In the previous Manager’s Zone entries we gave clues on how to effectively recruit for your team an unconventional teacher with huge potential. Does this mean that „classic” teachers should retire? Definitely not! Don’t let them go or you’ll lose a lot.
If you wonder what type of course instructor you need, first define the profile of your school.
Do you target your offer only at youth?
Or perhaps you teach groups of various ages?
Or perhaps you provide one-on-one in-company courses?
Young people who have a rigid and hardly funny English teacher at the school will be much more willing to come to classes in your school if the course instructor is a young, funny guy who knows how to give an entertaining lesson, designed with the use of topics related to current interests of the students.
So when is it worthwhile to assign to a group a teacher representing the good, old, classic academic style?
Let’s imagine a group of people aged 50+. A young, energetic teacher can be very attractive for them, but also too tiring in the long-run. They are likely to be unable to follow her/his way of thinking and overflowing energy. Initially, this energy can be contagious but with time the smile will turn into a sigh of fatigue. Such group will need a patient, static course instructor, whose teaching style somehow alludes to the times of their youth. But there is no reason why they can’t have for to time a class with a young native speaker who will rock them a bit.
The situation is similar with middle-aged businessmen and top-tier managers. It is hardly likely they will stand for long a teacher in whose company they feel like a parent with own child. Make sure they feel comfortable and find for them a course instructor who is demanding, serious (which of course does not mean such instructor cannot be all smiles), and preferably having corporate experience and know what business situations the classes should focus on.
The preliminary conversations with course participants will help you determine precisely what instructor a given group or person actually needs. Do you know how to prepare well for such conversations to be able to analyse the needs effectively? You can read about that topic soon in another entry in the Manager’s Zone.
In the meantime lets’ think if there are some hidden nuances behind the recruitment of a so-called „classic” course instructor. Certainly not. As always, the key to the success is to create the profile of a teacher you are looking for and come up with proper questions for the recruitment interview. The standard question you may use is, for example, one about modern forms of knowledge transmission.
Does the candidate know them?
What he/she thinks about them?
How do they combine classic notions of teaching with modern methods?
Do they use modern technologies?
What’s their approach to setting homework?
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