Tuesday 1st May 2012

SNC Education, the 14-16 arm of South Nottingham College, approached Tiger Solutions regarding learner progress tracking and reporting at the college. They required a tool to track learner progress and facilitate timely intervention with underperforming learners. They had looked into off-the-shelf options but all required significant investment and none fulfilled the College’s needs effectively.

Tiger Solutions suggested working together to develop an Excel-based solution. The College was using spreadsheets to record learner progress and these would act as a starting point. The first step would be for Tiger to understand the College’s requirements and collate existing spreadsheets as a starting point for development.

Tiger worked with the College on an iterative basis; at a weekly meeting Tiger would show the College development progess while the College would suggest tweaks and improvements. This step-by-step approach allowed the College to ‘derisk’ the project by eliminating the need for major, one-off financial investment.

Tiger designed and structured the spreadsheet and implemented formulae and Visual Basic code to achieve the required functionality. Previously time-consuming tasks were automated using ‘vlookup’, ‘offset’ and ‘if’ formulae, amongst others. A user-friendly interface was created that summarised key information such as number of learners on, above and below target. Robustness was made a priority and Tiger’s team, led by Chris Mortimer used data validation and worksheet protection to ensure that the application would not crash in day-to-day use.

As the application was made available to staff, Tiger provided hands-on training to ensure that staff were confident with the application.

By saving lecturer and management time and presenting key performance information effectively, the application has fulfilled SNC Education’s learner tracking needs. It has received positive feedback from users and senior management alike.


Brendan Coulson, Manager of SNC Education said:

“Chris has taken some spreadsheets that were not particularly well organised and combined them into a single file that is easy for my staff to use. The Excel development project has saved us time and money because we have avoided the need for one-off investment in specialist software. Also, my staff have learned about Excel’s capabilities and now have better Excel skills. I would recommend working with Tiger on any kind of spreadsheet-related project.”

Click here to read more about our Excel training and development offering. You can get in touch with Chris on 020 7903 5028, or use the contact form.

Click here to talk online with Tiger Solutions

Getting The Most Out of Excel

Excel is ubiquitous in the workplace and it is likely that you and your staff spend a lot of time using the software. The objective of our Excel development is to improve the user-friendliness and efficiency of your spreadsheets, saving you time, money – not to mention your sanity!



“But Excel is for simple arithmetic – a bit like a calculator…”

It is a commonly held view that Excel is a kind of sophisticated calculator. One of our missions as a company is to broaden the appreciation of Excel’s capabilities.

In our experience, managers often spend money on specialist software when development of an existing spreadsheet would lead to an effective, and much cheaper, solution. With the required expertise, Excel is a platform for development of tools that look and feel like expensive software packages.

We have developed spreadsheets for a wide range of purposes beyond budgetary or similar calculations.

Examples of recent Excel development projects include:

- Developing a learner tracking and reporting system for an FE college (more…)
- Excel training and development at Buttercups (more…)
- Excel Development with South Nottinghamshire Academy (article coming soon)



How do Excel Development projects work?

A typical engagement would involve a weekly meeting between the client and Tiger to feedback on project progress. This step-by-step, iterative approach negates the need for a one-off financial investment and ensures the project stays on track.

Excel Development projects range in scope from:

Half-day interventions to reorganise a frequently used spreadsheet to make it more user-friendly and efficient

to:

Long-term interventions to get under the skin of a complex numbers-based problem, and to develop a tool to solve it; a typical example would be setting a price for a product or service; we would produce an Excel-based model that quantifies variables and enables managers to experiment with different pricing strategies



What is your Excel development approach?

We apply the following principles to drive spreadsheet improvement:

- Improve Structure: reorganise the spreadsheet so that inputs, process and outputs are clearly separated; the aim is to minimise scrolling and mouse clicks to save the user time

- Implement Non-Trivial Formulae: introduce formulae such as Vlookup, If, Match and Offset to retrieve relevant data from large data sets and save the user time

- Improve Robustness: tired of error messages such as #REF! ? We use data validation and cell protection to eliminate these and improve the robustness of your spreadsheet

- Improve Presentation: implement helpful formatting to draw user attention to key cells and make the spreadsheet more intuitive, saving user time and cognitive load

- Automate Time-Intensive Tasks: implement visual basic programming to automate time-intensive tasks and introduce custom buttons to perform these, creating click-of-a-button functionality to realise dramatic time-savings

- Empower Users: a fancy spreadsheet that nobody can use is good to nobody; we will sit beside your users and train them on their systems; we will support them with a concise user guide and, if required, email / phone support

Can you give me examples of recent Excel Development projects?

