brilliant application form and guidance v1

7/27/2019 Brilliant Application Form and Guidance v1

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www. thebrilliantclub .org

application Form

and guidance 2011 The Brilliant Club

PhD students


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Dear applicant,

Thank you for your interest in applying to work as a Brilliant Club tutor. This application form andguidance document contains everything that you need to complete your application, and is splitaccordingly into two sections: 1) a guide to the application process and 2) an application form.Please read the guidance carefully before returning your completed application form along with acopy of your academic CV.

Note To complete the application form you will need to fill in each of the fields, save the document

as a PDF and then return to us via email at [email protected].

If you have any specific questions about the application process, or about The Brilliant Club moregenerally, then please get in touch with Simon Coyle and he will be happy to help you.

Email: [email protected]

Phone: 07939 800 226

1) Guide to the application process

We want to ensure that we recruit exceptional tutors and we have worked hard to develop anapplication process that is thorough and effective, as well as being transparent and consistent.We believe that an effective application process is one where we see you perform at your best andso we have created this guidance document to help support you throughout the application process.

The application process is broken down into two stages: the application form and the interview.Whilst you may have already met (or arranged to meet) with us for an informal discussion aboutwhat we do, how we do it and how you can get involved, we do not take anything from thesediscussions into consideration as part of the application process. We will address the different stagesof the application process in turn after we have briefly outlined what we are looking for in tutors.


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What we are looking for in tutors

Our application process is designed to identify applicants with the key skills that we believe arecentral to outstanding teaching and learning, who share our core values and will strive to embody

those values as a Brilliant Club tutor. We have included our planning diagrams below in order to giveyou a clear idea of what we are looking for in our tutors:


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As these diagrams show, we are looking for applicants who have the potential to deliver excellentsmall-group tutorials and who are highly motivated to help support The Brilliant Club in our missionto widen access to top universities.

We are working to create an education system that connects challenging schools and the

postgraduate community, fostering effective, lasting and meaningful links that are underpinned byexcellent teaching and learning and by positive action to widen access to top universities.Indeed, one of our main goals is that the chance to work with these students will become anaspirational choice for a significant proportion of PhD students.

In order to make this vision a reality, we are looking to recruit PhD students who not only meet ourrequirements in terms of key skills and core values, but who will ideally share our commitment tosocial justice and champion our cause within postgraduate communities.

Whilst school students are our primary beneficiaries, we think that working for The Brilliant Club

offers fantastic opportunities for PhD students too. More than just providing meaningful communityengagement, we aim to support your development as educators with a programme of high-qualitytraining and support.

Applicants often ask us whether they need to have previous experience of teaching or working withyoung people; the short answer is no. We do not require applicants to have relevant experience,although we do look favourably on evidence of success working as a teacher or working with youngpeople. What we are looking for are people who share our attitude to education, who demonstrateour key skills and core values, and who are excellent problem-solvers.

We are not looking for the finished article. We are looking for applicants who have the potential todeliver excellent small-group tutorials and who are motivated to make a difference.

We are confident that our interview process accurately identifies these people and that our trainingand support programme ensures that they will do an outstanding job.

So, to give yourself the best possible chance of success, please read this guidance thoroughly andthink carefully about how you can demonstrate what we are looking for.


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The application process: step-by-step

Guide to the application form

Step 1) The application form

The application form is designed to help us assess your motivation to apply to become a tutor, anyexperience that you have of teaching and of working with young people, and your suitability to

deliver (and potentially develop) programmes of study in different subject areas. Please limit youranswers to a maximum of 200 words and try to prioritise your answers as indicated in the question.

Step 2) The academic CV

Along with the application form we also ask you to submit an academic CV. As well as being a sourceof information that you may not have been able to fit on the application form, we also use thedocument to help us assess your academic record and areas of expertise. Please ensure that the CVyou send is up-to-date and includes full contact details.


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After we have received your application form and academic CV we will consider your application andif you meet our requirements we will invite you to an assessment centre at our offices in London.

Guide to the assessment centre

The assessment centre is split into four constituent parts:

A seven minute mini-lesson A short written evaluation of the mini-lesson A one-to-one interview A fifteen minute paired activity

Step 3a) The mini-lesson

As part of the interview process, we ask you to prepare and deliver a seven minute mini-lesson on anaspect of your PhD thesis. We recommend that you think about the challenges associated withdelivering such a short lesson and ensure that your lesson has a clearly stated learning objective.The lesson should be accessible but challenging, and should be pitched at a level you would expect16 year-old Brilliant Club students to meet.

Your interviewer(s) will act as 16 year-old Brilliant Club student(s), and you are expected to interactwith us as such. Please do not expect any behavioural issues/interruptions from your interviewer(s);

they act as students not to test your behaviour management skills but in order to assess yourcommunication, empathy and leadership skills.

We also use the mini-lesson to assess your organisational skills and we are looking for applicants toplan lessons into appropriate sections and manage their timings effectively. Your mini-lesson will bestrictly timed and you will not be allowed to run over seven minutes.

