by Sarah Bachman
For a principal heading up an international school, hiring a teacher can be a daunting task.
Determining whether the candidate will be a ‘right fit’ in terms of personality, qualifications and experience are just a few considerations that principals must make when hiring new staff.
However, this task may now become easier thanks to an Australian Government grant towards a research program into the effective placement of teachers in international schools.
On Tuesday, Australian Technology company Schrole and Edith Cowan University (ECU) were awarded the $50,000 Innovation Connections Grant to fund a research program into the effective placement of teachers in international schools.
The research seeks to identify qualities that make teachers effective in certain educational contexts and to develop an algorithmic approach to facilitate the matching of teachers to schools, assist in recruitment decision-making and match both schools and teachers as part of the recruitment application process.
Schrole will use the funds to undertake the research program, in conjunction with ECU, to develop an intuitive system for its Schrole Connect product that will create a two-way match of teacher attributes with the needs and attributes of schools.
Commenting on the research project Schrole managing director, Rob Graham, said the grant will help international schools find ‘right fit’ teachers.
“Finding the right teacher is essential to a school in terms of teaching success, building strong relationships with students and parents and creating a positive working environment,” Graham said.
“On the flipside, finding the right teaching environment is essential to an educator’s success.”
Graham said the algorithm being developed will “join the dots” by matching teachers to schools that they would prefer to work at as well as match schools to teachers based on specific attributes.
“This grant endorses the work Schrole and ECU will be undertaking and will greatly assist in providing a user-friendly online program to match up the right teachers with the right schools,” he said.
In designing the matching algorithm, ECU will work with Schrole on a data model that effectively matches teachers to schools and schools to teachers. The set criteria will include teacher attributes, school contexts and environmental factors.
The resulting algorithm will help schools better identify teachers who match the overall attributes that contribute to successful employment, and also to help teachers identify the best schools that fit their skill set.
The Schrole Connect system will be the first in the market to utilize this type of algorithm in the hiring of international school teachers.
The algorithm model will be incorporated into the Schrole Connect online recruitment system providing an easy-to-use portal for reviewing both teacher and school profiles and shortlisted candidates.
Once the project has been completed, both Schrole and ECU intend to submit the final research report to scientific journals and present the results of the research at relevant conferences.