Recent Excel Development projects include:

- Developing a learner tracking and reporting system for an FE college (more…)
- Excel training and development at Buttercups (more…)
- Excel Development with South Nottinghamshire Academy (article coming soon)



Who can I get in touch with to discuss further?

To discuss Excel Development in greater detail please get in touch with Chris on 020 7903 5028, or use the contact form.

Or, read more about our Excel training offering.

Click here to talk online with Tiger Solutions

Great ideas for business, for life…?

The Tiger Toolkit is a suite of tools that enables you to explore and evaluate your business or life ideas. The Toolkit enables you to:

- Develop a vision for your idea
- Organise a strategy to get there
- Evaluate its financial viability

The Toolkit consists of three tools: a Visioning Tool, a Strategy Tool and a Budgeting Tool.



1. Visioning Tool

Great ideas need shape

The Visioning Tool helps you translate your energy and creativity into a statement of purpose: a vision for your business or life idea.

Great ideas are grounded in reality

The Visioning Tool helps you to appreciate the trends that will shape your industry, and understand how you can position your business or life idea to respond to these.

A step-by-step process

You are introduced to a step-by-step process. First, you choose a time horizon for your vision. Then, you scan the business environment and highlight relevant trends; these may include the technological, social and legal factors that will determine the success or otherwise of your idea. Finally, you articulate a vision for your business or life idea that exploits these trends.

The aim is something that balances passion with pragmatics: a compelling vision that is grounded in reality.

Use the Tool

Click Here to view the complete Tiger Toolkit Visioning Tool (page may take a few minutes to display).

If you would like us to email the tool to you then please get in touch.

2. Strategy Tool

Where to start?

A strong vision is a great start. Next is to begin bringing your business or life idea into reality. What are the key milestones between here and there? And what can you do today to get started?

Get from here to there

First, you copy and paste your vision into the top of your strategy map, since everything you do should point towards this. Then, you pick out strands of your vision and articulate them as milestones. Finally, you list activities that will help you to reach these milestones and link them together in a logical order. The result is something like a roadmap for getting from here to there.

Get started today

In this way you link the long-term to the immediate, your greatest ambitions to things you are doing today. Use the Strategy Tool to make a list of things you can do immediately to start bringing your business or life idea into reality. Get started today!

Use the Tool

Click Here to view the complete Tiger Toolkit Strategy Tool (page may take a few minutes to display).

If you would like us to email the tool to you then please get in touch.



3. Budgeting Tool

Simple financial planning

Any business or life plan requires financial credibility. The Budgeting Tool helps you to put numbers to what you have in mind.

Plan for the worst …

First, you list the monthly costs of your business and one-off expenses. Then you think about sources of income and input these. You can view summary tables and visuals that give a snapshot of your financial position month-by-month and at the end of the year.

… Hope for the best

The result is a basis for understanding your cashflow and evaluating the financial viability of your business or life idea. The Budgeting Tool also allows you to test and save multiple scenarios – for example for best, expected and worst cases. The numbers may look good; more likely the exercise will prompt a return to the drawing board! Either way you are well placed to improve your business or life idea.

Use the Tool

The Tiger Toolkit Budgeting Tool runs out of Microsoft Excel. If you would like to try out the tool please get in touch.

Click here to talk online with Tiger Solutions

Wednesday 18th April 2012

Buttercups Training approached Tiger Solutions for training on how to use Excel more effectively. The company wanted Nick Marler, a Training Consultant, to improve his Excel skills in order to better collaborate with key accounts. Buttercups is a national training company, providing accredited training courses to the pharmacy services industry.

Nick liaises with training managers from major pharmacies on a regular basis to provide information about staff progress. It is important for Nick to be able to produce monthly progress reports which provide detailed information about each candidate in an intuitive format.



Chris provided a training session, focusing on Excel functions that would allow Nick to provide informative and concise reports to training managers. Over the morning session, Nick was taught the necessary skills to improve his capability in Excel from a relative beginner to an intermediate level.

