Non-Formal Staff Development in Primary Schools
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Non-Formal Staff Development in Primary Schools Polona Peček · National Leadership School, Slovenia Milena Černigoj · Primary School Brezovica pri Ljubljani, Slovenia Silva Roncelli Vaupot · National Leadership School, Slovenia In October the European Commission wrote a memorandum on lifelong learning, which launched a process of consultation across Europe to help identify coherent strategies and practical ways to foster lifelong learning for all. This paper adds to the debate. Its emphasis is on the importance of lifelong learning, non-formal education and staff development and how much importance we give to it in schools. It explores not only employment-related skills, but also abilities, interests and knowledge teachers gained or are gaining through non-formal education. Other informal skills such as learning how to ski or play an instrument or be a seasoned mountain climber are also considered. Non-formal and informal education are portrayed as an essential part of personal and professional growth for every teacher. They are still new preoccupations in our country, but recent events around the Memorandum are raising awareness of their importance in lifelong education. The research was done in primary schools (age –) with the help of a questionnaire for all staff members and some interviews. The results of the case study are presented together with some comments and recommendations for schools, including what should be done to promote that kind of learning as an investment in human resources, both for the staff members and for the headteacher. In Slovenia the headteacher hires the staff and is a key actor in the process of human resources investment. In October , the European Commission wrote a memorandum on lifelong learning, which launched a process of consultation across Europe, to help identify coherent strategies and practical ways to foster lifelong learning for all (http://europa.eu.int./comm/education/life). This paper will add a small part of knowledge and research relating to teaching and non-teaching staff in Slovenian schools. The empha P. Peček, M. Černigoj, and S. Roncelli Vaupot sis will be on the importance of lifelong learning and non-formal staff development, particularly personal and professional growth. The research concerned how much importance and time all staff give to their free time activities and/or whether it is possible to link hobbies with the job they are doing in schools and whether they are they willing to do this. We will not explore both employment-related skills and also all kinds of abilities, interests and knowledge teachers gained or are gaining from non-formal education and staff development carried out mainly in their free time. We will also include other informal skills such as learning how to ski or play an instrument or be a seasoned mountain climber. Non-formal and informal staff development can be an essential part of personal and professional development for every teacher, although this idea is still new in our country. Recent events around the Memorandum are slowly raising awareness of their importance. The research is based on the case study done in Slovenian Primary schools (age –). A questionnaire was administered for all staff members and the results of the case study together with some comments and recommendations for the schools are set out below. We also propose what should be done to promote that kind of learning in the schools as an investment in human resources, both for the staff members and headteacher. In Slovenia the headteacher hires staff and is a key actor in the process of human resources investment. In addition we also present ongoing research (Roncelli, Peček and Koren ) on Slovenian headteachers about perceptions, manifestations and cases of effective leadership. Many staff members in all educational institutions do not fully realise their potential. Their talents, skills and knowledge areas are often under-used, under-developed and under-recognised. This relates to a narrow definition of personal and professional learning by senior management teams and trainers or staff development co-ordinators as well as the teachers themselves. As Honey and Mumford () say, Learning is such a fundamental process that many people take it for granted, conveniently assuming that by the time they are adults they have learned how to learn and need no further assistance with the process. Non-Formal Staff Development in Primary Schools Why should employees be empowered as learners? People who choose to develop themselves have much more motivation to learn and succeed than those who are instructed to learn something for the good of the organisation. (Megginson and Pedler ). A model for the future is an organisation that creates learning opportunities for all its members and is also capable of learning and of transforming itself. Learning companies or organisations cannot operate with people who wait to be taught, who must have permission before they can act or who fear the consequences of taking initiatives. Flexibility and adaptability in both the organisation as a whole and in individual members is seen as a critical factor for the future well being of enterprises. In all educational institutions (Orlich ), and Slovenia is no exception, a present problem is to help individuals to realise their potential. Orlich (ibid.) also