a1.4. Teachers' perceptions of the most important skills at the end of training

Teachers still acknowledged that following instructions accurately was an important skill for an administrator. However, at the end of the training period, being a good listener to children had decreased in importance. This may be due to teachers realising that their role did not require them to mark and grade the assessment data they collected and therefore they did not attach as much importance to hearing student responses.

It is apparent that the training process enabled teachers to acknowledge and incorporate some of the skills and understandings that NEMP staff identified as being essential to implement the assessment programme effectively. The ability to use ICT equipment had been noted as a skill that teachers needed to learn (Figure 4). They identified it as a skill that they had learnt during training (Figure 5). At the end of the training, although ICT skills were identified as an important skill to have learnt, being able to work with a variety of technologies was not perceived as a significant skill for the administrator role. But, by the end of the administration period, the use of ICT equipment was identified by most teacher administrators as being the most important skill acquired from training that was necessary to implement their role successfully. It seems that participating in the administration process changed the perceptions of aspects of the role for many teacher administrators.

Following instructions was initially perceived to be an important facet of the administrator role (Figure 2). It was identified by most teachers as being the most important skill/understanding learnt during the training (Figure 5). After working in the administrator role, following instructions, although still acknowledged as being a necessary skill for implementing the assessment tasks had declined in importance (Figure 8).

Praising students' efforts not performance was acknowledged by some teachers to be important in their initial perceptions of the administrator role (Figure 2). It was also a significant skill/understanding taken up by teachers at the end of the training week (Figure 5). Administrating the assessment tasks confirmed to a number of teachers that praising students' efforts not performance was an important skill to use in the administrator role (Figure 8).

Although the administration of tasks was not rated by many teachers as being an important skill learnt at the end of training (Figure 5) they felt confident about delivering the assessment tasks (Figure 7). Figure 8 shows that after administrating, many teachers felt that the administration of assessment tasks was an important skill to have learnt.

However, teachers also identified other skills that they found to be important to them in order to implement the assessment procedure that they considered had not been part of the training process and some which had not been part of their perceptions of the role. These are discussed in the next section.

Being organised and having a good rapport with students reflected teachers' initial perceptions of the teacher administrator role as shown in Figure 2. Teachers retained these initial ideas, which were affirmed by experiencing their new role. Being organised (including having good time management and working efficiently) and having a good rapport with students are essential components of the teaching role, which teachers acknowledged they brought with them to the administrator role (Figure 3).

Focusing on students' effort and not their performance was confirmed by a number of teachers as being a necessary skill to have. Following instructions accurately was also identified as being necessary, although its importance had declined (as discussed in the previous section). Being a good listener to children was part of teachers' initial perceptions of the role. Although this declined in importance by the end of the training period (Section 1.4) it maintained that level of importance at the end of administration. The importance of working effectively with a partner was included in a few teachers' initial perceptions of the role (Figure 2). A number of teachers thought that they had the skills of working effectively with others (Figure 3), although it was identified as a skill some felt they need to learn (Figure 4). Some teachers acknowledged that they were able to develop a relationship with their partner during training (Figure 5). Although many teachers felt confident about working with a partner (Figure 7), the importance of a successful collaborative partnership was not realised by many teachers until they actually experienced working in the administrator role (Figure 9).

Although many skills learnt in training were acknowledged as being important in the administrator role, there were some skills that were not part of the training process and not part of teachers' perceptions of the role. At the end of the administration period the need for flexibility had arisen as being an important skill to have. This had not formed part of teachers' perceptions of the role at any stage. The need for teachers to be flexible in the administrator role had been identified by a member of the NEMP team (Section 1.1).

When also asked in Questionnaire 3 to identify what was the most difficult aspect of the administrator role, the need to be very flexible and work effectively with a partner were identified as the most common difficulties experienced by administrators. These are discussed in the next section.

The concept of flexibility is antithetical to following instructions and following the methodical implementation of the NEMP process that is a focus during the training week. Consequently, some teachers had difficulty working with the two ideas. This is known as role ambiguity, and is experienced by people when expectations within a role are incomplete or insufficient to guide behaviour (Biddle, 1979: 323). Although some NEMP staff addressed timetabling issues and provided anecdotal evidence of situations that may occur, it may be that the need for flexibility has to be made more explicit. This will serve to place the idea that flexibility is part of the required role in the mind of the administrator so that it becomes a shared expectation (Biddle, 1979: 117). As flexibility may not be a skill that can be taught in a week, such as is given for the NEMP training programme, it may well be essential to include 'flexibility' as a prerequisite in the advertisements and information package that NEMP uses to recruit teachers. Teachers commented to this effect in Questionnaire 3, when identifying the skills that NEMP needed to look for when selecting their administrators. Clarifying expectations at an early stage in the preparation process may enable teachers to adopt a new role more successfully as it becomes part of constructing their perceptions of that role.

