 
Week 4 - Local School Management
|  | I Know a Competent Teacher When I See One |
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Listing of Papers | |
DR ROBERT THOMPSON
Queensland, Australia
PRINCIPALS ARE MORE accountable these days. They are responsible for determining if the teachers in their school are performing at an acceptable standard. While education systems construct lists of competencies that teachers can be appraised against, in reality principals often use a 'gut feeling' when making judgements about teacher competence. Once a decision has been made, principals 'fit' the decision to the list of competencies on a report. Although they are embarrassed to admit they use such subjective methods of appraisal, deep down they place great value on their intuition as an accurate way of 'knowing one when I see one'.
Appraising Competence Intuitively
The appraisal strategies used by principals that are described as intuitive rely on appraisal that 'can be done really quickly' and where:
'Principals out of necessity must develop a wide range of scanning, quick snapshot-type observation techniques in order to put the big picture together because we don't have time to go in and really focus on an individual teacher to assess competency' (Interview 11, Male, Band 6).
The words "scanning", "focus", "snapshot", "big picture" and "develop" suggest a photographic metaphor which is fitting in the context of this study because it captures the essence of the 'walk past the classroom' appraisal strategy employed by many principals (Peters and Waterman, 1982; Ballantyne, Thompson and Taylor, 1996). The metaphor emphasises the speed at which appraisal of this kind can be done. Underpinning this view of appraisal is the notion that those 'in the know' are the only ones who can make judgements in this way.
'We could walk around this school now if you like and you could and I could walk, we could stand at the door. Look into any of those classrooms for two minutes and say, "what do you think of that classroom?" and I reckon you'd assess it very well. And that doesn't mean you have any prior knowledge of the teachers, but you have a lot of prior knowledge of teaching techniques and classroom management' (Interview 27, Male, Band 7).
Appraisal from this viewpoint, it seems, hinges on two notions. Firstly, competent teaching happens when "the classroom speaks" to the principal "in its own language". Secondly, that the principal has some 'device' to decode what it is the classroom is 'saying'.
These classroom 'messages' are described in ethereal terms like "the vibes" or, simply, "classroom noise".
'And a lot of that intuitive feeling is just a skill. It's like a carpenter hitting a nail in, you know. They don't probably analyse exactly what they're doing and how they're doing it. It's just a skill that they're used to. With a teacher you can see how the kids interact with the teacher. Do they feel comfortable? You can feel the industry in the room. You can feel the warmth in the room. You can feel the caring nature of the environment. You can see and feel that people are getting on and doing their job sort of thing'. (Interview 20, Male, Band 6)
All references of this type seem to allude to a conception of teaching competence that lacks form and substance and therefore cannot be captured on paper or in lists. It follows that only intuition can be used to determine something that is so elusive.
'We can measure the easy things, you know. It's a lot easier to measure the easy things. It's much more difficult to measure the harder things when you're in a people business. The people business is based on people, the way people interact and people are just so different. Different people react in different situations and different ways or in the same situation in different ways. And you know, this is part of humanity, it's a diversity I think, isn't it?' (Interview 7, Female, Band 5).
Principals using the intuitive approach describe how they make meaning of these messages although their descriptions reveal attempts to make 'concrete' something that, in essence, is tacit. Again, the language of metaphor is used. One principal uses the phrase "in-built indicators of competence", another, "a ready reckoner of skills that I can perceive almost immediately about the person". In other words, principals decide whether a beginning teacher is competent when the "in-built indicators of competence" or the "ready reckoner" of the principal match or do not match the indicators that are 'given out' by the beginning teacher in particular, and the pupils and classroom in general:
'It just speaks...the classroom speaks to you in its own language. If it doesn't then I've got to come in and depending on where the teacher is, I've got to come in as a negotiator and work through a process of awareness rating because some people don't know that they're not handling the job well. Or some do and are not interested. Then that's a whole new ball game. That's a diminished work performance thing. But let's assume that they've got the best interest of kids at heart when they are having trouble dealing with the wide range of skills necessary then you come in at their level and work them forward. Some are never going to get right to that higher level. But that's the way to start. I've got to assume that they are going to be able to further that. It doesn't take long to find out' (Interview 11, Male, Band 6).
