s important to this school

The vision of the school is muddy and inconsistent

I understand the school’s priorities and plans

The senior leadership provide a clear and inspiring sense of mission

23 Integrity

I do not trust my My leaders can leaders to behave be inconsistent fairly and and capricious would never think to confide in them

My leaders are largely fair and consistent; there are some I could confide in

I trust the school’s leadership implicitly and would have no hesitation in confiding in them

24 Challenge

I am often bored I find my work and never is mostly stretched or straightforward challenged by and easily within my work my abilities

There are tasks and demands which stretch and challenge me

I regularly face stretching tasks and challenges, each progressively greater than the last

20 Comparative pay

21 Facilities


Points



211



Category

1

2

25 Responsibility

Events in the Events in school school are are hard to always outside influence and my control and the quality of I can make my work is often no independent outside my decisions control

26 Creativity

There is no room for new ideas and suggestions for improvement are not welcomed or acted upon

27 Feedback

I don’t know I receive mixed what’s expected messages about of me or my performance whether I’m and am unclear doing well about expectations

28 Variety

Work here is routine and repetitive

Innovation is rare and it is hard to have your ideas listened to

We only occasionally get to try new things and ways of working

3

4

I have control over my own work and contribute to debate within the school

I am accountable for a clear area of work, of importance to the school, with freedom to make decisions

I often experiment with new ways of working and suggest improvements

I can change the way things are done across the school, and implement my ideas

I understand what’s expected of me and have a general idea about how I’m doing

I know what success looks like and I receive regular and detailed feedback

There is often something new to try

There is always something new to try

Points

Have you ‘spent’ your ten points? (See step two)


212



School Total Reward summary sheet The previous pages contain a Total Reward audit, enabling members of your staff to rate experience in your school against the major categories in the Total Reward inventory. They are asked to rate the performance of the school along a four-point scale (with level descriptors) against twenty-eight questions. There are twelve categories in the Total Reward inventory; culture is excluded from the audit because of an alternative method of data collection. The remaining eleven have between one and five questions attached to them. The number of questions varies because some categories are more complex than others. For practicality, we only address the most important sub-categories for each major category. The following procedure will help you process the questionnaires. First, decide if you want to ‘cut’ the data by age, experience or responsibility (it is best to only do one cut). Sort the completed questionnaires into the appropriate categories and perform the following steps separately for each category. Next, use the table below to tally responses and calculate the combined score for each question. Work through each completed questionnaire, recording the number of the descriptor circled in the tally column and any points spent in the points column. When you have processed every questionnaire, calculate and record the sum of the numbers and the points (unless you want to be ultra rigorous, there is no need to calculate an average if most respondents completed all questions). The table then requires you to find the average score among the questions pertaining to a single category. Thus, the Resource category has two questions, Physical Resources and Tools & Procedures. If one scores twenty and the other forty, then the average score is thirty. You can also record on the table the total points ‘spent’ on each category. After the main table is a grid for analysis, on page 216. Reviewing the scores, make a note of: •

The best five categories (fifth column in scoring table)

•

The worst five categories

•

The five most important categories (seventh column in scoring table)

•

The five least important categories

The analysis grid contains four quadrants, plus some neutral space. For example, a category that is both in the Best Five and the Most Important, goes in the top left quadrant. A category that is Best Five but neither Most nor Least Important, goes into the neutral space of the top row. If you want more detail, you can return to the first table and note the strongest/weakest question within each category. This will help with planning changes. Thus, the Achievement category may be weak, but a closer look reveals the problem is with challenge, rather than variety or a sense of responsibility. The analysis table will feed into your action planning for changing your school’s total reward. References: ‘Auditing your school’s Total Reward’ and ‘Changing your school’s Total Reward’ in chapter five, on pages 90 and 94.

