How do you support teaching staff that are underperforming?
Teaching is a profession that can get very tough very quickly, and it can also get very lonely, even if you have been teaching for a while, you can still struggle at times with difficult classes or changes to specifications and processes.
There are the challenges imparted by OfSTED, as well as the changes to curriculum and the ever-changing landscape of this country. Therefore, support is crucial for our teachers is we are to retain the very best. So, how do we support weaker teachers? How do we ensure that
These are all excellent strategies for short periods of time, however it is important to have a balanced approach when staff are struggling over longer periods of time. This avoids people becoming dependent on support and burn out of good teachers who are continually carrying weak staff who have no interest in improving their classroom practice.
In my experience of working with staff who are “underperforming” (relative term surely!), there is an underlying issue of not having effective learning relationships with those they teach (leading a horse to water proverb). I have coached staff in this situation and worked with groups of staff to highlight how they can enhance their teaching by planning to meet learning needs (NOT styles) as well as curriculum content. It’s relatively easy to include and always gives a significant improvement in “performance”. See this article for an outline of what is involved. http://wp.me/p2LphS-uz
*Cough*. I’m 27 years in as a mainscale English teacher (I stayed in the classroom by choice because guess what? Not everyone wants to escape into ‘leadership’) in a highly successful department. ‘We all remember those early years of full timetables’ etc – some of us are still there!
Aside from that this is a horribly patronising and sneery piece of ‘advice’. Do a term back on the main scale on that full timetable with that heavy workload and total absence of control in this post-Govian dystopia and then see how things look. And finally when you’ve done that, maybe try treating your actual in-the-classroom staff as adults – always a good start in my experience.
Hi Sarah, James who has written this post has been teaching for 16 years and as far as I am aware, is teaching full time. Will pass on your feedback.
I am sorry for the delay in my reply. Thanks for your comments, but I wanted to confirm that i am a full time classroom teacher. My current role is Director of Music, however I am still very much a classroom teacher who has the chance to support younger and less experienced teachers. I feel that I am still in a similar position to them battling against the changes that have come along over the last few years. I am sorry you found my comments patronising, they weren’t intended to be. I feel that in my career I have not only used some of the approaches that I mentioned, but have also been on the receiving end of them – and they have helped.