School/Employer reviews

This is to recommend that Forumosa include links to reviews of different schools/employers.

Take a look at how reviews of brokers are listed on this website (along the left margin): elitetrader.com/

Note that reviews for each specific broker are consolidated in one place over the space of years. One can readily see a diverse set of opinions, and gauge those opinions over time. All in all, this is a great format - head and shoulders above requiring people to perform a search and then make sense of all the myriad results. Teachers would love this change, or come to love it, I’m certain.

Thanks, HooknSinker. It’s a good idea.

[quote=“HooknSinker”]This is to recommend that Forumosa include links to reviews of different schools/employers.

Take a look at how reviews of brokers are listed on this website (along the left margin): elitetrader.com/[/quote]
That’s a nice idea ( :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: )

EliteTrader.com builds its ratings on these dimensions: Quote & Execution Speed, Range of Services, Training & Tech Support, Commissions & Fees. What would be the best 3 or 4 characteristics to rate schools in Taiwan?

How about:
Pay & Hours
Training & Environment
Effectiveness of curriculum
Ease to deliver curriculum

I’d suggest:
Pay & Hours
Environment
Management
Extra curricular activities
Materials used

I’d stay away from curriculum due to the fact that most people aren’t even cognizant of what a good curriculum is, but also the fact that we have zero input for the most part. I’d focused more on materials used having been in several company demo situations where the person showing us the products they sell to our school was showing us things that we didn’t even know existed. Puppet had this happen to him with some MPM material in the past.

Extra curricular activities is important because some schools need/want their teachers to do Saturday or Sunday demos to pull in students. They also have PTA’s and other activities that you may or may not want to attend.

[quote=“Okami”]I’d suggest:
Pay & Hours
Environment
Management
Extra curricular activities
Materials used

I’d stay away from curriculum due to the fact that most people aren’t even cognizant of what a good curriculum is, but also the fact that we have zero input for the most part. I’d focused more on materials used having been in several company demo situations where the person showing us the products they sell to our school was showing us things that we didn’t even know existed. Puppet had this happen to him with some MPM material in the past.

Extra curricular activities is important because some schools need/want their teachers to do Saturday or Sunday demos to pull in students. They also have PTA’s and other activities that you may or may not want to attend.[/quote]

I think curriculum is important; newbies will want a well-established, micromanaged (if somewhat inferior) curriculum, while more experienced teachers will want either a cookie-cutter curriculum (for more money with less effort) or more freedom to work within a certain curriculum and do things their own way for the best effect. Some schools also claim for themselves any lesson planning you do while in their employ; this may be a factor for those wishing to strike out on their own.

My suggestions:

Pay & Hours/Scheduling Flexibility
Environment/Extra curricular activities
Management/Admin Support
Curriculum/Training
Students (aims, age, expectations)

Pay and Hours
Teaching Environment
Learning Environment
Effectiveness (which could include curriculum and/or approach(es)/method(s))

Maybe it would make sense to rate different “types” of schools on different scales. For example, a “large chain school” like Hess might be rated on:
Pay and Hours
Training
Teaching Environment
Learning Environment
Teacher Turnover
Effectiveness

Whereas a Mom-and-Pop would be better rated on:
Salary
Curriculum
Flexibility
Materials used
Learning Environment
Extra curricular activities

As a (new) teacher looking for other places to work, what kind of information would you look for in a school profile:

  1. Map
  2. Size of staff
  3. Years at location
  4. Adult students only

What other kinds of information would be valuable specifically for teaching in a buxiban?

And would you be interested in writing profiles?

If you are interested in writing 3 to 5 paragraphs per buxiban location, please contact us. Maybe we can collaborate or we might be willing to commission you to write. This would involve doing some investigative reporting and running a school survey. Drop us a line at admin (at) forumosa.com and write: BUXIBAN REVIEWER in the Subject line