After the initial training, an exercise was set to reinforce Nick’s understanding of the session. Chris provided additional support to show Nick how to implement what he had learnt in his day-to-day work. The training session and subsequent email support has allowed Nick collate and present data clearly in Excel and liaise more effectively with key accounts. Since the training session, Nick has conducted gap analysis show where how his improved Excel skills have enabled him to increase client satisfaction.

Click here to view a PDF summary of this training session:
(To save to your hard drive, right click the link and click ‘save target / link as…’)

Nick said:

“The training provided by Chris was professional and easy to understand. In the morning session, I discovered that Excel, far from being a complicated nuisance, can be utilised to really increase productivity. Chris was an excellent teacher, who remained patient even when having to explain tricky formulae a number of times. I would recommend anybody who uses Excel to contact Tiger Solutions to see how they can help.”

Click here to read more about our Excel training and development offering. You can get in touch with Chris on 020 7903 5028, or use the contact form.

Click here to talk online with Tiger Solutions

Tuesday 4th April 2012

This is a description of the Excel training sessions we offer. The three sessions cater for Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced Excel users respectively, but we are happy to tailor training sessions to client needs. We can deliver sessions on a 1-to-1, 1-to-few or 1-to-many basis.

Read more about each of the sessions below or click on red text to view PDF summaries of each of the sessions:
(To save to your hard drive, right click the link and click ‘save target / link as…’)

Session 1: Basic Excel Skills
Session 2: Intermediate Excel for Non-Financial Specialists
Session 3: Excel Modelling for Non-Financial Specialists










- Session 1: Basic Excel Skills -

Getting to Grips with Excel

This training session focuses on developing basic proficiency in Excel. It is aimed at complete beginners and no prior knowledge is assumed. A typical attendee would be a business administrator or, in education, a member of support staff or manager who is starting out in Excel.

Developing Confidence in Excel

Excel is everywhere in the workplace and, in the current business and educational climates where performance measurement is important, we cannot avoid it. In this session, you will be equipped with the skills and knowledge that you need to approach basic Excel-based tasks with confidence.

First Steps

First we will cover basic Excel techniques from opening up a file, selecting cells and implementing simple formulae to creating a professional look with basic formatting techniques. Then we will look at a typical Excel problem and develop a simple spreadsheet to practise and consolidate these techniques.

Basic Excel Techniques

We will cover the following basic techniques that will save time and effort in your work, including:

• Simple Arithmetic Formulae (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division)
• Linking Cells
• Relative and Absolute Referencing
• Formatting

These techniques are taught using an Excel skills file that participants are welcome to install on their own systems and use as a reference tool.

To download a PDF summary of this training session, right-click here and click ‘save link as / save target as’.

To learn more about Session 1 or for a more general chat about Excel training, please get in touch via the contact form, or call Chris on 020 7903 5028.







- Session 2: Intermediate Excel for Non-Financial Specialists -

From Beginner to Intermediate

This training session focuses on moving your Excel skills to the next level. It is not aimed at beginners, but at non-financial specialists who are familiar with simple arithmetic formulae and keen to take their understanding further. A typical attendee would be a business administrator or manager; or, in education, a member of support staff or manager who uses Excel frequently in his or her day-to-day work.

Effective Spreadsheets for Business and Education

The training session can focus on one of two key themes, or both:

• Using Excel to support simple business decision making
• Using Excel to collate, manage and analyse educational data

In this context, we will look at how you can develop your own spreadsheets to automate time-intensive tasks and generate the information you need. We will examine a real-life case study and map out and build a simple business decision making tool or learner performance management tool in Excel. You will be equipped with skills and knowledge that will be of immediate practical benefit.

Intermediate Excel Techniques

We will cover the following intermediate techniques:

• Advanced Formulae (vlookup, if, match, offset)
• Data Validation including Dropdown Menus
• Conditional Formatting

These techniques are taught using an Excel skills file that participants are welcome to install on their own systems and use as a reference tool.

To download a PDF summary of this training session, right-click here and click ‘save link as / save target as’.

To learn more about Session 2 or for a more general chat about Excel training, please get in touch via the contact form, or call Chris on 020 7903 5028.







- Session 3: Excel Modelling for Non-Financial Specialists -

Excel Modelling: Building Tools to Support Decision Making

This training session is aimed at non-financial specialists who use Excel in their day-to-day work and who are familiar with simple Excel formulae. A typical attendee is a business manager or, in education, a curriculum manager or senior support staff member who wants to understand how Excel can provide useful analysis and insight – beyond the simple spreadsheet.