You will be able to use a whiteboard and/or a projector if you want to. We will provide whiteboardpens, biros and paper but any other resources you wish to use you will have to bring yourself,including a USB stick with any PowerPoint documents.

Finally, we would like to stress that we are asking you to plan a lesson and not a presentation . To aidfurther preparation we have included an excerpt from a short article that addresses the question:What makes an effective teacher?

Tradition in literature and films show the charismatic teacher as the heroic figure from H.G. WellsMr Chips to Robin Williams in Dead Poets Society.

But what does research tell us? In the 1970s, an observational research and classroom learningevaluation study based at Leicester University investigated teachers classroom behaviour and itsimpact on pupil progress.


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Some behavioural features were consistently exhibited by more effective teachers:

High numbers of interactions with pupils Higher level questioning of pupils Regular constructive feedback Encouraged independence - pupils think things through for themselves

(The Oracle Study, 1970)

Furthermore, in 1979 Michael Rutters landmark study found that effective teachers:

Created a work -centred environment Often engaged and interacted with the whole class Had high expectations of pupils Provided stimulating learning activit ies that were challenging Used higher order questioning of pupils Consistently praised pupils for their achievements

(Rutter et al, 1979)

You can read the rest of the article at the following site:https://czone.eastsussex.gov.uk/sites/gtp/library/professional/Documents/induction/Effective-teachers.pdf

Step 3b) Evaluation of the mini-lesson

In order to assess your reflection skills we will ask you to complete a short written evaluation of yourmini-lesson. The evaluation usually takes about five minutes and there is nothing you need to do toprepare in advance.

Step 3c) The interview

The interview is designed to assess your attitude to education, the skills you have developed as aresult of your experiences and the approaches that you might take in certain situations. It is brokenup into three sections according to these three criteria. The interview usually takes about thirtyminutes and you can prepare by thinking about examples where you have demonstrated the keyskills and core values that we are looking for.

Step 3d) The paired activity

The paired activity is designed to assess your interaction with others as well as your key skills andcore values. Before the paired activity starts you will be given a brief to read through and then thechance to ask any questions. The paired activity is strictly timed and you will not be allowed to runover fifteen minutes. There is nothing you need to do to prepare in advance.


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2) Application form

Personal/Work Details

Name:

Date of Birth:

Nationality:

PhD thesis title:

University:

Expected date of completion:

Do you have permission to work in the UK? YES NO

If not then are you planning to get permission in the next six months? YES NO

Do you have an enhanced disclosure CRB check? YES NO

If so then when is it dated from?

Given your likely schedule, please indicate which of the following periods you expect to be availablefor work over the next academic year:

Sep-Oct YES NO

Nov-Dec YES NO

Jan-Feb YES NO

Feb-Mar YES NO

Apr-May YES NO

Jun-Jul YES NO


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Your Motivation

Please answer all questions in no more than 200 words

Your Experience

Please answer all questions in no more than 200 words:

1. Why are you interested in working with outstanding school students?

2. What do you hope to get out of the role on a personal and/or professional level?

3. How does working as a Brilliant Club tutor fit into your longer-term plans?

1. What teaching experience do you have?Prioritise undergraduate teaching (especially tutorials), then classroom teaching, then other teaching.


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Delivering Programmes

Please answer all questions in no more than 200 words

Which of the following subjects do you feel confident that you would be able to deliver excellentsmall-group tutorials to outstanding students:

Please put an x under the relevant headings

Subject Confident Very Confident Subject Confident Very Confident

Area studies BiologyChemistry ClassicsEconomics English LanguageEnglish Literature GeographyHistory Int. RelationsLaw MathematicsPhilosophy PhysicsPolitics Psychology

2. What experience do you have of working with young people?Prioritise experience with young people aged 14-18 and/or within multi-cultural communities.

3. What leadership experience do you have?Prioritise experience where you have championed a cause.

Whether you have teaching experience or not, explain why you think that you are well suitedto delivering excellent small-group tutorials to outstanding students .


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Developing your own programme

In order to maximise engagement from PhD students, we strive to minimise the amount of preparation that isrequired of them as tutors. Indeed, we are committed to the principle that we will always offer tutors theoption of delivering programmes that are pre-planned and out-of-the-box.

However, whilst it is not the expectation that PhD students will develop their own programmes, we are equallycommitted to the principle that we will encourage, support and pay them to do so.

We are committed to this principle because, in our experience, the quality of teaching and learning oftencompares favourably to out-of-the-box tutorials. We strongly believe that it is also a great opportunity forPhD students to develop their teaching skills under guidance from qualified teachers.

If you are interested in developing your own programme please indicate this by deleting the appropriate textin the box below. If you are interested in developing your own programme and you have initial ideas in mind atthis stage, could you also outline the content and rationale in the box below:

Please tick the appropriate box

Interested in developing a programme Not interested in developing my own programme

I do have initial ideas at this stage I do not have any initial ideas at this stage

If you are interested in developing your own programme and you have initial ideas in mind at this stage,please outline the content and rationale

Please explain in no more than 500 words