Book Reviews

Better Classroom Behaviour

Better Classroom Behaviour
by Phil Freeman and Mary Hartley (illustrated by Craig Dixon) Pub. Chalkface Project ISBN 1 86025 448 9

Better Classroom Behaviour is not a book as such. It's a well-introduced teachers' activity pack for Key Stage 3 & 4 PSE lessons. The two authors have a wealth of classroom experience between them, and the 'Points To Be Aware Of' section in the Teachers' Notes that accompany each activity suggest that all of these activities have been tried-and-tested.

The 28 Activities on offer range from basic self-awareness and awareness of others to school-specific problems such as lesson disruption, working in groups and bullying. Much thought has obviously gone into the ordering of activities, which, used in sequence, would make a logical and satisfying year's PSE work.

The activities are:
1 WHY HAVE SCHOOLS?  The role of schools in promoting learning and good behaviour
2 MY PREVIOUS SCHOOL  Focusing on learning and development in previous schools
3 TICKS AND CROSSES Evaluating the system of rewards and sanctions in the school
4 RULES OKAY  A prioritising task to assess the relative importance of particular rules in society
5 RULES AT WORK AND PLAY  Looking at the importance of rules at work and in sport
6 WHAT A GOOD LESSON!  Discussing the conditions necessary for effective learning
7 TEACHERS ARE HUMAN TOO  A scriptwriting activity to raise awareness of teachers’
feelings and emotions
8 BE NICE TO YOUR TEACHER Devising guidelines to promote positive behaviour in class
9 WHERE YOU WORK  A design activity focusing on how the arrangement of furniture can
affect the working environment
10 THEY’RE DISTRACTING ME!  How to deal with anti-social and distracting behaviour
11 A PLEASANT ENVIRONMENT  Planning a campaign to improve the school environment
12 BEHIND THE BIKE SHEDS  Encouraging better behaviour in the school’s ‘trouble spots’
13 PARTNERSHIP  The partnership of parents, students and school in effective education
14 THE IMAGE PROBLEM Reflecting on the school’s image in the wider community
15 IN MY DAY...  Analysing how education and schools have changed over the years
16 RECORD OF ACHIEVEMENT  Looking at Records of Achievement and their purpose
17 GOOD TIMING  Devising strategies for improving attendance and punctuality
18 BE SMART  Producing a plan for encouraging the school to wear the uniform correctly
19 TOOLS OF THE TRADE  Creating a story to illustrate the importance of having all the
equipment necessary for lessons
20 ROLE MODELS  Raising awareness of the importance of suitable role models
21 BEING PRACTICAL  Focusing on the need for clear behaviour guidelines in practical lessons
22 IN GROUPS  A planning activity focusing on the skills of group work
23 CLASS CLOWN  Devising strategies for dealing with class attention-seekers
24 TALKING OUT OF TURN  Looking at the importance of appropriate language
25 NO AGGRO  Planning a documentary on the subject of aggression and violence in school
26 BULLYING OFF  Creating a policy for dealing with bullying
27 MIXED OR SINGLES?  Debating the advantages and disadvantages of single sex learning
28 I’M OKAY  Devising strategies for raising self- esteem

Each activity comes as a photocopiable student's worksheet, with attractive cartoons by Craig Dixon. Each worksheet introduces four assignments (tailored to a one-hour PSE lesson.) The accompanying Teacher's Notes recommend which assignments should be done individually, in groups, orally, in role-play or as a written exercise. The Teacher's Notes also provide suggestions for extending the topic beyond the worksheet.

This is a valuable contribution to the relatively-new discipline of PSE, which teachers of all subjects could usefully read.

'Persuasion' by James Borg

"I'm persuaded that this book is an essential aid to getting people on your side. Invaluable"
Sue Lawley, BBC Radio and TV presenter

"This is a handy readable guide... the author persuaded me to review this book. Damn, he is good"
Jeremy Vine, The Times

"This book should be on every individual's bookshelf"
Sir John Harvey-Jones

When i took this book, my first thought was that it is another self-coaching book saying that everyone can do everything, just they need to trust in themselves and know particular concepts.

This book is an extremely easy to read and follow. Author tends to give a clear how-to and Dos and Donts advises throughout the book. James Borg certainly did a good job in keeping the reader interested. Each chapter has subtopics, funny pictures and real life examples.

This book tells how to keep audience interested, how to make people believe you and how to listen to other people. Most of the time author relates the art of persuasion to the work life. How can you succeed in the business if you  do not know how to communicate effectively? A good review and summary of the book can be read here

Of course it is all true... Me, personally, I did not really enjoy the book so much. It was a nice reading and it gave me couple of tips. However, for me it was just a repetition of some social psychological theories in the form of ideas for 'masses'. Nevertheless, this is what the book is about. It gives you the ideas from the great work psychologist and coach, James Borg, and he made it so understandable and easy to read and learn that everyone can get something from the book.

NLP for Classroom Management

Author: Stelios Perdios
www.easyteachepublishing.com

This is a fascinating, useful book that makes you go 'oh'. Within the first ten pages I had two 'oh' moments. The first was when the author explained why it was that I felt obligated to buy a particular gift for a child at £22 in the store when I knew that I could get the same item for £15 online (because there were none on the shelf and the assistant had gone to get it from the back for me and I felt obliged to return the favour by buying it). In a later example of how toy manufacturers boost post-Christmas sales by creating a demand pre-Christmas that they then don't fulfill by limiting supplies, I recognised that some of my friends' children were getting extra presents because they had been promised a certain games console and had my second 'oh' moment.