The session introduces the concept of an Excel ‘model’ and examines real-life examples from business and education. You will be equipped with the knowledge and skills you need to create your own models. These will help you make sense of complex numbers-based issues and will be of immediate practical benefit in your work.

Supporting Business Decisions and / or Monitoring Learner Progress

The session can focus on one, or both, of the following themes:

• Developing Excel models to support simple commercial decision making
• Developing Excel models to collate, manage and analyse educational data

We will look at how to develop models to analyse a simple business scenario such as determining an appropriate price for a product or service. We will look at how to develop models to measure learner progress and generate the cohort-wide performance measures that you need.

Advanced Excel Techniques for Modelling

We will cover the following techniques that will save time and effort in your work, including:

• Advanced Formulae: vlookup, if, match, offset
• Data Validation including dropdown menus
• Data Tables

We will teach these techniques using an Excel skills file that participants are welcome to install on their own systems and use as a reference tool.

To download a PDF summary of this training session, right-click here and click ‘save link as / save target as’.

To learn more about Session 3 or for a more general chat about Excel training, please get in touch via the contact form, or call Chris on 020 7903 5028.

Or, read more about our Excel Development service.

Click here to talk online with Tiger Solutions

Friday 30th March 2012

If you work in business or education, it is likely that you use Microsoft Excel on a regular basis. No doubt it is a source of frustration at times. This article, written by Chris Mortimer, will allow you to appreciate what you can do to improve your Excel skills, or those of your staff.

- About the Author -

Chris is Founder and Managing Director of Tiger Solutions Ltd and an experienced Excel consultant, trainer and lecturer. He works with clients on a daily basis to scope out, develop and maintain Excel-based applications. Chris holds the position of Associate Fellow at Warwick Business School where he lectures on Excel-based modelling among other business analysis techniques.

- How to improve Excel Skills -

Here are a couple of observations from my work with Excel in the past few years.

Before I share these and to guard against accusations of Excel snobbery, I would like tell you about my perspective. I am not a career IT specialist; in fact I have only become involved in Excel development relatively recently. During my early career I worked in Public Relations and Japanese-English translation / interpretation; I knew very little about Excel and my skills were rudimentary to say the least. My undergraduate degree was in French and History (though I subsequently did an MSc in Business Analytics,) and I still feel like a student of the Arts. Because I have done the bulk of my learning about Excel in recent years I feel that my ideas on becoming better at Excel hold some weight – but I will let you be the judge of that!

- The Excel Curve -

First, people’s appreciation of what Excel can do is generally quite narrow. Excel is an excellent tool for performing simple arithmetic calculations such as addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. Many people’s Excel skills, and there is no shame in this, are limited to these formulae. This means that most people use only a fraction of Excel’s computational power.



I have tried to capture this idea in the above sketch, which I call the Excel Curve. If we take a basic level of proficiency (arithmetic formulae: addition, subtraction etc.) as being on the left, and an advanced level (sophisticated formulae and visual basic programming) on the right, the distribution of Excel users would look something like this. The majority of Excel users are working at a low level, which is why the curve is skewed towards the left. The challenge – and one of our missions as a company – is to broaden people’s appreciation what Excel can do, upskill them, and move them along the curve, with the ultimate aim of shifting the whole curve towards the right.

You might be trying to situate yourself on the curve. I have pencilled in a, b, c and d as reference points – we will come to those later.

- Progress Along the Curve -

To return to my two observations about Excel, the second one is that people seem to follow a similar path through Excel, picking up techniques in the same order. Some of the learning points that signpost the way, in order of difficulty, are: arithmetic formulae (addition, subtraction etc.) conditional formatting (changing the format of a cell according to its contents,) data validation (creating dropdown menus,) and advanced formulae (=vlookup(), =if().) In my experience it is rare to find somebody who is familiar with advanced formulae but who cannot do conditional formatting, for example.

I have tried to convey the idea of a path through Excel, and the key learning points, in the above sketch. This may give you useful ideas for what you can do to improve your skills, or those of your staff. If you are at point b on the curve, for example, you may want to look at advanced formulae such as =vlookup() and =if(). There is an abundance of learning resources online, in text and video form, and I would also gently encourage you to take a look at our training sessions.