Principals seem to substitute the formal summative report form, in the case of the present study the Queensland Board of Teacher Registration report form, for their own idiosyncratic 'report form' that is tacit rather than explicit:
'In the old days the inspectors would come in and see you for one day and give you a report and you would say, "well how the hell does he know how well I am doing?" It was not until I became a principal and stopped teaching myself that I was able to go around the classrooms and I could see how he could do it because you walk into a classroom and straight away you get a feel for what is happening. You get a sense of whether that teacher is a dynamic teacher, whether she is well organised or what is going on, not totally, but it certainly gives you a good feeling of what is going on there. It doesn't matter if you are a beginning teacher or a senior teacher. When I go into the classroom I get those vibes. It is fairly obvious. Without marking it off on a list you can tell whether their management skills are good just from the atmosphere in the classroom. So that was also something else I would use in terms of looking at a teacher's competency'. (Interview 15, Male, Band 9).
The previous statements are consistent with the idea, 'I know a good teacher when I see one, but I can't explain why' or maybe more accurately, 'I know a good teacher when I see one, and I don't see the need to explain why'.
I: You said earlier it's not a list of things, it's not a set of things.
P: Well, what I said was I know one when I see one, and that if someone asked me a question like this I have to then try and reduce it to the list that I wouldn't produce myself and go along and check and say this, this and this. I basically look at the person. I form judgements (Interview 13, Male, Band 7).
This point implies that principals expressing competence in the terms set out above understand competence as a 'holistic' construct rather than in terms of a set of independent simple parts, "that ticky box thing".
'Others might want to go through a million surveys and questionnaires into classrooms to justify what is going on. So I think we're having a clash of ideology. At the moment I think the sort of more mechanistic, economic rationalist approach is starting to dominate. I think it will be overturned because I don't think it's going to work' (Interview 11, Male, Band 6).
In describing competence in a 'holistic' way, principals use phrases like "a global picture", "a composite picture" or "a gut feeling". It would be simplistic to assume that the impressions gained by principals from this type of abrupt, informal observation were superficial. On the contrary, principals were able to give a very detailed classroom description that included visual and auditory indicators as to the successful or unsuccessful teaching and learning that was occurring.
I: You said you sense. How do you sense and what do you sense, what is it?
P: Well again that's an impossible question. I was thinking the other day, you know, I've been with the Department for 29 years and I think I've had charge of schools of one kind or another for about 26 of those years. I don't sort of go into a class and sort of start ticking and say that this teacher's got this, this, and this therefore that person is a good teacher.
I: Why don't you do that?
P: Why? Because it's a load of complete crap. You've got to learn to trust your judgement. My judgement is better than any checklist.
I: Can you tell me about your judgement?
P: Well aside from the fact that it's very good, what do you want me to tell you?
I: Is it a feeling or...?
P: Yes you can walk in. You can see how a teacher is interacting with a class. It's a composite of everything. It's her body language. It's how the kids are responding. I mean to take an extreme case. You can walk into a class and there's some poor little beggar tearing his hair out and this bloke's pegging a rubber at someone else and this kid's wandering around obviously not engaged. By contrast you go into another class and perhaps they're sitting down quietly and listening to something and interacting in a fairly traditional way, or it could be a class where kids are placed in various activities. They are obviously all on task. They are interested. The teacher is moving around. She is confident. She knows she has them under control, the whole thing is working. I really don't know that you can reduce that sort of act to a fairly clinical sort of series of performance indicators that you could check. I know that's exactly what we do these days. It's a corporate model and the corporate people pinched it off the military and arguably its not particularly appropriate for any of them [Interview 13, Male, Band 7].
Whether or not the "composite picture" of competence of one principal is the same as a "composite picture" of competence of another is debatable. This concern was raised by a principal and is captured succinctly in the following statement:
'Now we're looking at the same person. I see excellence, he sees chaos. It doesn't fit with his inbuilt indicators of competence and I'm suggesting it doesn't because maybe he needs to extend his indicators. I think that's the challenge to us all. To extend the indicators. Otherwise I'd still be teaching the same way as when I came out. I'm not saying I know everything about education I come and see something doesn't fit with my range of indicators so the room doesn't speak to me. If you don't have a range of indicators either as teacher or principal you're going to get a less effective assessment of a competent teacher and if our indicators don't match what's going on? One of us has got to adjust.' (Interview 11, Male, Band 6).