emphasises the importance of showing that the organisation cares about all its individual members. A balance between the development needs of the individual and the organisation has to be found. Maximising the potential of human resources of an organisation while focusing efforts on the goals of the organisation merits considerable attention. Day () states that . . . managers must provide support for teachers’: · personal (non-vocational) needs · individual professional needs (career long-term learning related) · professional practitioner needs (classroom knowledge skills and values) · institutional role needs (responsibility post preparation, enrichment). Blackmore () warns that we should not ignore teachers’ motivation; their preferred learning styles; and the need for teachers to play a key role in planning how their needs should be met. It is important to recognise the role of a senior management team in the organisation as far as staff development is concerned. Roncelli’s research about perceptions, manifestations and cases of effective headteachers’ leadership illuminates our survey. The following views of effective leadership by headteachers emerged: · an enabling professional for the personal growth of teachers and pupils P. Peček, M. Černigoj, and S. Roncelli Vaupot · cares for staff development · cares for education, continuous education of staff – individual and collective · cares for personal growth considering all needs – physical and mental ones · supports education of teachers – well educated staff – a better image of school · selects co-workers very successfully · is concerned with his/her own learning, personal development, social status and quality of life · wishes for personal and professional growth of everyone in the collective · encourages additional education The senior management team needs knowledge necessary to stimulate themselves and other people in the organisation to use a range of learning styles (Honey and Mumford ). The learning styles and preferences of individuals influence their decisions to take opportunities for development. Not many bosses give a serious amount of time to any kind of development discussion with their staff. The strategy to build learning strengths requires time and attention. Goulding et al. () point out that staff development co-ordinators and heads of departments all have such responsibilities, but that principal responsibility for staff development still lies with individual members of staff. Every member of staff is responsible for recognising his own needs and for seeking out and participating in programmes, which help him to increase his effectiveness (Goulding et al. ). Our organisations face an ever-increasing speed of technological, economic and social change (Swieringa and Wierdsma ). It is no longer adequate for organisations to react to them; they must anticipate them. The ability to change must be learned by an organisation. Learning is the changing of behaviour. The goal of this change in behaviour is to arrive at a form of behaviour, which corresponds better to the goals of the learner; in other Non-Formal Staff Development in Primary Schools words, behaviour that is more effective. We call this competence. (Swieringa and Wierdsma ) For an organisation wishing to make the transition to a learning organisation, a good leadership is a decisive factor. It is very important what management does and it should begin with the leadership at the top. Leaders must be prepared to learn. The message is very important. The first stage in the transition to a learning organisation is to ensure that leaders of this sort are appointed to the crucial positions. Learning organisations consists of individual learners. Any personal development plan must recognise opportunities provided both within and beyond the organisation. The main task of staff development is to provide professional education, professional training and professional support for all staff members of the organisation. But staff development also means providing structures and procedures to co-ordinate all the activities mentioned above to help all the staff members to develop (Peček ). Staff development needs to be linked with the reality of organisational lives and to be a part of other developmental processes. It needs also to relate to organisational mission and vision statements, goals and objectives and to be co-ordinated with overall organisation planning. Vision statements are in theory touchstone statements that can be used daily to evaluate action in the school or in any other organisation, profit or non-profit. The most powerful (Peček, ) visions are those which challenge the organisation and the people in it, it must be a clear view ahead to better, clearer and more secure future. The vision must present clear organisational priorities and commitments. It must be inspiring, encouraging and evaluative, it must have a clear view where the energy must be directed to, it must be a measure by which the organisation wishes to be judged and it must also have ideas for those, who are not directly involved with the organisation. A vision statement is something that one bears in mind and uses it whenever there is a slight possibility of losing direction or right orientation. The second step is a mission statement. It is a powerful tool for the organisation improvement. A clear mission statement helps members of the organisations decide on goals, set