- Small Effort – Significant Benefit -

The important point is that, because of the shape of the curve, a small increase in skill level equals a lot of progress in relation to others. It might take a time investment of 4-6 hours to learn the advanced formulae that will move you from point b to point c on the curve; but, if we assume the curve to be reasonably accurate, this would move you ahead of around a quarter of people in terms of Excel skills. A small effort can generate significant benefit – as long as you understand where you are and what you need to learn.


- Effective Excel Training -

I would happily muse over Excel and its uses all day, but commercial pressures dictate that I should draw your attention to our training sessions; you can read about them here. Though we can and do design bespoke sessions according to specific client needs, we generally pitch our sessions at three levels, which I have drawn onto the above sketch. Session 1 (Beginner) consolidates learning around point a, Session 2 (Intermediate) bridges the gap between a and c, and Session 3 (Advanced) focuses on moving you towards point d. All will help you progress along the Excel Curve and deliver immediate practical benefit in your day-to-day work.

To download a PDF description of Excel training session 1, right click this link and click ‘save target / link as’

To download a PDF description of Excel training session 2, right click this link and click ‘save target / link as’

To download a PDF description of Excel training session 3, right click this link and click ‘save target / link as’

I wish you the best of luck with Excel and hope you have got something out of this piece. Don’t hesitate to pick up the phone to me (contact details at the foot of the page) to discuss any aspect of this article, or get in touch via the contact form. It would be great to hear from you.

Click here to talk online with Tiger Solutions

Friday 9th March 2012

7 delegates present
Representing Chesterfield College, Derby College, Grantham College and South Nottingham College

7 positive evaluations

What was the most helpful part of the event:

- Justine, she is an inspiration! Also packed full of ideas that are very do-able
- Real and usable ideas / strategies rather than just words
- Lots of practical ideas to take away and use immediately
- Discussing strategies and linking them to good practice

Any further comments about this event:

- Very valuable – would love to attend more of Justine’s events
- It was very helpful and inspiring. I’m at a point where I can’t deal with my learners and am wondering what other job I can do….I feel a bit hopeful now
- Very enthusiastic delivery; engaging delivery and practical suggestions to aid practice. Would like to speak to my organization to arrange an event for my college

If you’d like an informal and non pushy chat about our training then get in touch with Tiger Education and Training Director Justine Drury on 020 7903 5028, or use the contact form.

Wednesday 23rd February 2012

So the new Ofsted is looming and every teacher, trainer and lecturer strives for a grade 1. And if you’re a legend, the students love you and your results shine then great, you’ll probably be OK….but what if you’re not?

Unfortunately and let’s be honest there are no quick fixes. But that doesn’t mean to say that you, your teaching, your interaction with your students can’t change and get better over time.

How? Well in the words of David Brailsford from British Cycling, it’s about the “accumulation of marginal gains” and equally in the words of Mike Hughes “it’s the subtleties that make the polish that make the grade 1”

So what are those marginal gains and subtleties?

Positive Discipline of course is one, another is Teacher Credibility. I challenge you to read on and make a change that forms a habit today………..

Make them believe in you
Published in TESS on 17 February, 2012 by Darren Evans

Teacher credibility is vital to learning, an updated study reveals. But what can you do to win your pupils round?

It was described as the “holy grail” of teaching research when it was first published four years ago. And Professor John Hattie’s groundbreaking study of what improves pupils’ results is still believed to be the biggest and most ambitious analysis of education ever completed.

Visible Learning encompassed the experiences of more than 80 million students across the English-speaking world and took Professor Hattie – then at the University of Auckland in New Zealand – 15 years to complete. After synthesising 815 meta-analyses of education research, Professor Hattie’s simple yet startling conclusion was that, out of the 136 classroom interventions identified, the most effective way to improve education was to raise the quality of pupil-teacher interactions. But it seems that, despite the thoroughness of the study, a little more research still needed to be done.

In December, Professor Hattie, now director of the Melbourne Education Research Institute, published an updated version of the league table of classroom interventions. Based on the synthesis of an additional 141 meta- analyses, it added a further 14 interventions to the list. The highest new entry, in fourth place, was a factor not listed in the first study: teacher credibility.
“The key is the students’ perception that teachers have credibility in enhancing their learning,” says Professor Hattie. “Students are very perceptive about knowing which teachers can make a difference to their learning. And teachers who command this credibility are most likely to make the difference. “The effects on achievement are high and the reason is that teachers who constantly show students they care, and know about the difference and impact they are having on them, are ‘visible’ and welcomed.”