As NLP for Classroom Management is based on a course, the structure reflects that and you will have techniques that you can use in class by the end of Chapter 1. The focus is very much on practice with just enough theory to help you apply NLP. Stelios Perdios provides lots of examples to illustrate his clear, concise text. He uses stories, suggestions and provides exercises for putting the techniques into practice. On occasion Perdios points out how he is using those techniques in teaching you how to build rapport, gain compliance and change behaviour. The book is straightforward and jargon-free; even those new to NLP will find this an easy read.

In the last two chapters Perdios shows you how to discover the motivational strategies of an individual. This is a more time consuming process and will be of most use if you have one-to-one time with your pupils. If most of your time is in the classroom, then this information may be of interest in examining your own motivational strategy.

All the techniques you'll learn from this book can be used far more widely than the classroom. As such the book is very useful, engagingly written and well worth the time to read it.

Reviewed by Victoria Snelling

What your teachers don't know and your students can't tell you

What your teachers don't know and your students can't tell you.

Author: Mark Nicolaides
www.easyclassroommanagement.com

Chapter 1: The essentials
Chapter 2: Your state of mind
Chapter 3: Your appearance
Chapter 4: What to say to a class
Chapter 5: How to speak to a class
Chapter 6: Body Language
Chapter 7: Success Habits

The author has been a teacher for the last 13 years and aims to share his experiences of trying to gain the "compliance" in the learning environment with young students.  He claims that everything in the book works but if you want to get something specific out of the book then use the chapter headings for your particular need.

Chapter 1: The Essentials
This chapter aims to cover your need to be a leader and the basic psychology of students.
As a teacher you are the leader.  Pupils expect it and they will only follow someone who they believe  they can trust.  He states that ALL children:

• on the outset want to learn
• they want to be liked
• they want approval from the teacher
• they want to feel safe in the classroom
• they want to feel important
• they want to be inspired

If this is not happening in your classroom then their basic needs are not being met.  However, if basic rules are followed in each lesson this will go a long way to achieving the above points.

Chapter 2: Your state of mind
This is the most important element you can control to influence your classes. The author recommends a film called "The Secret" because it gives an insight into the essential mechanisms in which we can create anything in our lives.  If you believe you are a good teacher then the rest should follow.  It recommends that preparing for a lesson is vital and gives a check list of what to do- tell yourself you are a good teacher and visualise a well behaved class.
I think these ideas are good if you are starting out in your teaching career or are having massive problems with your class, but not something you would have time to do before every lesson.

Chapter 3: Your appearance
It is true to say that people send out signals all the time.  How we look is the first thing pupils take in when they walk into your classroom.  This chapter basically makes you think and assess what messages your clothes say about you. I think common sense on this one prevails- nothing to revealing or scruffy.  He advocates a suit as a good idea to give a signal of authority.  I am sure that individual schools will have their own policy on dress codes for staff.

Chapter 4: What to say to a class
Again, I think this chapter would be great for NQT's (Newly Qualified Teachers) wanting to make a great first impression.  It encompasses your initial first impression and how to put the class at ease.  The author  gets you to ask questions of yourself and how you want to be perceived as a teacher.  He gives 4 useful points for "good protocol" to use in any new class:
1. A formal meeting and greeting of each pupil
2. Register
3. Two minute introduction of yourself
4. A well structured lesson
The rest of the chapter covers putting the children at ease, really liking the children you are in charge of, how to give instructions, repeating key words and phrases and if you make a mistake to apologise for it.
I think one of the most important sections in this chapter is how to deal with confrontation.   Good advice is to take advice from other teachers after the heat has died down.  Being emotional and reactive is the response that many trouble makers want.

Chapter 5: How to speak to a class
1. Be concise- waffling is an invitation for trouble for children who get bored easily.
2. Speak faster, change pace, tone and volume- again all ways to keep children interested.
3. Use silences- for effect in the right place!
4. Never shout or get angry- It is true that this baits certain pupils.
The chapter finishes with ideas on how to speak persuasively.  A 3 to 1 technique is recommended-  give them 3 plausible reasons that are not your motive to do something and then tell them the actual reason.  He gives three examples of how this works and it is about the yes/no balance.  In my mind a positive before a negative works better.  I think this idea is really a matter of opinion.  You will know how receptive your class are to getting things done.

Chapter 6: Body language
This chapter covers all areas of the body!  Head, eyes, arms, hands and non-verbal communication.  The author goes into the psychology of different bodily gestures.  For example, folding arms means you are quite defensive.  There is a good do's and don'ts list at the end of the chapter for overall good body language.

Chapter 7: Successful habits
This gives a checklist of how to be a successful classroom practitioner. He is quite right when he says that  we must be role models for our students.  How we are has a massive influence on our young charges.  Trust is key in successful classroom management.  Other important areas mentioned are- consistency in your style of teaching, routines for lessons, classroom expectations and praise and sanctions.  There is a useful list of sanctions that you could use.  He finishes off by discussing the importance of planning and understanding why pupils misbehave.  Again he goes into the thinking of why children feel like they have to misbehave.  There are some guidelines on how to make breaking the rules less rewarding.

This is a very positive books packed with lots of ideas.  It makes you analyse your own classroom practice and could hold answers if you are lacking in a certain area.  It is a well laid out book if you just want to dip into it for something specific.

Anna Crichton    

Magic Classroom Management

Magic Classroom Management- How to get the most from the worst kids in school.

www.classroom-management.org

This e book is very readable and gives a lot of ideas to overcome any problems you might be encountering in the classroom, from mild disruption to serious behavioural issues that could be making your teaching life a misery.

The author is American and reading this I got a sense of the difference in problems and ways to solve them that could be encountered in America and Britain.  However, a lot of ideas can be taken on board and adapted for your own situation.  As long as you apply a common sense approach and know what works for the kids you teach, this book could help you!
Magic classroom management is a long book but is helpfully split into an introduction considering why teachers have to deal with behaviour problems in the first place, followed by 3 main sections with sub-sections.