The "composite picture" described by principals is a 'holistic' picture of beginning teacher competence.
'I'm a little bit ambivalent about those [summative reports]. I understand the need for them and I understand that brevity is important, or the length of them depending which viewpoint you hold. They're a synopsis of everything that's gone on and they're for somebody else's needs a lot of the time. You've got to look at the needs of the teacher yourself and the class. Mine is much more open-ended when I deal with teachers and that. But I've still got to do that and I understand that, that's important. See, it's a point for reflection all right and that, I think, the key word is 'reflection'. They've got to reflect and I've got to reflect, "are they doing it?", "show me where this is going on". It's getting that total picture' (Interview 11, Male, Band 6)..
It seems that principals' reluctance to produce a list is not based on their inability to do so. On the contrary, "if you wanted we could sit down and we could probably brainstorm 50 indicators". However, it is more likely that they see little need to do so because knowing a teacher is competent is based on a feeling that is a "synthesis of the indicators and how quickly I can sort of sense them and I think a lot of that information is in your head".
'It is hard to write it on a piece of paper and say I use this, this, this and this. But they all accumulate to give you the feeling that this person is going to be a competent teacher. (Interview 13, Male, Band 7).
The words "feeling" and "sense" confirm that a more intuitive type of strategy is used by principals when appraising competence. However, principals do not see the intuitive approach to appraisal as being "a whim judgement" although at the same time they concede that such a judgement can be done very quickly, "I could be half an hour in a class and I don't need to come back for the rest of the year". Principals believe the intuitive judgement they employ "is better than any checklist" because it is underpinned by "observations based on experiences". Principals are "in the know" and they use "a great deal of past experience of seeing many classrooms" as a reference.
Principals find out if children are learning and the teacher is in control by walking past the classroom. More specifically, principals use not so much "the noise in the class", as "the type of noise" as the prime indicator that learning is taking place in a classroom. This 'knowing' is mainly tacit in nature and is referred to as "getting the vibes", "a sixth sense" or "a gut feeling" about the "classroom (learning) atmosphere".
'When you come into a class, the class speaks to you, the vibes in the class, the interaction patterns, the children to children, teacher to children are as one. The ethos of the room, everything's humming' (Interview 11, Male, Band 6).
However, when it comes to making decisions about beginning teachers who may be deemed as incompetent, the intuitive judgement of the principal is often seen as insufficient 'evidence' and is supplemented with more formal check-list types of appraisal. The idea that principals "must learn to trust" their intuitive judgement rings hollow in such circumstances.
Conclusion
In summary, information is obtained about the competence of beginning teachers in a range of ways using the intuitive method of appraisal, although underpinning this approach seems to be the quick snapshot-type classroom reconnaissance. Principals make fleeting classroom visits or walk past the classroom and gather information 'in their heads' and 'on the run'. They believe checklists do not give the "whole picture" of competence and informal appraisal gives a "truer" picture.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Dr Robert Thompson is the Associate Dean (Teaching & Learning) in the Faculty of Education and Creative Arts at Central Queensland University. He taught for ten years in a variety of primary schools in Queensland, was a Director of an Education and Professional Development Centre for five years before taking up an appointment at CQU in 1989. His PhD focused on how primary principals appraise beginning teacher competence.
Robert Thompson can be contacted by email at
r.thompson@cqu.edu.au
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REFERENCES
Ballantyne, R., Thompson, R. & Taylor, P. (1996). Discriminating between competent and not yet competent beginning teachers: An analysis of principals' reports. Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 24, 3, 281-307.
Peters, T.S. & Waterman, R (1982). In search of excellence: Lessons from America's best run companies. New York: Harper and Row.
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DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
Should principals rely more on their intuition in determining 'good' teaching?
Are checklists as objective as we our led to believe?
Who knows what a competent teacher is anyway?
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