Historically, the notion of credibility has received the most significant attention in the academic field of communication. The first person credited with popularising the idea was Dr James McCroskey, an expert in communication studies who carried out research into credibility in the early 1980s when he was chair of the department of communication studies at West Virginia University.

Dr McCroskey came up with three variables that were widely agreed to be the key factors of credibility: trust, competence and dynamism. A fourth – immediacy – was added by later studies.

In 2000, Dr William Haskins, a professor of speech communication at McKendree University in Illinois, wrote a seminal paper on the subject of teacher credibility (see panel). “Whether at the conscious or unconscious level, a student’s perception of the teacher’s ethos, or speaker’s character, has an important impact on how he or she will react to the teacher and how effective the teacher will be in the classroom,” he wrote. “Erosion of a teacher’s ethos can quickly spell disaster.”

A decade on, Dr Haskins is still in no doubt of the vital role of credibility in educational success. “Perception of credibility is a critical factor in how students and teachers connect with each other,” he says. “Personally, I would rank it as the number one or two influence on student learning. It’s certainly in the top 90 per cent of factors because it is really at the core of who we are as educators. “When I walk into the classroom, all I have going for me is the students’ assessment of my credibility. I can have all the latest gadgets and gizmos and techniques, but if the student thinks I’m a jerk, then I’m a jerk.” The first characteristic that a teacher needs to be considered credible is trustworthiness: the pupil must feel the teacher has their best interests at heart and truly cares about their success in class. Teachers who are consistent and fair with classroom discipline, include all pupils in activities, treat all pupils the same and do not embarrass them are more likely to develop trustworthiness. To develop an even deeper trust, the teacher could ask about pupils’ home life and interests outside school.Dr Haskins believes that trust must be earned through the “pedagogical communication process” that teachers employ with their pupils. “Any violation of this trust can potentially rupture the professional relationship that teachers need to maintain if honest dialogues are to occur,” he says.

Competence is the second key component of credibility. A teacher must not only have mastered their particular subject area, but must also deliver it in a meaningful way. To do this they need good classroom management skills, the ability to answer questions and the capacity to explain complex material in a way pupils can understand.

Teachers must also be dynamic in how they interact with their class and present their material in an exciting and engaging way, using a diverse range of techniques. If a teacher lacks charisma or is unenthusiastic about the topic, they will lose credibility with pupils. “Teachers need to appear not only in control of their environment, but energised by it,” Dr Haskins says: “To look bored or distant invites communication disaster. Such impressions can quickly evaporate any feelings of excitement students have for their teachers or class content.”

The most recent addition to the list is immediacy, which involves using certain techniques to reduce distance between teacher and pupils. These can be verbal – for example, using collective pronouns such as “we” or “us”, or non-verbal – making eye contact or rearranging the class into a circle so they all feel part of the group.

Dr Haskins’ three characteristics of teacher credibility were further promoted in the work of Dr Arletta Knight Fink, former associate director of instructional development at the University of Oklahoma’s teaching centre. In the early 2000s, she was engaged in an effort to improve the quality of teaching on campus, specifically student-teacher interaction. “I was seeing incredibly bright teachers, but they were still having problems with their students,” Dr Fink says. “One professor said: ‘They just don’t like me.’ This was a man who knew his subject inside and out, but his students were just giving him poor feedback and evaluations. I started thinking about teacher credibility and those three dimensions. “I interviewed the students one by one and discovered that the students would ask the professor questions in class and sometimes he wanted to give them a good answer, but couldn’t compose one on the spot and said he would get back to them. “The students perceived that as he didn’t know what he was talking about. They were seeing him as an incompetent teacher. That was incredibly insightful.“It made a big difference in his class when he started answering questions on the spot and not worrying about giving perfect answers.

“The second professor we observed was a very shy person and didn’t smile a lot, and his students thought he was cold and indifferent and didn’t care about them. I told him to start engaging them more in conversation and he started to get to know them better and relax.” Dr Fink wrote a paper on the importance of teacher credibility and began promoting the idea in workshops, conferences and seminars. “Students simply won’t respect the teacher if they don’t perceive them as having all three dimensions,” she says. “If they are not perceived as competent in their methods or knowledgeable about their subject area, if they are not seen as trustworthy when it comes to giving out grades and marking exams, and if there’s no dynamism, then they are bored and switched off and they can’t totally engage in the learning experience.”