What I am going to do is give an overview of the themes of each section and pick out useable examples for taking into the classroom.
Introduction:
The author starts of by saying that children are badly behaved.  This is his bottom line and the view that he has come to as a science teacher for many years.  There are many outside influences that children are affected by, such as T.V, print, internet and cinema.  Whatever the causes are we, as teachers, need to decide whether we accept it or challenge it?  I think that most good teachers would want to get the most from the children they teach and surely accepting bad behaviour as part of the everyday norm is a sign of defeat!
He makes a very good point when he says that the one thing you as a teacher have control over is yourself.  The way you deal with problem children is under your direct control and everything else is not, so it will only cause you stress to dwell or change it.
Part 1:
The easiest way to deal with behaviour problems is to prevent them happening in the first place

From reading this heading it does sound logical that this would be the case!  This section aims to focus on the skills, attributes and environmental factors which must be in place before behaviour management can be successful.  In section 1.1 it features attributes of 'The best teacher in the school.'  This is useful to compare to your own personality, so you can identify areas that you might like to work on.  It goes on to suggest that keeping children feeling good about themselves can reflect on their behaviour: "a child in a good mood in a lesson is less likely to misbehave during that lesson."

He places quite a large emphasis on teacher humour and how this can have a positive effect on the behaviour of pupils.  He suggests telling jokes to lighten the atmosphere and having funny quotes of the week.  I personally thought the idea of going to a comedy club to see how the professionals use humour was a step too far but make your own judgement!!  There are 2 links to funny poetry for kids.

The next area he focuses on really is lesson planning.  I.e:  making sure lessons are interesting and appealing.  Again, common sense tells you that being well planned and trying to find an interesting way to put your point across will go quite a way to holding your audience.   Tied in with this is rewarding good behaviour through reassurance and praise. 

I thought a really interesting idea was the 3 different learning styles which children might get on best with- auditory, kinesthetic or visual.  Knowing how a child learns best is a good way to keep them on board.  Page 18 gives good subject examples of the 3 different methods.

Part 2:
Dealing with disruption and pupils who are off task.

If you have tried everything in section 1 and you are still having problems then this section gives practical ideas about what to do. Basically there is a 4 point guide to getting a child on task:

1. Ignore the behaviour- you can't deal with all bad behaviour so choose what could go unnoticed and be more effective with dealing with the big problems.

2. Use non-verbal signs- a frown, shake of the head,finger to lips is a good way to deal with the culprit without disrupting the whole class.

3. Be near a disruptive pupil - physical proximity might deter them.

4. Use verbal signs- do this if the above has failed!

The rest of section 2 is a five step script that stops disruption.  The 5 headings are:

1. State what you want them to do calmly and clearly.

2. Explain exactly what will happen to them if they continue to misbehave.

3. Give them time to think about your instruction.

4.If they have done as you've asked, acknowledge it!

5. What to do if the sanction has had no effect.

This last section is quite detailed and gives scenarios of a script you could adapt for yourself.

Part 3:

Coping with crises, conflicts and difficult situations.

This section gives steps to deal with major disruptions:

"A crisis situation doesn't just happen without a  build-up or warning- there is always a trigger."

There are 3 stages leading up to a crisis and it is up to the teacher to recognise, reduce or remove them.  It is harder to deal with once the crisis is fully underway.
Stage 1:
Response to a trigger.
Perhaps a crisis at home?  Look for signs of  anxiety.  Gives examples of what to say and do.
Stage 2:
Heightened distress and anxiety.
Look for verbal abuse, aggressive body language or being increasingly withdrawn.  Again gives examples of what to say and do.

Stage 3:  At this point if all else has failed the child would have to be removed from the class, according to school policy.

Conclusion:
At the end of the book are very useful resources to use- ideas for rewards, activities to get to know your pupils, a fun way to train your pupils not to shout etc.

Overall, a good book with useful ideas, but magic classroom management, you decide!

A Crichton

Better Classroom Behaviour

Better Classroom Behaviour

Phil Freeman and Mary Hartley (1999 rev 2002)

Illustrated by Craig Dixon

Published by the Chalkface Project ISBN 1 86025 448 9

The aims of this ebook are stated to be:

Better Classroom Behaviour provides activities that develop and support positive behaviour in school. The pack is suitable for use in PSE* lessons and offers a variety of activities, some written (in a variety of styles) and some discussion based ... The activities encourage students to reflect on how different types of behaviour can affect their own and others’ learning and development.

The pack is suitable for Key Stage 3 and 4 students in mixed ability groups. Why Have Schools? page 9, and My Previous School, page 11, are more suitable for students at the beginning of Key Stage 3.

* I don’t know what a PSE lesson is and it is not defined in the ebook.

The table of contents of this ebook is extensive and far too long to put in its entirety into a review. Let me just give you a few ideas of what is in this ebook then:

·         WHY HAVE SCHOOLS? The role of schools in promoting learning and good behaviour

·         MY PREVIOUS SCHOOL Focusing on learning and development in previous schools

·         TICKS AND CROSSES Evaluating the system of rewards and sanctions in the school

·         RULES OKAY A prioritising task to assess the relative importance of particular rules in society

·         WHAT A GOOD LESSON! Discussing the conditions necessary for effective learning

·         TEACHERS ARE HUMAN TOO A scriptwriting activity to raise awareness of teachers’ feelings and emotions

·         THEY’RE DISTRACTING ME! How to deal with anti-social and distracting behaviour

·         IN MY DAY... Analysing how education and schools have changed over the years

·         ROLE MODELS Raising awareness of the importance of suitable role models

·         CLASS CLOWN Devising strategies for dealing with class attention-seekers

The general guidelines given on page 4 of the ebook are useful and need to be read and understood. These guidelines spell out how to read and use the ebook:

·        Teachers’ notes are opposite the main page of each section

·         Preparing for the lesson: what to do before the lesson begins ...