priorities and monitor behaviour. If the mission statement is truly representative of the shared vision of what people expect organisation to do, it empowers the leader and the rest of professional staff to take action that advance the organisational mission. The mission statement can also be useful in more specific ways: P. Peček, M. Černigoj, and S. Roncelli Vaupot to review programmes, policies and practices. In the end, like people, institutions need a sense and direction to be effective! Blackmore () believes that staff development should be about developing self-propelled people, who can see clearly what they are doing and its context, putting the individual’s development at the centre of planning. This is dependent on the context being well known – that is, the individual, preferably with the manager, being aware of what the organisation requires of the person. Those people are the stakeholders or clients of organisations, which are dealing with staff development. As Sallis () says: Education is a provider of services. The customer or the stockholders of the service are a very diverse group and needs identification. According to Goulding et al. () staff development is basically a do it yourself activity and it is also a participatory activity. Everyone is expected to join in. Warren, Piper and Glitter () defined staff development within the educational context as a systematic attempt to harmonise individual interests and wishes and carefully assessed requirements for furthering their careers with the forthcoming requirements of the organisation within which they are expected to work. This emphasises the need for the balance between individual and organisational needs. Ryan (in Fullan and Hargreaves ) developed the following definition: Those activities planned for and/or by teachers designed to assist them in more efficiently and effectively planning and attaining designated education purposes. To improve staff development in an organisation is good to explore general principles of effective practice in staff development and its management. As Oldroyd and Hall () puts it, the Holy Grail of researchers and educators is whether the increasing amount of effort and expenditure on staff development actually leads to any improvement in pupils learning and the attainment of other school improvement processes. Those general principles are: · to have clear objectives, Non-Formal Staff Development in Primary Schools · to be based on careful identification of teachers’ needs and institutional needs, · to start from teachers current levels of knowledge and skills, · offer high quality training focused on practice, · to be carefully monitored and evaluated, · to clearly estimate the price and ensure value for money, · to have support of the head/principal to follow up in practice after training and · to be part of a continuing process of professional development. The first and very important principle in staff development is to have clear objectives of staff development. They have to be accepted and agreed by the whole organisation, by all members of staff and approved by Senior Management Team. Objectives must come from the shared values and be a part of the organisations vision and mission statement. The objectives have to be a basis for short and long term planning. Objectives of staff development are also those according to Armstrong (), which are there to increase the effectiveness of the organisation by: · improving the performance of managers by seeing that they are clearly informed of their responsibilities and by agreeing with them specific key objectives against which their performance will be regularly assessed; · identifying managers with further potential and ensuring that they receive the required development, training and experience to equip them for more senior posts within their own locations and elsewhere in the organisation; · supporting chief executives and managers throughout the organisation to provide adequate succession and to create a system whereby this is kept under regular review. Those, who are more related to education are the aims mentioned by Hewton (): · to enable individual staff to commit themselves to their own professional development while enabling management to accept responsibility for implementation, · to provide experience likely to contribute to a career structure, P. Peček, M. Černigoj, and S. Roncelli Vaupot · · · · to recognise and employ staff strengths, to provide a means of identifying staff needs, to create development conditions and professional awareness, to foster the search for best practice. It is also very important to start to plan the programmes for teachers’ current levels of knowledge and skills. That could be reached with very careful analysis about teachers’ previous staff development. The current level of knowledge, for example, which level of sensitivity training, they have finished, can be deduced from their previous staff development. It seems that the whole world is in the middle of changes in education. Almost everything is changing and the rate of change is still growing. In addition to this, we also have the changes resulting from the rapid development of knowledge. A great deal of what we are currently teaching at schools will be out of date very quickly or in the near future. All this requires from people to learn afresh throughout their entire life. As Jacquetta Megarry points out in Dean () teachers must develop and capitalise on the skills which are not easily replaced by microelectronic devices. These are: human and personal skills of communication, motivation and counselling, design skills for producing-based software and evaluation and research skills to asses the impact of the media and methods. These are different from the skills currently possessed and valued by the teaching profession, and they may be distributed differently among the population from which it draws. Education in the future will demand a highly skilled teaching profession but of a different character and perhaps reduced in size. Oldroyd and Hall () say that professional education is the widening and deepening of a teacher theoretical perspectives by advanced study, i. e. diploma and masters degrees. It is fundamental that neither can a system develop people nor can one person develop another. All personal development is self-development and this take place when people use the opportunities available to increase their skills, knowledge, competence and confidence. It is the task of the heads and senior staff in schools to create a climate in which people can grow. A supportive yet challenging working atmosphere is one of those things that are easy to say, but difficult to provide. The changing nature of business and organisation demands an unprecedented level of learning throughout working life. Megginson and Non-Formal Staff Development in Primary Schools Pedler () argue that those who take on the role of developer must first be concerned with their own development. It is through understanding how I learn, and what motivates me, that I can best put myself in the position of the person trying to learn something new. Through understanding of the own learning processes one can become aware of the learning of other people. Without a commitment to own selfdevelopment, one can fall into the trap of prescribing self-development for others without being part and parcel of the own professional practice. Self development (Megginson and Pedler ) means that learners take the primary responsibility for choosing what, when and how to learn. This implies the freedom of the individual to choose not to develop particular skills, knowledge or career directions on the behest of others. Such freedom carries with it the responsibility for the consequences of such choices. It is very difficult for one person to prescribe for others what they should learn next. The developer’s task is to empower people to learn from acting and to act on the basis of learning. The key to success is setting the people to the challenge of developing a learning style which is not already a characteristic one for them and is undoubtedly to encourage them to set realistic personal action plans. Since learning (Honey and Mumford ) is supposed to be the name of the game it is bordering on the criminal not to make the process explicit and in so doing help people to learn more effectively than they otherwise would. A personal development plan is a tailor-made statement of needs for enhanced performance, with suggested activities to meet those needs. Those plans can be created in a variety of circumstances; on courses, in development centres/workshops, within appraisal an process, with counselling, with personal development discussions, learning agreements, learning contacts and within self-development. A great deal of development occurs at the initiative of the individual with no or very little organisational input. The initiative for self-development or the early stimulus comes from the organisations as expressed through a manager or adviser. Oldroyd and Hall () suggest that effective staff development should have clear objectives that are based upon a careful identification of the teachers’ and institutional needs. This should start from the teacher’s current level of knowledge and skills and offer high quality training focused on practice. The training offered should be carefully monitored P. Peček, M. Černigoj, and S. Roncelli Vaupot and evaluated and costed to ensure value for money. To be successful they suggest also that there should be follow up practice after training so it becomes part of a continuing process of professional development. Oldroyd and Hall () also defined training as the development of teachers knowledge and skills relating to daily work; e. g. workshops and short courses, usually non-accredited, but sometimes for a certificate. According to Megginson and Pedler () systematic training was an answer to the skills shortages experienced in industrialised countries in the postwar boom years. They also say that systematic training was often very successful in cutting down the time needed to bring people to the required skill levels. Trainers too often assume (Honey and Mumford ) that learners are empty buckets waiting to be filled by the training method the trainer favours. That the buckets are different sizes, leak and are sometimes upside down is conveniently overlooked! It is very important that the trainers are aware of peoples’ learning styles. The term learning styles is used as a description of the attitudes and behaviours, which determine an individual preferred way of learning. Most people are unaware of their learning preferences. They just know vaguely that they feel more comfortable with, and learn more from some activities that others. It is perhaps the most important of all the life skills since the way in