Do you have 10 years of experience, or one year repeated 10 times?

We talked to our Director of Studies, Andrea Záhumenská, about our teacher development program, which won the prize for the best corporate educational program at the Learning and Development Awards this year.

What were your main objectives in designing the teacher development program?

The main goal was to have a professional teaching team that is able to adapt flexibly to the changing demands of the students. In the 15 years of The Bridge’s existence, we have seen the profile of students change: from beginners who needed general English for travel to advanced students looking for ESP (English for Specific Purposes).

It is important to be able to cope with challenging students whose English is at a high level. Most of our students are already actively using English and have specific needs, e.g. how to run a meeting in an international environment, present at a congress in English, etc.

In the children’s courses, not only colours and animals are taught, as the children are clever and know a lot. We have more and more pupils with different learning disabilities who require a different approach and different techniques, which the teachers need to be trained for.

How did you identify the specific needs of teachers in your organisation?

We identify the needs of teachers right from the selection process. As part of the job interview process, I require a short lesson demonstration, which not only gives me a basic idea of what kind of teachers apply, but it is also the first opportunity to identify what teachers know and what they don’t.

We work extensively with the teacher during the induction phase and then have a number of mechanisms in place, for example, DoS observations, peer observations, or progress observations. I have regular one-to-one conversations with teachers about their teaching progress, their students, challenges and successes. I care about knowing what they need, what they are struggling with and what they want to address. 

And last but not least, it’s a long-term collaboration with colleagues who have experience coaching and developing teachers around the world. I’m talking about people like Philip Kerr, Mike Shreeve, Sandy Millin. It’s motivating for teachers to be educated and to work with people whose books we use in our teaching.

How did you ensure that the content is relevant and interesting for teachers?

Because I am in regular contact with the teachers and monitor their work, I know what they need and what they want to work on. Our teachers are not afraid to communicate their possible dissatisfaction and their needs. For example, at the suggestion of the teachers, next year we need to include training how to cope with children with learning disabilities, dyslexia, dysgraphia, etc.

Sometimes the challenge is to match what the teacher wants and what we see they need. So far we have always managed this to mutual satisfaction. After all, if the content wasn’t relevant and interesting, teachers wouldn’t participate in particular activities. Nowadays, everyone values their time and doesn’t invest it in something that doesn’t make sense.

The fact that we work with top trainers who are experts and know how to prepare interesting and interactive workshops is a non-negligible factor.

What delivery methods (e.g. workshops, online courses, mentoring) do you use? Did they change in the process of setting up the program? Did you incorporate innovative practices or trends into the program?

The school has a set goal and vision for the future. Our long-term goal is to build a European-size development centre for teachers.

In setting the focus of the development program, we reflect the goals of the students, which are in fact included not only in the CPD program, but also in the vision of the school.

Currently our teachers have 4 courses to choose from: Technology in Teaching, English Language Methodology, Coaching Techniques in Teaching and CLIL. The courses consist of 14 workshops throughout the academic year. The workshops are led by external or internal trainers. The groups are smaller, with a maximum of 8 participants, which also encourages teamwork. For our trainers who are abroad, this is one of the ways they can also be in contact with colleagues they do not have the chance to meet regularly.

Can you tell us a bit more about the so-called peer observations?

They take place twice a year. Teachers observe a colleague’s lesson, give feedback and learn something new from each other. This year we have introduced a novelty. In pairs, teachers watched a video recording of the lesson and discussed the strengths and weaknesses of the lesson and the teacher, and the benefit of the lesson for themselves.

What motivated you to introduce coaching techniques into the development program?

We started working with coaching techniques and introducing them into the daily life of the school in 2017. We responded to the need of our students to improve their time management, self-discipline and maintain motivation. Mastering basic coaching techniques allows teachers to help students set goals, identify student needs, manage challenging students, as well as listen better. And active listening comes in handy in other areas of life as well. 

We have gradually worked our way up to the point where we now run an open EMCC accredited Coaching Practitioner course in English, for anyone interested in coaching in English and gaining an international certificate. Each year 1-2 of our teachers also attend the course.

What other activities can teachers get involved in?

Our one-week course in Zaježová is not only a development program, but in a way also a teambuilding, as the participants will spend an intensive week together both in and outside the workshops.

We try to involve the teachers in working together on various mini projects, such as creating e-books etc., where they again have a chance to learn from each other, collaborate and build respect and trust for each other.

We encourage them to go to conferences. They can learn something new there and meet other ELT professionals. We organize online workshops and seminars, summer intensive courses for teachers, either in Bratislava or a residential course outside the city. For those who have talent in other activities, we try to give space to develop them.Teachers also have the opportunity to participate in Erasmus+ programs, structured courses or big international projects. This allows them, among other things, to compare themselves with other teachers abroad.

And I am also very proud of our mentoring program, in which mentors work with less experienced colleagues. It’s really great to hear the enthusiasm on both ends.

What were the biggest challenges you faced during developing and implementing the program and how did you overcome them?

The challenge was convincing the teachers that learning is meaningful and without working on themselves they won’t be able to adapt their lessons as the demands, the world and the way they learn change. They have good feedback from students, so it was not easy to convince them that they still have room for improvement. It is of course crucial that students are satisfied with the teacher, but it is not their role to judge his or her quality. We often had teachers asking for a pay rise at end-of-year interviews because they had more years of experience. But here we face an old fact: Do you have 10 years of experience, or 1 year repeated 10 times?

How did you change this standpoint?