·         The lesson: how to structure and move through a lesson:

·       Thought starters

·         Reading

·         Oral work

·         Brainstorming

·         Research

·         Working in role or ‘imagine’ exercises

·         Written work

·         Following up the lesson

I am not going to try to review the entire ebook since that would take far too much time and wouldn’t necessarily be useful for you. I am taking four chapters or sections and giving my views on each of those. I have chosen the four sections purely on the basis of their physical location in the book: near the beginning of the ebook, one quarter of the way through, one half way through and the final one near the end of the ebook.

The four sections being reviewed here are

·         Why Have Schools?

·         What a Good Lesson

·         Partnership

·         Class Clown

Why Have Schools?

As stated above, this section begins with a page of teachers’ notes which are structured as follows:

·         Aims

·         Preparation

·         Points To Be Aware Of

·         Classroom Management

·         Extension Activities

The aim of this lesson is

Students reflect upon the need for, and the purpose of, schools. They consider the role of schools in promoting learning and good behaviour.

There is a large picture on page 11 of the ebook, the vast majority of which is taken up by a drawing entitled Cave Dwellers High. That illustration shows a teacher dressed like Fred Flintstone but sporting a bow tie, there are pictures of dinosaurs on the wall behind him and there are two children using flints and crude hammers and g clamps. On another wall, also behind the teacher, there is a notice that says:

National Curriculum

Hunting

Cave cleaning

Clothes making

Cooking

Here are the five points that comprise the lesson:

1 What are schools for? Brainstorm all the reasons for having schools.

2 Look at the illustration of Cave Dwellers High. What subjects would you add to its National Curriculum? Make a list of all the subjects that you think should be taught in present day schools.

3 Could people other than teachers provide for learning? Come up with three ideas for different ways of learning some of the subjects on your list.

4 Write down some of the difficulties in educating young people today. How do schools try to overcome these problems?

5 Draw up rules for learning in Cave Dwellers High. How would you encourage students to behave well? What would you do if they broke the rules?

Well, it’s wacky! This is a different approach to what we might consider could be a traditional view in that at least it is attempting to capture the imagination. As a vehicle for an effective lesson, however, would this work? I can imagine some children would love it and some will be insulted by it. Others will get bogged down worrying about the dinosaurs and yet others will no doubt worry about what other stone age things they think should be on the national curriculum for Fred Flintstone.

You might also have spotted that I have latched on to Fred Flintstone without really thinking about: because there have been new films on Fred and his antics over the last few years, I assume that even young children will be familiar with him and might make the same connections that I have.

What’s my alternative to the teaching of Why Have Schools in the context of Citizenship? At this stage I don’t know. Let’s look at another lesson plan, set of ideas for classroom management and see if there are any further clues there.

What a Good Lesson

The aims of this lesson are:

Students investigate the conditions necessary for effective learning to take place. They draw up a list of suggestions for what makes a good lesson.

In terms of class room management, the advice given for this lesson is:

Class feedback after Activity 1 will enable you to focus on crucial points.

In Activity 3, you may wish to highlight the idea that effective learning is not possible when there is disruption. There is scope for role play of the situation in the illustration if you wish.

As with the previous lesson, there are just a few points or activities for the teacher to set and there is a large illustration to work from:

1 Think about a really good lesson that you have had recently. What made it good?

How did the teacher make it a good lesson? How did the students help to make it a good lesson? Tell a partner about the lesson and why it was effective.

2 Look at the picture of a typical lesson in Woodhead High School. Brainstorm all the things that are preventing learning from taking place.

3 In groups, make a list of everything that helps to make a lesson effective. Compare your lists.

4 Imagine that you are the teacher in the illustration. Decide three things you would do to improve the lesson. Use your list from the previous activity to help you.

Activities 1 and 3 I like: traditional but realistic and highly focused: the majority of pupils can respond to all aspects of them.

Activities 2 and 4 relate to the illustration. It’s a pity I can’t replicate the illustration here but it portrays a riotous classroom scene with all sorts of mayhem going on. There is a point to the illustration as it shows the teacher saying, That’s rubbish, you stupid child. A pupil leaving the room saying, I need to go to the toilet. Back in a minute. There is a riot going on and, as a reflection of when the illustration was drawn, there is a pupil listening to a personal TAPE PLAYER!!

Activity 2 contains an in joke too, as the school is called Woodhead High ... this is a bit dated now!

I suppose this illustration is more sensible than the stone age one in that it is at least modern and contains things that will be happening somewhere throughout every school day. Using an illustration such as this must be rather limiting though. The general emphasis of this lesson could easily become a colouring in lesson as the extension activity is for pupils to draw yet another cartoon of a learning situation.

What will the high achievers in this student group be doing as their slower colleagues are colouring in?

Partnership

The lesson on partnership relates to

... the partnership between parents, students and school in effective education. They design a leaflet to promote ways of working together.

Again there are four activities for this lesson:

1 People often talk of education as a partnership of students, their parents and the school. What do you think this means?

Brainstorm your ideas.

2 How could your school, its students and their parents form an effective partnership?

The illustration should give you some ideas.

3 Design a leaflet suggesting ways in which the partnership could encourage effective learning.

4 Write a letter from your school to the parents of a (sic) imaginary student about whom the school is concerned.

Swap your letter with that of a partner.

Write a reply to your partner’s letter.

And again, there is an illustration to hand out; and again, the illustration is to be used as central to part of the lesson.

The illustration shows three pairs of people:

·         Parents

·         Teachers

·         Students

Each pairing is accompanied by a pithy statement, such as the parents saying that they want firm discipline and lots of homework.

Of the three lessons I have reviewed so far, I like this one most. Again, all pupils can be persuaded to have an opinion of the contents suggested by activities 1, 3 and 4. Whilst the illustration in this case is nowhere near as wacky as in the previous cases, you might think that it could constrict any discussions that the pupils might have.

The points to be aware of notes in the Teachers’ Notes section wisely points out that

Students’ family backgrounds may be very different, with some parents or guardians being less supportive of the concept of partnership than others. You will need to show sensitivity regarding situations where home/school relationships are fraught.

A good and concerned teacher and school environment will be aware of the sensitivities here but still, they need handling carefully without a doubt.

Class Clown

At primary school, I don’t remember a class clown but throughout secondary school there were three in our class. I have to say, though, that they weren’t as riotous as some clowns that are depicted on television and in novels and so on; but they were there. Of course, some class clowns bring relief to teacher and pupils alike. Like this bit of banter between a boy and teacher during a Classics lesson,

Boy:                 I think I’ll go to Oxford sir

Teacher:           The only way you’ll get to Oxford Boy is on the X13 bus!

In this ebook, the lesson has the aim of making pupils aware of others’ attention seeking behaviour and devising strategies to deal with it.

1 All schools have their share of students who behave badly to get attention.

Brainstorm the kinds of behaviour you associate with ‘class clowns’.

What are the effects of this behaviour on the teacher and on other students? Think of at least three points.

2 Discuss the reasons for students behaving like the one in the illustration.

Write down the main ideas you come up with.

3 What advice would you give a) his teacher b) his classmates about how to deal with his behaviour? Report back to the class.

4 Make a list of guidelines for dealing with ‘class clowns’.

There is an illustration to accompany this lesson and it features in one activity to be used in the lesson. It shows four class clown situations that the pupils should recognise and discuss.

There isn’t the same warning in the Teachers’ Notes as far as sensitivities are concerned but there ought to be: class clowns usually are attention seekers simply because they don’t get enough attention at home. Look around the staff room or the office and make a note of the chatterboxes: they are likely to be the ones living alone or in a strained relationship where one to one communication is restricted.

I think a fantastic resource here is the film Kes. It’s an old film now, set in northern England in the 1960s but it illustrates a lot of the points made in this lesson and, more interestingly, throughout this ebook. There are some marvellous performances in this film by adult and child alike. I’m afraid I’m not sure what classification this film has but I am sure it was on the television again fairly recently during the day so it can’t be more than a PG. If the film isn’t appropriate, the book, or extracts from the book, certainly is.

There is a mis identified class clown incident in this book, by the way, when the central character, Casper, starts reciting the sea areas in the Shipping forecast from the radio: Dogger, Fisher, German Bight ... the teacher dismisses Casper when he could have used him to enhance the lesson. Priceless!

Overall, I would be wary of using this ebook in its entirety but then again I have never taught Citizenship to anyone other than my own children and my reactions are purely based on what I think I might feel if made to take part in these lessons using the resources and activities as presented here.

Reviewed by

Duncan Williamson

14^th January 2008

eTeach: A Teacher Resource for Learning the Strategies of Master Teachers

ebook Review

Adam Waxler (2004) eTeach: A Teacher Resource for Learning the Strategies of Master Teachers

The chapter headings of this ebook are

Chapter 1: Strategies

Chapter 2: Time Management

Chapter 3: Presentations

Chapter 4: Reading

Chapter 5: Homework

Chapter 6: Grading

Chapter 7: Review Games

Chapter 8: Room Layout

Chapter 9: Methods

Chapter 10: Classroom Management

Chapter 11: Closure

Waxler begins this ebook with the following insights:

Have you ever noticed that the older students get the more teachers seem to move away from teaching strategies that are proven to work?

Why in kindergarten are students actively engaged in learning, but college students end up sitting and listening to a professor lecture for three hours?

Think about it ... in which class did the students really learn more?

The focus of this ebook is on well educated students as opposed to well managed students. The ebook is based on the premise that the best "management system" is a strong "instructional system".

He then says:

I am currently using every strategy that is written in this ebook in my own classroom (unless noted).

And then

However, while the ebook is suited for all levels of education, from kindergarten right through graduate school, my middle school experience definitely shines through.

The ebook however, is not more suited for secondary education.

Chapter 1 is the strategy chapter in which Waxler sets out what he considers the fundamentals of good teaching. One is the pass option that he gives his students: I have to confess that I don’t understand the purpose of it.

I do like much of what else Waxler has to say in chapter 1 but I’m not sure that I like his delivery style: I get the impression that he is acting out a military role.

Teacher: OK, please finish up what you’re writing. Now take 2 minutes and share your answer with your partner.

Teacher: How much time do you have, Gabby?

Gabby: 2 minutes (or “pass”)

Teacher: And what am I asking you to do, Tania?

Tania: Share our answers with our partners.

Teacher: 2 minutes…GO!

The strategies are:

Checking for understanding

The pass option

Wait time

On the clock

The all write and the pair share

The interaction sequence

The monitor map

Chapter 2 concerns time management and Waxler says that time should be split into two:

The year

The day

Actually there is nothing unusual here. Take a look at what Waxler calls the curriculum map and you’ll probably find that you have prepared one before: I certainly have. Waxler is from the USA so he talks about things such as the 8^th Grade, which mean nothing to me: not a criticism, just something for non Americans to get to grips with.

There are other matters under review in chapter two, for example State examinations, that are definitely American. You will need to read these parts very carefully if you are not working in the American system.

The rest of the book is a good and solid list of top tips for teacher and Waxler is careful to remind us from time to time that checking for understanding is important. He also emphasises the importance of setting objectives by making the good point that if you don’t know what the kids are supposed to learn then how will they?

I would be interested to know who agrees with is, from chapter 4:

YOU MUST INCREASE YOUR STUDENTS' KNOWLEDGE AND INTEREST IN A SUBJECT BEFORE YOU READ ABOUT THE SUBJECT!!

Waxler then says, also on page 36

The problem was, like many teachers, I was teaching the mini lessons in the wrong order. There is a tendency for teachers to assign reading at the beginning of the class, followed by a lab, an activity, an experiential exercise, or even a movie or film clip.

I have very rarely assigned pre reading and I know that the only teachers likely to are teachers of adults and highly motivated self starters.

You might not agree with this either, chapter 5 on page 41:

Homework should NEVER be used to teach new material.

With adult and highly motivated students I have done this. Does it work: well, an email from student Carl at 10:30 in the evening on Saturday night asking me for some advice on the new topic suggests that it might!

Waxler does then go on to give some really sound advice on setting homework: see the rest of chapter 5!

Chapter 7 is well worth reading as it contains a lot of good ideas for reviewing your pupils’ work. I would put a lot of top tips here but there is a severe copyright warning at the start of the ebook.

In summary, I haven’t reviewed the entire ebook here but have tried to give you a flavour of what’s in there. This is an American book written for American teachers but don’t let put you off. The links and ideas all revolve around American centric history and social studies so anyone hoping for a set of teaching resources for the UK will be hard pushed to rely on this one.

As I said above, I don’t always appreciate Axler’s militaristic style but I do respect the tips and insights he is giving.

Reviewed by Duncan Williamson

5th January 2008

Classroom Management

ebook Review

Lee McIntrye (2007) Classroom Management 101

I rather liked this ebook although it does read a little like a top tips for teachers ebook, it is worth reading and not only by trainee teachers either.

The chapter titles for this ebook are:

Chapter 1 Classroom Management and Why it's So Important to Your Success In The Classroom

Chapter 2 The First Steps Towards a Peaceful Classroom: Identifying Where You ARE Going Wrong With Your Classroom Management

Chapter 3 Proactive Classroom Management: A Teacher's Secret Weapon

Chapter 4 Positive Classroom Management: A Positive Teacher Means Positive Students

Chapter 5 Setting The Boundaries: Kids Can't Follow The Rules If They Don't Know What The Rules Are

Chapter 6 Reward The Good Behaviour Of Your Students: Reward Yourself With Less Stress. Hassle And More

Chapter 7 The Effectiveness of Powerful and Consistent Sanctions In Your Classroom

Chapter 8 Non Verbal Communication And How It Can Be Ultra Effective in the Classroom

Chapter 9 Improve Your Classroom Management With The Language of Choice

Chapter 10 Keeping Your Class Interested And Its Impact Upon Your Classroom Control

Chapter 11 Preparing For The Worst: Managing Confrontations in the Classroom

Chapter 12 You and Your Teaching Style: The Different Faces of Different Teachers

Chapter 13 Minor Disruptions Within The Classroom and How to Deal With Them

Chapter 14 What to Say and How to Say it

I have to say that these are the title you would expect aren’t they. Certainly, as a trainee teacher, there are many really good ideas that I would have liked to have had some guidance on. That’s not to say I was a disciplinary or classroom management nightmare but there are things here that would have helped me.

I am not sufficiently up to date with ebooks on this topic to say whether McIntyre has written an earth shattering ebook, but I do think it is a good companion for teachers who need to hone their classroom management skills.

I am just going to give a few examples of the things that McIntyre says: just a few because there is a severe copyright notice in the ebook.

It could have been me speaking:

When I have a good day at school I feel amazing. I swear it's the best feeling ever. Some days I just want to leap in the air and give someone the cheesiest high five!

My good days are when my class, or a particular pupil, has finally done something that I've been trying to teach them for days, or weeks, or all year. When a kid aces a test. Or just when I feel like I've really 'connected' with the class.

My bad days are when the class just won't do as they're told. The days when they're supposed to be working quietly and they just won't. When it’s snowed for the first time in years and they're so over excited that absolutely no work gets done.

That's the thing with teaching. The good days are amazing, but the bad days are horrific. Mind you. that's what I love about my job.

Page 6 of the file although there is no pagination in this ebook.

I have said exactly the same from time to time and I am sure many teachers have. Even people who aren’t school teachers but who teach or train from time to time, do get a good feeling from having helped their fellow man in this sort of way.

One of the first things I thought when reading the ebook was that it could have been written by someone who was talking about management in general and not just classroom management. This is not really an accident I suppose as management children and their learning environment is no different to managing employees and colleagues and their sales room, office, factory ...

In chapter 1 McIntyre talks about:

· Fighting fires

· Shouting

· Sarcasm

· Being prepared: here, for example, McIntyre says

If you're unprepared you won't be able to concentrate on managing your classroom or teaching your subject

Isn’t that absolutely true? Yet how many times have you experienced a classroom situation in which the teacher or trainer has lost their place more than once or twice? I once went to a conference at which the world’s biggest authority in my own subject area was speaking and he made a right mess of it: he kept losing his thread, he dropped his slides (yes, acetates!) and apologised for his mistakes. I was shocked at such unpreparedness by such a person at such an event. I wouldn’t have dared be anything other than on top form.

· Not following through: this is a key one and is one that many managers would do well to look at. How many parents, let alone teachers and managers, have said to their children something like, “If you do that again I’ll ...” but then fail to act on the threat? Read what McIntyre has to say both here and throughout the ebook. Read this ebook for his ideas here if nothing else. Sound, solid, good advice.