Professor Hattie’s latest research, published in his new book Visible Learning for Teachers, suggests that teacher credibility is one of the most important factors in all of learning. “If a teacher is not perceived as credible, the students just turn off,” he says. “If a student doesn’t get (the value of education) by the age of 8, they are behind for most of the rest of their school life.
“If you have one bad teacher, there’s a higher probability of not completing school. Two or three and it’s almost certain.”

HOW TO BECOME A MORE CREDIBLE TEACHER

TRUST
- Adapt messages for listeners by being sincere and honest in the presentation of information.
- Identify strengths and weaknesses in information – for example, reliability and bias – to demonstrate honesty.
- Introduce sources that are trusted by pupils and use them to develop class material.
- Explain the soundness of analysis, arguments and evidence.
- Earn trust by showing trust towards pupils.

COMPETENCE
- Appear highly organised in the presentation of the subject matter.
- Deliver a message that is as free from errors as possible, including grammar, pronunciation and enunciation.
- Prepare thoroughly by being in control of the subject matter, key issues, sources, evidence, arguments and differing viewpoints.
- Have lesson plans that are organised and detailed.
- Use relevant personal experiences to provide greater insights for students.

DYNAMISM
- Develop a powerful style of speaking that uses few verbal or vocal hesitancies such as “OK” or “you know”.
- Vary physical movements such as gestures, facial expressions and eye contact.
- Vary vocal characteristics, such as rate, pitch, inflection and tone.
- Use a variety of evidence, stories, visual aids and computer programs.

IMMEDIACY
- Have a relaxed body position so that you look comfortable when standing or sitting in front of the class.
- Establish eye contact with the entire class.
- Smile to disarm and relax students.
- Attempt to reduce distance between yourself and students by moving or by moving away from barriers such as desks or lecterns.

Haskins, W. “Ethos and Pedagogical Communication: suggestions for enhancing credibility in the classroom” (2000). Current Issues in Education 3 (4).

If you’d like a non pushy, friendly and informal chat about our training then get in touch with Tiger Education and Training Director Justine Drury on 020 7903 5028, or use the contact form.

Wednesday 25th January 2012

19 delegates present
19 positive evaluations

Impact on pupils’ learning:

• Eliminating low level disruption
• Improved behaviour in lower sets
• Improved behaviour whilst implementing the strategies
• Pupil engagement. Positive classroom environment
• A more positive and happy classroom environment
• Good ideas to promote positive behaviour
• Consistency and increase engagement

The best features of the training:

• So useful in every lesson
• Fantastic
• Funny and excellently delivered
• I want to use a lot of the strategies
• Justine was very informative, interesting and humorous. I learnt a lot and found the workshop extremely useful – thank you Justine
• Lively, enthusiastic and entertaining
• Very engaging personality. Well delivered
• Humour, fast moving, great ideas
• She was engaging and realistic
• Miss was lively and comical to watch and listen to. Brilliant, highly engaging – thank you!
• Humorous delivery, practical ideas
• It was more upbeat than other twilight INSET sessions
• Made it fun. Not boring
• Brilliant ideas
• Good delivery and pace. Excellent non-threatening style
• Justine is a lush trainer and made everything really relevant to me, my pupils and my CPD

If you’d like a non pushy, friendly and informal chat about our training then get in touch with Tiger Education and Training Director Justine Drury on 020 7903 5028, or use the contact form.

Tuesday 4th October 2011

8 delegates present
Representing Leicester College, Boston College, Dearn Valley College, Newcastle-Under-Lyme College, West Nottinghamshire College and Nottingham Hairdressing Training Agency

8 positive evaluations

The best features of the training:

- Having things ready to go for 9.00am tomorrow and run with it
- Sharing expert hints and tips and meeting other practitioners
- Ideas for managing the environment to achieve positive discipline
- Opportunities to gain resources that can be used
- All of it – Justine you were inspiring!
- The session was informative, creating good ideas and sharing ideas
- Practical creation of artefacts is something I will definitely
share with colleagues
- Leaving with tangible resources

Further comments and reactions:

- Engaging, pacy session. Loads of ideas and solutions
- It’s really made me think and will trial ideas tomorrow
- The event has made me think how to turn negative into positive.
- Thank you Justine, really enjoyed the input
- Well organised. Enthusiastic delivery
- Excellent session

If you’d like an informal chat about our training then get in touch with Tiger Education and Training Director Justine Drury on 020 7903 5028, or use the contact form.