Another considerable area of difficulty identified by administrators was working collaboratively with a partner. Although as reported in earlier sections, many teachers found this a valuable component of working on NEMP, when it was not successful there was a lot of anguish and frustration. Working with a partner was a significant change for teachers to make when adopting the new role of administrator. Many teachers have been through a 'socialisation of isolation' (Friend & Cook, 2003: 15) as they have developed their professional skills and abilities. The culture of many schools is one of independence and self reliance, reinforced through structural isolation (Friend & Cook, 2003: 13-15). Individualism may provide teachers with an adaptive strategy that they actively construct to enable them to manage their relentless work schedule. It may be due to situational or administrative constraints which present significant barriers to doing otherwise. It may be a preferred way of working for a number of teachers on pedagogical or personal grounds (Hargreaves, 1994: 172-173). Whatever the origins of working individually, it can be difficult for teachers to make the transition from working independently to working collaboratively in a new role, thus affecting the ability to adopt the new role successfully.

Partner difficulties included: having different approaches to organizing and implementing the day; expectations of each other's approach and style which are not fulfilled; inflexibility of partner; hierarchical relationship of partnership.

This last comment demonstrated one of the tensions involved when skills considered essential for the role conflict in a collaborative situation. Although it was necessary to be extremely organised when preparing for and implementing NEMP's assessment procedures, individual ways of organizing things may conflict. In situations like this it is necessary that those involved have developed the skills and strategies to deal effectively with conflict situations to minimize the impact of disagreement on role performance.

Administrators who had experienced a positive relationship with their partner also made comments concerning the potential difficulties if the collaborative role was not successful.

At the end of the five weeks administrating…

At times I have felt that I needed advice on the difficulties of working with my partner. I think some of those times have caused me the only real stress in the job. However, we are expected to work closely for six weeks with a stranger - in constant close proximity. I suppose there's bound to be difficulties. Having said that, I know she has probably found me difficult to work with too. I've done quite a bit of tongue biting to keep the peace, but inwardly I've been annoyed. I probably should have brought it out in the open.

A collaborative relationship cannot be treated as 'natural' and left to evolve entirely on its own. It is a purposeful relationship, established with professional goals in mind, and needs constant maintenance. Communication is critical in order to clarify misunderstandings and confirm mutual understandings. Collaboration requires parity among participants, where each person's contribution is equally valued. It is essential for individuals to make the necessary adjustments in order that they have parity as they work together on a specific collaborative task, even if they do not have parity in other situations (Friend & Cook, 2003: 6). A perceived disparity in professional ability seems to have been a cause of partnership difficulties in several administrator situations. Instances of this occurred when a classroom teacher was partnered with a teacher from a management background and the classroom teacher felt that her comments, systems of organisation and ideas were not valued. It also occurred between teachers with significant differences in their amounts of teaching experience, where the more experienced teacher dominated the partnership leaving the other teacher feeling under-valued.

Salend and Johansen (1977) focused on the concerns teachers have about working collaboratively and how they addressed and resolved those concerns. They identified factors that contributed to the development of successful collaborative work. They suggested that training in adult-adult communication, active listening, conflict resolution and problem solving needs to be provided for adults becoming involved in collaborative work (1977: 8). Individuals need to learn ways to negotiate working effectively together that enables honest communication, risk taking, acknowledging the perspectives and experiences of their partner and letting go of absolute control (1977: 9). Friend and Cook, (2003:170) acknowledge that professional educators have been well trained to work with children but propose that they know surprisingly little when it comes to the adult-adult interactions that drive collaboration. They suggest that considerable attention should be given to assisting educators to develop positive communication skills with other adults. This enables them to attend to relationship issues right from the beginning, and as they rise along the way, in order to develop the trust required to give and receive authentic criticism of one another.

By the end of the administrating period, more administrators acknowledged that working effectively with a partner was an important skill to have developed (Figure 9). It appeared that having performed the role of teacher administrator and developed a better understanding of the administration process and the procedures for setting up that process, the importance of a good collaborative working relationship with one's partner was reinforced.

Another difficulty experienced by administrators was questioning and prompting students appropriately, which required administrators to deviate from the script. For a number of teacher administrators, 'following the script' in order to facilitate the assessment procedure was a difficult task (Figure 10). Administrators recognised the importance of following the script accurately in order to acquire valid data, and included it in their most important ideas learnt during the training week (Figure 5). Most of the difficulties with following the script arose from the use of prompts and questioning in order to elicit more information from students (Figure 10). Administrators felt that they needed more guidance as to what was acceptable prompting if the 'script' was not comprehended by students, as they were unsure as to how much they could acceptably deviate from the script in order to elicit a response. Following the NEMP process accurately is a crucial part of taking on the administrator role. By acknowledging it as one of the most important aspects of the role, teachers demonstrate that they have an understanding of what is required of them in their new role. However, it seems that in order to adopt the role successfully there is a need to be prepared differently for this aspect of the role before they go out and work in schools.

Comments received throughout the administration procedure include: