Job Discussion Forums

[Ramen]

If you're in position to hire teachers, what one qualification or quality of a candidate would you consider is the most important in your hiring decision?

Some people may say that related degree is the most important, but as for me, it's the experience that really counts. I couldn't careless about the degree if the candidate has EQUAL solid experience. In fact, I'd hire less teachers with related degrees, and more with non-related degrees with EQUAL experience.

Most younger teachers with related degrees seem to have their contents and theories embedded in their brain. In most cases, they have difficulties deviating from the fairy tale stories that they studied and learnt. On the other hand, teachers with non-related degrees with experience are almost always very well rounded and able to adapt to new concepts and ideas readily, easily, and quickly.

No doubt, the experience is the most important.

[spiral78]

Are you making a statement? Or asking a question?

Also curious why you don't include a third category: with both related quals and experience. There are quite a few of us out here in the world (and many of us have served on hiring committees).

[ExpatLuke]

[Ramen]

[spiral78]

Ok, I'll play.
From my perspective, it's hard to qualify and quantify experience. Not sure what experience would be equal to which qualifications.

If you are speaking of someone with one year of experience as versus a new CELTA, I'd go for the CELTA, because that teacher will have been observed and given feedback on what s/he has done well and what s/he has done poorly.

If I were basing decisions on experience alone, the experience would need to be very closely related to the teaching context I am interviewing someone for. I wouldn't waste time, for example, with someone with teaching experience in another country, at other levels, with other focuses. I'd also want very solid references for someone with 'only' experience and not related quals.
Some of the very worst teachers I've ever worked with had years (even decades) of experience in some specific teaching context, but no related qualifications, no teaching-related professional development. All too often, this also means having taught somewhere there are no standards and no monitoring of teachers. Being successful, even long-term, in such a context by no means guarantees an effective teacher.

[vabeckele]

As a hiring manager in Vietnam:

1. Someone fresh off the boat; you have 6 months to a year before the candidate begins to figure things out.

2. Someone that can work in an adverse environment, on their own and can work with high levels of uncertainty with no support.

When English centers, schools and universities are happy for 'teachers' to show YouTube videos for the entire course expectations are low. I think the greatest qualification for any teacher in Vietnam would be character.

[I'm With Stupid]

[I'm With Stupid]

[Mushroom Druid]

[deadlift]

It's a little absurd to try to boil it down to any rule of thumb.

In some cases the experience will trump the qualifications, such as when a teacher has been working in the exact same context or can demonstrate a reasonable familiarity with the curriculum, materials or whatever.

In other cases, 10 years of experience doesn't mean much if it's not relevant. ESL teaching is diverse. A kiddies class of 12 or a Chinese lecture theatre with microphones and ranks upon ranks of uni students? Recent immigrants learning about bank accounts or middle managers learning to write emails? British Council or Outerspace language academy?

This is why an interview (a real one, conducted by someone with a clue, which I know is a rarity) can be useful. For me, how someone can describe their approach to teaching and talk me through a lesson or two will do more to convince me than just looking at a couple of letters after their name or a list of crappy ESL schools they've worked in.

[spycatcher reincarnated]

All depends on the person, what/who you are employing them to teach and how long you are expecting them to stay. All things being equal I would like to note the following:

I would rather employ someone fresh off a CELTA with no teaching experience than someone who completed their CELTA, then had a year's experience at a poor school.

Also I would note that often teachers that have a good few years of experience before their CELTA often never become good teachers.

[vabeckele]

I would only employ someone from one of the top 5 universities in the world with at least 5 years experience across 3 different continents. This experience must be from Bell, L.L., Apollo, E.F., and ILA. No other place of work will be considered.

And if they don't have a TEFL cert there will be no further progress in their application - It is so hard to get good hired help these days. And if I had it my way there would be a 5 year waiting list just to get in the door.

If not that then any old policeman will do.

Fact: Not one policeman in the United Kingdom has been arrested and convicted for any deaths at the hands of the police dept - Academic manager material right there.

Let's get it on.

[skarper]

CELTA/DELTA and equivs are the only relevant education or training. Degrees even in seemingly connected areas are irrelevant - I don't really understand the argument that makes them obligatory. If a certain level of intelligence or literacy is assumed then many graduates would fall short even having passed their finals with high marks.

Experience is a vexed question. Often experience in one place with a certain type of students has no impact on how a teacher will perform in another different place.

Experience in Spain is notoriously useless for teaching in East Asia for example.

I had experience in some very good UK language schools and I have never encountered comparable standards in Asia. One of the big problems is mixed levels/ages and motivations that are endemic in Japan/Korea/Vietnam. Schools just fill up classes with anybody willing to pay and teachers are left unable to use class time productively.

Another factor is that students living in the UK and studying full time need/want different things from their lessons than students studying part time in their own country. Often these students just want to chat in an informal manner - something 'verboten' by CELTA/DELTA training.

I was still able to use that experience in Korea but it needed a good deal of adaptability on my part.

I think adaptability is the key quality in a teacher. Adaptability without being spineless however. You still have to 'teach' and not just edutain.

I would tend NOT to employ MA holders in a basic EFL job. A university job OK - I can see the value. But that level of academic learning is likely to get in the way. All the MA TEFL holders I've worked with (and it is just a small sample) were execrable. This opinion was shared by all the people I've discussed it with who've been through a DELTA or equiv - including those who had both DELTA and MA.

On the whole this is a pretty futile discussion [though it can be amusing]. When hiring other factors dominate and training/qualifications/experience barely figure.

One day this may change but I shan't be holding my breath.

[Sashadroogie]

[vabeckele]