Through the so-called psychology of role models. Every year, we invited experts to Zaježová for a joint training and team-building week who were natural inspirations or even benchmarks for our team. After an intensive summer week, we continued our collaboration during the school year.

Gradually, as the teacher team improved, we were able to attract people to the team who are keen to develop and whose mindset aligns with our values. A good team can influence even more resilient individuals.

Which indicators or metrics did you use to measure the success of the program? How do you collect and incorporate feedback from participants?

Each year we gather feedback from tutors on our program through a comprehensive questionnaire. We address the feedback directly in workshops.  We also discuss with teachers and get their opinion at evaluation interviews before the end of the school year. We try to incorporate relevant comments from them. For example,as for feedback 2 years ago, we enriched the program with smaller groups instead of one large group, we increased the number of workshops, and we pay teachers for the time they devote to the program, provided that they implement what they have learned in their classes.

This year, for example, in our interviews, we found that we need to improve the schedules of teachers so that they not only have time to attend the workshops, but also mental space to process new information and reflect on implementation.

Each teacher sets a development goal which we evaluate at the end of the program. The indicator is the improvement of individual skills of each teacher, which we evaluate through regular observations, but also during discussion at the end-of-year evaluation interview. We can also track what happens in the classroom to some extent through the comments on the lessons taught, which teachers writne into the online system.

Are you interested in their feedback regularly, or only after the end of the program?

Our system is set up to work individually with teachers. I have regular meetings with each teacher, during which we discuss students, lessons, potential problems, etc. As I mentioned, we usually get good feedback on the teachers from the students. When ever there is negative feedback, it is usually on something we know about in terms of that particular teacher and we are working on it. Rarely does negative feedback catch us off guard.

Are there any quantitave indicators included in measuring the success of the program?

Sure, for example average student attendance or the percentage of students tested at the beginning and end of the academic year. Thanks to the development program, our attendance rate has risen from initial 65% to current 80%. In terms of testing, a few years ago the challenge was to get students to test, especially at the end of the course. They were happy with themselves and the progress they had made, testing seemed unnecessary. But when the teachers got involved, the percentage of students tested increased significantly.

Can you share some specific results or success stories from the program? 

It is motivating to see our teachers gradually become experts who present at conferences, write blogs and articles for teacher magazines, and run their own development courses for other teachers.

As I mentioned earlier, I am proud of our mentoring program, in which our experienced teachers work with new or less experienced colleagues. All mentors have mastered basic coaching skills. Some of the mentors are teachers who started their teaching journey with us many years ago and have worked their way up. The mentoring program is essentially a review of the entire training program over the years. Obviously we built the first floor well, otherwie this second floor would not have stood.

This year we received the MESD accreditation in Innovative Learning and our development program was also awarded 1st place in the Learning and Development Awards.

Is the program scalable and adaptable to different contexts or learning environments?

The program is certainly scalable for other learning environments, provided the learning environment is willing to invest in the development of its people. Comprehensive development takes time, energy and significant financial resources. In my experience, I see two fundamental challenges to setting up educational programs in schools. The first is the low willingness to invest in the training of their own lecturers and the second is the teachers’ belief in their own excellence.

Would it be possible to adapt the program to other organisations or settings?

I suppose it would be possible. Of course, it would be necessary to get to know the organisation or environment better, to find out what the company culture and values are, whether the employees live them and what their mindset is. Corporate learning needs the right ecosystem to survive. When we presented our development program at the Eaquals International Conference, we used the metaphor of a garden. An organization is like a garden, the owner needs to know what kind of garden they want to have and adjust the conditions, type of plants/flowers/trees etc. accordingly, and care for them. For example, if you want to grow tomatoes, you don’t put sand in your garden. Some plants will do better than others, some may not take hold at all. The garden owner, when they want the garden to thrive, tries to keep up with trends and new techniques.

What inspired you to create this program?

A lot of times the inspiration comes from our director, who follows trends and doesn’t rest on her laurels. But it wasn’t until we survived the pandemic with no losses, and even grew slightly, at least in terms of the number of students and lessons taught, that we realized the value of values. We defined what we all had in common and named our values that way. During the 15 years of the language school’s existence, the needs of the students have constantly changed. Today we have many students at B2/C1 level who come with specific requirements. Often our students are people in high level positions who don’t have time to grope around and look for what might suit them. People need results. And that can only be achieved with the help of an excellent teacher, whose only requirement is not just knowledge of the language.

We have a really good team of quality teachers. I’m not saying that you won’t find good teachers in other language schools, but a lot of times you need a bit of luck to get there. I dare to say that with us the client goes for the sure thing.

Which personal or professional experience has most influenced your approach to teacher development?

I have always enjoyed learning new things. Learning has never been particularly challenging for me and has always come quite easily. However, when I did my Trinity Dip Tesol qualification a few years ago, I was horrified to discover that my brain had become unused to learning. Although it was actively processing new stimuli around me all the time, it wasn’t until this course I realised that in order to stay cognitively proficient, one not only needs to play sport, but also strain the brain. We need not only input, but output as well. It’s not enough to listen to podcasts and video courses, but to actually implement and reflect on new things.

Working with teachers led me to coaching because I was looking for techniques and tools to work more effectively with people. I now have my Coaching Practitioner accreditation and it was worth the investment of time and energy. And last but not least, I think you need to lead by example. A good language teacher should speak at least one foreign language, otherwise they can’t put themselves in the shoes of their students. More than one research shows that managers should educate themselves if they want to communicate to employees the necessity of development.