· Low expectations

· Playing favourites

The rest of the ebook is in similar vein: a lot of good, solid, down to earth ideas. Just look at the chapter headings and see whether those topics are those that you need guidance on. I’ll bet they are.

In terms of style, however, I do have a gripe or two. The style was rather flat and somewhat unconvincing. It is a short ebook and I appreciate the need for brevity but I wasn’t always convinced that McIntyre really was the teacher in the story. That’s not necessarily a problem and a criticism at all, though; just a matter of style.

Because I felt that about the style I wonder if others will and if they will be put off by it. I’m not looking for something as gritty as Kes but I want to be more convinced that the stories are first generation in a case like this.

I would also have liked to have heard about the times when McIntyre didn’t get it right. Now, he starts out this way by saying that he had a lot to learn, how he had problems admitting his shortcomings and so on and that’s good. However, it would be very useful to hear the stories of failure and how he learned from them.

I would also like to know where McIntyre got all of his ideas from. Now I am not accusing anyone of plagiarism or anything like it; but I am sure that McIntyre didn’t think of everything in this ebook by himself. I might be doing the man down and if so I am sorry; but if he didn’t think of everything then some ideas of his sources would have been excellent.

For example, you’ll read about raffle tickets: an excellent idea and I think for doubting Thomas, some idea of where the idea for them came from and so on might convince them of their merits. The idea of phoning pupils’ parents when they have done something good as opposed to phoning home only when they were bad. I have to say I have come across this with one of my children: where the teacher was much more than an anonymous member of your child’s world. The situation I am referring to was one where the teacher really would call us in the evening or over the weekend, along the lines McIntyre suggests. I have to say, though, that my experience was not in the UK and I should also say that none of the teachers of my other children phoned me at home except very rarely. All of my children went to good schools, too, I hasten to add.

Clapping as a classroom control mechanism: good idea and I can see how effective that might be. Read about it in this ebook. Using a musical instrument as a classroom control mechanism: ever thought of that? It’s here too.

One thing that has puzzled me but it’s not a major issue: I read the ebook quickly but am unsure whether McIntyre is British or American. Some language and spellings are American; but then he refers to the UK specifically once or twice.

On the whole, then, a good ebook to refer too for novice and experienced teacher alike.

Reviewed by Duncan Williamson

3^rd January 2008

Follow this Path

Author:Curt Coffman and Gabriel Gonzalez-Molina PhD

The subtitle of this book is almost a chapter in itself: how the world's greatest organisations drive growth by unleashing human potential. A powerful approach based on the Gallup Organisation's study of over 10 million customers, 3 million employees and 200,000 managers.

With such a database to go at, it's a wonder they've managed to condense everything down into just 284 pages!

You might have heard of Curt Coffman as the author of First, Break all the Rules. Coffman took the idea for that book, no doubt from Louis Patler's If it ain't broke ... BREAK IT! Unless Coffman wrote his book first, then switch that, as Willy Wonka says!

This book's foreword starts wiht a graph taken from The Economist newspaper that became the subject of a discussion I had with various colleagues from around the world. The foreword is written by James K Clifton, Chairman and CEO of The Gallup Organisation in January 2002 ... firstly, chairman AND CEO ... what ever happened to corporate governance that frowns on the combining of these two roles?

Anyway, I thought Clifton's arguments were so weak and flawed that I felt compelled to discuss them in an online discussion forum: go here to see what came out of that discussion.

The Gallup Path to which this book relates is this one:

As with the other business and management books I review, let me give you an overview of teh book by listing its contents:

• The path to take

1. Welcome to the emotional economy
2. Discover the talents of each employee
3. The route that never goes astray
4. Steering toward engagement
5. Directions fro enhancing the management employee engagement
6. Emotional economics part 1
7. The open highway
8. The four emotional states that drive customer engagement
9. Directions for enhancing and managing customer engagement
10. Ecotional economics part 2
11. Managing the emotional economy

• Epilogue: a new vision for a new century
• Appendix A: managerial talent, employee engagement and business unit performance
• Appendix B: employee engagement, satisfaction and business unit level outcomes, a meta analysis

This is an intense book in lots of ways as there is a lot to consider: not surprising given the database of people and responses that are supposed to have gone into drawing it up. It's impossible therefore to do anything other than pick out a few key ideas to whet your appetite.

Q¹² is a check list that Gallup has devised and this is at the core of this book. What is Q¹²? Appendix B is where you will find Q¹² described in detail; and they say that it's based on over 30 years if accumulated quantitative and qualitative research.

1. I know what is expected of me at work
2. I have the materials and equipment I need to do my work right
3. At work I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day
4. In the last seven days I have received recognition or praise for doing good work
5. My supervisor or someone at work seems to care about me as a person
6. There is someone at work who encourages my development
7. At work my opinions seem to count
8. The mission or purpose of my company makes me feel my job is important
9. My associates or fellow employees are committed to doing quality work
10. I have a best friend at work
11. In the last six months someone at work has talked to me about my progress
12. This last year I have had opportunities at work to learn and grow

Chapter 5 spells out the Q¹² ideas in some detail too.

Engagement is a key phrases that you will find throughout this book: don't just employ someone, don't just manage someone, get them involved, get them engaged. For example, from chapter 9, page 207:

Do what great managers do, and engage your customers by:

• Identifying and using employee talent themes so that they generate emotional engagement by doing what they do best
• Initiating, sustaining or restoring their emotional states
• Intensifying emotional states by making sure that employee-customer engagement is consistent.

