Creating a school of educational excellence is tough. Yet by using certain tools and techniques, it can be done.
Previous articles in the Teacher outlined the Quality in Education five-pillar model. The model was designed by the South African Quality Institute (SAQI) and educators. The four pillars discussed in the previous articles were values, leadership, improvement plans and communication. This article looks at the fifth pillar, namely, tools and techniques.
Tools and techniques are used in the business, commercial and industrial sectors. Two main aims are to improve their products and service to the customers. Hospitals, for example, use tools and techniques to ensure quality patient care.
Three easy-to-use techniques adapted to the school situation are described briefly in this article.
Action research
Every teacher can be a researcher. The teacher – like the researcher – is able to observe the behaviour or learning problems of learners. The teacher also is able to take action and experiment to solve the issue. This form of research is known as “action research”. It consists of a continuous cycle of: plan, do, study and act.
Action research can involve the whole school. An example would be when there is a need to improve the maths achievements in every grade. In contrast, there could be the need to do action research to help a single learner.
Imagine a teacher who has a disruptive, noisy learner. The teacher makes plans to improve behaviour and then the teacher does what she planned. For example, there’s a one-on-one meeting with the youngster where the teacher outlines expected behaviour and appeals to his innate goodness. Afterwards the teacher studies the level of improvement. There’s progress in behaviour, but not enough…the innate goodness is deeply hidden.
The teacher then has a meeting with the unruly learner who is told of the consequences of poor behaviour. For example, the learner will do school community service for an afternoon or not be allowed to play in his next soccer match. If the young rebel still rebels, the teacher carries out the sanctions. She then restarts the action research cycle. After going through the cycle a few times, the learner’s behaviour usually improves.
Benchmarking
Benchmarking makes comparisons. The person doing the benchmarking observes what others are doing and the aim is to find the “best practice”.
Benchmarking teachers are all “eyes” and “ears” about other schools and organisations. They look, listen and learn. There are two types of benchmarking: external and internal. External benchmarking looks beyond the school gates. Imagine a school wanting to introduce tracksuits as part of the uniform. It would benchmark against those schools, clubs and organisations that have tracksuits.
Internal benchmarking is done within a school.
An example is the teacher who has discipline problems. That teacher could be helped by a colleague, who is a role model, to maintain firm yet friendly rapport with learners.
Brainstorming
Brainstorming encourages creative, “out-of-the-box” thinking. Everyone in the group is welcome to voice their ideas, which are recorded on sheets of paper or a blackboard. While the ideas are being written down, nobody makes any comments.Each idea is discussed. No idea is considered too wacky or zany for evaluation and, like cream in a milk bottle, certain ideas will rise to the top of the “to do” list.
At one school there was great concern about bullying. Here are some possible solutions put forward at a staff brainstorming session:
Different types of bullying to be discussed at assemblies;
Teachers discuss bullying in life orientation lessons;
Hold meetings with parents to discuss bullying;
Cellphones banned to reduce cyber bullying;
Suspension and expulsion of persistent bullies;
Bullies suspended from all extramural activities;
Weekly circle time facilitated by class/homeroom teacher to focus on bullying;
Counselling sessions for bullies, victims and both groups of parents;
Policeman tells learners of the criminal record consequences of violent behaviour;
Lawyer informs learners of the financial and legal consequences of character defamation and
harassment; and
Questionnaires to be answered anonymously in which learners indicate whether they’ve been bullied. If so, when and by whom. They also write about incidents where they have seen others being bullied.
Obviously, not all of the ideas were accepted by the staff. Yet action taken on the basis of this brainstorming session helped to drastically reduce bullying levels.
There are many more tools and techniques that help create excellence. When schools use them, quality improvements can happen.
SAQI has school leadership and management programmes. Speak to Vuyi Segooa on 012 394 3400 ([email protected]) or contact
Richard Hayward on 011 888 3262 ([email protected])