213

214

Tools and support

Work/life balance

Safety

Support

Workload

Scrutiny

Procedures

Paperwork

Reporting

Pupils and community

Relationships

Co-operation

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

Scores

Sum

Average for category


Physical resources

1


Question

No

Scoring table Points

Total points for category

Congeniality

Bureaucracy

Stress

Security

Work /Life Balance

Resources

Category


215

Attention

Training

Role Models

Progression

Employability

Comparative pay

Facilities

Vision

Integrity

Challenge

Responsibility

Creativity

Feedback

Variety

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

Scores

Sum


Reputation

14


Question

No

Average for category Points

Total points for category

Achievement

Leadership

Tangible rewards

Growth

Status

Category



Most important

Neutral

Best five (good)

1

2

3

Neutral

Analysis table

4

5

6

Worst five (bad)

HANDOUT 23


Least important

7

8

9

‘Auditing your school’s Total Reward’ in Chapter 5 on page 94 offers four categories for action: a

What are our current strengths?

b

What are we good at that we need to emphasise and improve?

c

What are we weak at that we need, and are able, to change?

d

What are we weak at that we are prepared or forced to live with?

These categories for action roughly correlate to the table above, but in some cases (labelled ‘possible’ below) you will need to exercise judgement.

Definite

Possible

Shout about?

Improve?

A

1

2, 3

B

4

1

C

7

8, 5

D

9, 6

8, 5


216



Classroom climate questions Classroom climate measures those factors in the organisation and social environment of the classroom that strongly affect pupils’ motivation and engagement in the lesson. Consequently there is a link between measures of classroom climate and pupil progress in learning. Teachers have a powerful influence over the climate in their classroom, through both their skills and their professional characteristics. For this reason, we recommend investigating the climate created by candidates during the observed lesson on the interview day. Although you will get an impression yourself of the climate, the best source of feedback comes from the pupils themselves. This is particularly important for planning development during the induction phase – pupils are able to break climate down into its constituent parts far more readily than observers, enabling the map of strengths and weakness necessary to plan improvements. Below, we provide a range of questions against each of the nine dimensions of classroom climate. They are designed for a range of age groups and you should select the question or questions most appropriate to the class. Feel free to modify the language or create your own questions. After the lesson has finished, spend some time with the pupils and record their comments to the questions posed. You may like to ask them to provide a show of hands against each dimension (it will need explaining) when you call out ‘Very Good’, ‘Good’, ‘Average’ and ‘Poor’ or you may wish to provide this summary assessment from your own judgement of the comments. The completed question sheet should be forwarded to the person administering the recruitment process for inclusion in the pack sent to the selection panel. If you are interviewing the candidate after the observed lesson, you may wish to apply the same sort of questions to them and compare their views with those of the pupils. Reference: ‘The observed lesson’, Chapter 6, on page 118.

217

HANDOUT 24


Pupil feedback on classroom climate Candidate: Lesson taught: Year group: Observer:

CLARITY: The transparency and explicit relevance of what goes on in class •

What do you think you were supposed to learn in that lesson?

•

Did you understand what was expected of you?

•

What do you think might come next?

•

Why is what you were studying important?

Very Good

Good

Average

Poor

STANDARDS: Expectations of achievement and encouragement to improve •

Was that a hard or easy lesson?

•

Do you think that teacher expected as much of you as your normal teacher?

•

Were you pushed or challenged at all?

Very Good

Good

Average

Poor

Average

Poor

INTEREST: Stimulation and fascination in class •

Did you enjoy that lesson?

•

What was good about it?

•

What most interested you?


218

Good




ORDER: Discipline and structure in the classroom •

Were students well behaved?

•

Did the lesson start and finish on time?

•

Did it feel well organised or was it rushed or confused?

•

Was it noisy, quiet or just right?

Very Good

Good

Average

Poor

SAFETY: Absence of threat or fear NOTE: This is unlikely to be an issue in a single lesson, unless you witnesses any examples of bullying or intimidation, in which case you could pursue at your discretion?

Very Good

Good

Average

Poor

SUPPORT: Encouragement to try new things and learn from mistakes •

Did you feel you could trust the teacher?

•

Did anyone ask or answer any questions? How did that feel?

•

Did you feel relaxed in the class?

Very Good

Good

Average

Poor

PARTICIPATION: Pupil involvement and influence in the running of the class •

Did you get a chance to ask questions?

•

Did you spend much time talking about or discussing the topics?

•

Did the teacher change anything about the lesson when you asked?