which people learn affects everything else. Clearly learning is the key, not just to surviving but to thriving on all these changes. Understanding and use of the individual learning styles can contribute to effective learning. We have to be aware that adults have different learning styles (Tomič ). There is also a range of influencing factors associated with individual learning styles. The work environment (Seymour ) and situation in schools were not conductive to management learning development. People are helped to be more effective learners if they are aware of their learning style preferences. Offering high quality training that is focused on practice is not easy. The best training is also fairly expensive. McMahon and Bolam () listed a variety of staff development opportunities that vary considerably in cost: · · · · coaching and counselling peer assisted leadership consultancy private study Non-Formal Staff Development in Primary Schools · critical friendship · quality circles · critical incident analysis · self development · distance learning · shadowing · job rotation · simulation To monitor and evaluate the management and practice of staff development it is necessary to use a questionnaire or an interview. One could find out, if whether individuals have taken part in the programme, the benefits to them as a result, their views on the extent and the nature of the programme provided and ways in which they feel it should be modified in the coming year. If regular evaluation is formalised and accepted by staff, it should help to create the idea of a policy as living and evolving aspects of school life, rather than a static and inflexible instrument of management. According to Goulding et al. () staff members are responsible for identifying their own developmental needs. But the kinds of needs that individual staff members will identify are inevitably bound up with how they perceive the relative importance of the various contributory roles. There seemed to be a gap between the staff development needs perceived by individual members of staff and those implicit (and explicit) in the structures, policies and practices of the institution. The three schools are average Slovene schools, neither town nor village schools. Their pupils are aged till years. The number of staff members there is average for such schools. In the research staff members participated from all schools. Of the questionnaires (appendix ) distributed, persons did not return the questionnaire. Conclusions of the research can be summarised as follows: · Nearly all of the participants in the survey do have hobbies. Some of them could not decide which one was the most important. All non-teaching staff have hobbies; some of the teachers do not. P. Peček, M. Černigoj, and S. Roncelli Vaupot · From time to time they are able to include their hobby into their work. Again non-teaching staff are in the majority. Half the teachers say they could and half that they could or would not include the hobbies into their work. There could be two explanations. . Teachers are too strict to include their hobby into their job and they believe that children are ‘too small’ to engage in this way. . Non-teaching staff probably is eager for self-confirmation and to prove to others that they too have activities from other fields where they are successful. · Teachers have more opportunity in the schools than non-teaching staff for satisfying the need for self-esteem. · Most of the participants would like to take seminars in their hobbies but the minority still thinks that this is their strictly personal matter. There are restraints of time and money. Including hobby staff development, the consequence will probably mean having to miss other seminars connected to work. · The participants are ready to share their knowledge: non-teaching staff were ready to share with staff and pupils; teachers are ready to share with pupils, staff and parents. It is probable that nonteaching staff is not being fully included or we do not know what their abilities are. We are looking for so-called experts outside of the school, but in fact we have them at home – in school, for example, field school, skiing seminar, hiking, integrated days and glass painting. · All participants are ready to cover some expenses of such a seminar – the school is willing to aid with some money and free time to realise some personal goals of all the staff in the schools. It is important for a senior management team in schools to ‘listen’ to their staff. This sets an example for others to follow. It is very important to give opportunities to all staff members to prove themselves and be noticed by the other staff members and pupils from a different angle. A very serious teacher, strict and consistent can be, in different setting (field school), a very different person who can smile and laugh. She or he is seen with the eyes of the pupils as a different person and the Non-Formal Staff Development in Primary Schools teacher can recharge the batteries for some coming months. Also, we can realise that a member of the non teaching staff such as the cleaner is an expert mountain climber and an expert on mountain flora and fauna and that he can be a very good adviser when going on hikes. He knows where the traps are and where to go to be on the safe side. When talking about hobbies all the prejudices are gone! Hobbies enable us to satisfy the need for self-esteem and selfrealisation. We can present ourselves as a different person. The research also showed that people employed in schools are aware of the concept of personal and professional growth and lifelong learning. The senior management teams got the opportunity to look at the staff from all the angles, as whole persons. With such knowledge the senior management team is empowered to give the staff the opportunities to act and work more effectively (Peček ). The research in this paper and the experience in the National Leadership School shows that many schools in Slovenia are trying to help their staff to develop in the sense of both personal and professional growth. It is very important to recognise the needs of the employees and also to create opportunities where they can develop both formally and informally (Rutar ). But one question still remains – where should the boundaries be drawn? What is the proper balance of non-formal and formal staff development? How best to bring personal, professional and organisational needs together in the right way! Armstrong, M. . A handbook of personnel management practice. London: Kogan Page Limited. Blackmore, P. . Staff development: Placing the teacher at the centre. British Journal of In-Service Education (): –. Day, C. . Quality assurance and professional development. British Journal of In-Service Education (): –. Dean, J. . Professional development in school. Buckingham: Open University Press. Fullan, M. and A. Hargreaves. . Teacher development and educational change. London and Washington: The Falmer Press. Goulding, S. . Conducting small-scale investigations in educational management. London: Paul Chapman Publishing. Honey, P. and A. Mumford. . The manual of learning styles. Maidenhead: Peter Honey. P. Peček, M. Černigoj, and S. Roncelli Vaupot Hewton, E. . School focused staff development. London: The Falmer Press. Megginson D. and M. Pedler. . Self development: A facilitators guide. London: Mc Graw-Hill. McMahon, A. and R. Bolam. . A handbook for ’s. London: Paul Chapman Publishing. Oldroyd, D. and V. Hall. . Managing staff development. London: Paul Chapman Publishing. Orlich, D. C. . Staff development: Enhancing human potential. Boston: Allyn and Bacon. Peček, P. . Staff development coordinator and its job description: The theory, present role and further development of it at the Board of Education and Sport of the Republic of Slovenia. Unpublished material. Peček, P. . Z razvojem zaposlenih do boljše kakovosti. In Raznolikost kakovosti, edited by A. Trnavčevič. Ljubljana: Šola za ravnatelje. Rutar, D. . Dejavniki kakovostne šole. Vzgoja in izobraževanje (). Roncelli-Vaupot, S., P. Peček, and A. Koren. . Perception on headteachers leadership effectiveness and differences between the beginning and completing program of the Leadership school in Slovenia. Paper presented at ’, – January . Sallis, E. . Total quality management in education. Philadelphia and London: Kogan Page. Seymour, R. . Observation of teaching and learning: Teaching material. Cheshire: Deanhouse Educational. Swieringa, J. and A. Wierdsma. . Becoming a learning organisation. Reading, : Addison-Wesley. Tomič, A. . Poučevanje in učni stili. Vzgoja in izobraževanje (). Warren-Piper, D. and R. Glitter. . The changing university: A report on staff development in universities. Dublin: . Non-Formal Staff Development in Primary Schools The questionnaire – non-formal staff development. To the people in general and also to the teachers the non-formal personal and professional growth i. e. hobbies are sometimes more important than their day-to-day job. They satisfy the needs of self for relaxation, recreation and also for gaining new energy to overcome every day personal and professional problems. In schools we may have opportunities to join our hobbies with our professional work. How to complete the questions. Please circle the answer, which is nearest to your opinion or belief. . During my free time I participate in many of of the programmes one of which is very important to me: a) yes b) no c) I can not decide . Do you think that you can include your hobby in your professional work? a) yes b) sometimes c) no . Would you participate in a seminar if your school is willing to pay and the theme of the seminar is strongly related to your hobby? a) b) c) d) e) yes no, I would feel too dependent to my school no, because my hobby is strictly my personal matter absolutely no other . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . When is the best time to go on the seminar? a) b) c) d) e) f) during working hours during the week-end during Christmas holidays during winter holidays during May holidays during summer holidays . Is your hobby tied to a certain time and place? a) yes b) no . Where would you like to have the seminar? a) in the school b) near home c) far away from home . I am ready to disseminate my new knowledge to: a) my colleagues P. Peček, M. Černigoj, and S. Roncelli Vaupot b) pupils c) parents d) nobody in the school . Are you ready to pay part of the expenses? a) yes b) no . Do you think that it would be wise to introduce that kind of staff development to our school? a) yes, if it not obligatory b) yes c) no . Please, if you want, write down your hobby: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ...................................................................... Thank you very much for your effort and co-operation and I wish you a lot of fun with your hobby and work.