Good

Average

Poor


219



FAIRNESS: Justice and equality within the classroom •

Did the teacher pay attention to everyone in the class?

•

Was anyone treated unfairly?

•

Were you praised or congratulated for anything? (Did you deserve it?)

Very Good

Good

Average

Poor

ENVIRONMENT: The comfort and attractiveness of the physical environment •

Did the teacher change anything about the layout of the classroom?

•

Did the teacher use any equipment or displays? Were they any good?

•

Could you see what was going on and did you have enough space for the tasks?

Very Good

Good

Average

Poor

General Comments:


220



Practical 6 Template person specification

Prioritising characteristics For each exercise, choose the six most important characteristics. Rank order them from one to six, where six is the most important. Record the rank order in the appropriate column then calculate the total for each row in the final column. Job Shape – see ‘Characteristics and the shape of jobs’ in Chapter 4, on page 54. Team Roles

– see ‘Understanding team roles and relationships’ in Chapter 4, on page 69.

HANDOUT 25

Your Context – see ‘Customising and extending the model’ in Chapter 2, on page 23. Job shape

Team roles

Your context

Total

Professionalism Challenge and support Confidence Creating trust Respect for others Thinking Analytical thinking Conceptual thinking Planning and setting expectations Drive for improvement Information seeking Initiative Leading Flexibility Holding people accountable Managing pupils Passion for learning Relating to others Impact and influence Teamworking Understanding others Feed ultimate rank orderings into Rating Protocol and person specification. © 2004 RoutledgeFalmer


221

HANDOUT 26


Person specification

Vacancy: Start date:

Accountabilities (Main objectives of the role and their success criteria)

Priority characteristics (These characteristics are of greatest relevance to the role)


222


P E R S O N S P E C I F I C AT I O N

Skills, knowledge and experience required (Technical skills, subject knowledge, length of service, background)


Job shape (Balance between delivery and creativity) A-type

P-type

Professional values (For fit with school culture and ethos)

Team social roles (Informal requirements for fit with team)



223

HANDOUT 27


Professional characteristics (Summary of all key job requirements) Professionalism – a core of strongly held and enacted values Respect for others Challenge and support Confidence Creating trust

The underlying belief that individuals matter and deserve respect A commitment to do everything possible for each pupil and enable all pupils to be successful The belief in one’s ability to be effective and to take on challenges Being consistent and fair. Keeping one’s word

Thinking – the drive to ask ‘why?’ and to see patterns Analytical thinking Conceptual thinking

The ability to think logically, break things down, and recognise cause and effect The ability to see patterns and links, even when there is a lot of detail

Planning and setting expectations – targeting energy and effort where it will make the most difference to pupils Drive for improvement Information seeking Initiative

Relentless energy for setting and meeting challenging targets, for pupils and the school A drive to find out more and get to the heart of things; intellectual curiosity The drive to act now to anticipate and pre-empt events

Leading – directing, inspiring and motivating others Flexibility Holding people accountable

The ability and willingness to adapt to the needs of a situation and change tactics The drive and ability to set clear expectations and parameters and to hold others accountable for performance

Managing pupils

The drive and the ability to provide clear direction to pupils, and to enthuse and motivate them


The drive and an ability to support pupils in their learning, and to help them become confident and independent learners

Relating to others – managing one’s relationships and interactions effectively Impact and influence Understanding others Teamworking

The ability and the drive to produce positive outcomes by impressing and influencing others The drive and ability to understand others, and why they behave as they do The ability to work with others to achieve shared goals


224


CHAPTER TITLE

Technical note on the origins of the methodology

Although we have endeavoured to present a practical framework for recruiting, cutting corners and simplifying where appropriate, the techniques and frameworks used in this book have a long and rigorous research background. The techniques used the teacher effectiveness research, and the Critical Incident Interview itself combines a number of traditions. McClelland and Dailey (1972) established the Behavioural Event Interview which combined Flanagan’s (1954) critical incident method with the Thematic Apperception Test used for studying motivation (McClelland 1985). The coding technique – of scoring scripts for examples of behaviour – was developed by Atkinson (1958) and is now known as the CAVE technique: Content Analysis of Verbal Expression (Zullow et al. 1988). This allows empirical measurement and statistical testing of work-related behaviours. Many of these techniques were perfected in work with the US Foreign Service. Job Evaluation was established as a defined methodology by Ned Hay, in 1943. The Hay Group technique is now the most widely used formal job evaluation methodology in the world. The concept of ‘total reward’ as a force driving recruitment, retention and motivation is widespread in human resources practice and literature. Our presentation is based on Hay Group’s recent research into Engaged Performance and the research into organisational climate pioneered by Spencer et al. (1977) and Litwin and Stringer (1968).

225


Index

226

Accountability Achievement Drive Adverts, Job Application Forms AST (Advanced Skills Teacher)

55, 56 86, 89, 102 106–107, 128 106, 108, 115 47, 139, 178

Belbin Boyatzis, Richard Brand Brand Statement

71 15, 127 81, 94, 99, 102–105, 112 103–104

Card Sort Exercise Cciskszentmihalyi, Mihalyi Characteristics, Prioritising Professional Self Assessment of Climate, Classroom School Coaching Codable Data Collaboration Communications, Recruitment Community Competency Continuing Professional Development Critical Incident Interview Culture Culture, Challenging CVs

194 89

118, 172, 217 86, 87, 91 46–48 28–36, 164 96–97, 107 105 98–99, 108 See Characteristics 24, 46–48, 99–100, 126–127 See Interview, Technique 62–69, 91, 101, 168, 193, 194–199 69, 74, 75 108, 115, 121

Delegation Dictionary of Teaching Characteristics

102 See Teaching Characteristics, Dictionary

Education Reform Engagement Ethos Evaluating Recruitment Practices

2, 57 See Motivation See Culture 106, 128–129

FACT Fairness

28, 164 3, 106

Goleman, Daniel Governors Group Exercises

15 121 116, 119–120, 170

76–77, 221 13, 14, 17–18, 54, 127 70, 200

INDEX

Hay Group Hay McBer Herzberg, Frederick Hopkins, David Hygiene Factor

1, 13, 15, 55, 225 See Hay Group 84 65 84, 85, 90, 94

Induction INSET Activities Interview Day Interview Probes Interview Protocol Interview Structure Interview Coding Example Rating Recording Technique Timeline Training

69, 125 21, 132–134 116 See Probes 162 19–20, 28, 36–40, 162

Job Analysis Job Satisfaction Job Shape

55 See Motivation 56–57, 58, 60, 91, 189

Leadership Lesson Observation Lies

74, 86–87,100–101 23, 24, 116, 118–119, 156, 171 2, 108

Marketing Maslow McClelland, David Motivation

See Brand 84 15, 84, 225 82, 84, 85–86, 89, 111

National College for School Leadership Norms NQTs (Newly Qualified Teachers)

86, 87, 101 See Culture 20, 22, 125

Offer, Job

109

Panels Pay Performance Management Person Specification Power Probes Professional Development Profile Protocols Pupils, Feedback & Involvement

See Selecting Candidates 89, 100 24–127–127 60, 76, 221 86 19, 155 See Continuing Professional Development See Job Shape See Rating Protocols and Interview Protocol 23, 108, 116

Rating Protocols Recruitment Pack Relationships Reward Reward, Components of Rituals

173 77, 107, 115 See Team Roles 83, 88, 90, 94–97, 207, 213 91–93 64, 101

42, 116–118 180–182 36, 42–43, 44, 70, 116–118, 121, 173 40–41 27 40 43, 183–187

227


School Development Planning Selecting Candidates Self Evaluation Sifting Social Roles Stoll and Fink Stretch Succession Planning Teacher Effectiveness Model Research Teaching Characteristics, Dictionary Teaching Skills Team Roles Threshold Total Reward Training

228

24, 49, 79, 131 116, 121, 173 24, 78, 90, 94 114–116 See Team Roles 63, 64,65 62 24

1, see also Characteristics, Professional 15 139–154 4, 18, 20, 156 69, 72, 203, 204–206 139, 176 See Reward See Professional Development and INSET Activities

Values Visit

See Culture See Interview Day

Work Life Balance Working Conditions

97 84–85, 87, 102

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