That should give you a few clues as to what they mean by engagement; but let's turn to chapter 6 for even more insights:

In Great Britain 17% are engaged, 63% are not engaged and 20% are actively disengaged. (page 138 and the terms engaged etc are defined on pages 129 - 135) To put some value on what this means, the equivalent figures for the USA are:

In the USA 30% are engaged, 54% are not engaged and 16% are actively disengaged ... Gallup has calculated that the cost to the US economy of actively disengaged employees is in the range of $254 to $363 billion annually. This amount is larger than the US budget for either education or national defense. See pages 137 - 138

We then learn of the benefits of using Q¹²: Here's a sample of amazing success stories:

• a major US retailer saw the proportion of its engaged employees triple in the course of five years
• a manufacturing firm notices its proportion of engaged employees rise almost twofold in one year.

See pages 140 - 141 for more.

Moreover, they report, pages 127 - 128, chapter 6: 

Business units in the top half of employee engagement ... show on average:

• 86% higher success rate on customer metrics
• 70% higher success in lowering turnover
• 70% higher success rate in productivity
• 44% higher success rate in profitability
• 78% higher success rate in safety figures

You might also have spotted that they use the word and idea of emotion quite a bit and it might come as no surprise that emotion and engagement go hand in hand. In their discussions of the emotional economy, they rarely mention the word emotion! See chapters 6, 10 and 11 for much more.

I hope I have given you something of a flavour for what is in this book. For managers it contains some really useful insights and you would need to think really carefully about moving from a situation in which there is little engagement to one where engagement is the norm: the benefits, however, could be enormous.

If you are a sceptic, read this book and think about it carefully. In the area of budgeting and budgetary control, such aspects as emotional intelligence, engagement and participation have been known and discussed for decades so this present discussion is neither new nor wrong.

If you are a teacher/student, there are many insights here to keep you busy for a long time: whatever your business related topic, this book could well be useful for you. I should say, however, that it's probably better aimed at undergraduates and professional level students rather than anyone who is still in their pre university phase although a well read and mature pre university student could benefit a great deal from this book.

A recommended text!

Reviewed by Duncan Williamson - attend Duncan's courses here

The Thinkers 50: the world's most important and influential business thinkers

Author: Ciaran Parker

From time to time I am asked to review a book by a publisher, an author or someone who is thinking about using a book for a particular purpose. The Thinkers50 is such a book. I would probably not have read and reviewed this book otherwise.

I promised I would review this book from the point of view of a Business Studies teacher and student. Following on from this, the review splits itself into two distinct sections:

In terms of content it is poor, very poor; and a lot of that content is either to be found free of charge on the book's own web site or can easily be inferred from it
In terms of the book's usefulness as a resource and as a spur to further study, it's good.

There, bets fully hedged and one very good aspect of this book, although it's bound to sound harsh however I say it, is that it contains only living thinkers. That's good news because it's high time that business studies teachers and examiners moved away from Maslow, Taylor and the rest and into the more modern world. Not that those old stagers didn't say anything valuable, they did.

Having said what I've said about the content already, I don't want to dwell on that aspect of the book: I wouldn't spend £9.99 of my money on it. I am going to set the scene a little by looking at a few aspects of the book and its construction but then will spend some time looking at just three of the thinkers to be found in the Thinkers50: 50 people is too many to review, three is enough to give you a flavour of what you might do with the book.

Before I start, let me ask you to write down who, in your opinion, is the world's most influential living management thinker: it's your opinion, include who you like, no holds barred. You can compare your choice with the 50 people on the list in this book later.

If you feel you need help in making your selection, go here and see the criteria that they used to put together The Thinkers50. Those criteria include these ideas, there are seven more criteria

1 ORIGINALITY OF IDEAS Are the ideas and examples used by the thinker original?
2 PRACTICALITY OF IDEAS Have the ideas promoted by the thinker been implemented in organizations? And, has the implementation been successful?
3 PRESENTATION STYLE How proficient is the thinker at presenting his/her ideas orally?

The Thinkers50 concept is devised by Suntop Media a training and consulting company. Its training focuses on developing writing and media skills. Its consulting focuses on enabling organisations and individuals to maximise their thought leadership. Peculiarly for a business that is trying to generate such a high profile, it's web site is dated 2005 and on one page it is still talking about doing something in 2005 as if 2005 is in the future!

Where does the list come from? Again from the Thinkers50 web site:

Over the last two years, visitors to the Thinkers 50 website (www.thinkers50.com) have been providing their answers. The Thinkers 50 team also emailed hundreds of business people, consultants, academics and MBA students throughout the world. After sifting through more than 1,200 votes a list of contenders was compiled.

The result was a short-list of 80 names. A Google search was then undertaken to establish the number of references for each of those on the list, and factored into the ranking. Finally, they were assessed against 10 criteria.

Each guru was marked against the criteria that I highlighted above.

Who, then, are these people?

Kjell NORDSTRÖM & Jonas RIDDERSTRÅLE
Chan KIM & Renée MAUBORGNE
Robert KAPLAN & David NORTON    

I have taken those peoples' names from the book and they are ranked at 9, 15 and 22 respectively.

No? Well, if you are a regular visitor to my site you might have heard about Kaplan and Norton, otherwise I think the others would be a mystery to you.

Do you consider the following people to be thinkers?

Sir Richard Branson
Steven Covey
Scott Adams

I have taken those peoples' names from the book and they are ranked at 11, 18 and 12 respectively.

OK, so you do think they are thinkers ... so define thinking then in the context of this book.

Who is at the top of the pile? Michael E Porter. I suppose that this is no surprise and it might even be the "right" answer. Who is at the bottom of the pile? Why, it's Geoffrey Moore: you know Geoff, he's that high technology marketing guru who identified the Technology Adaptation Life Cycle (TALC). Then he wrote a few books that you've probably read: Crossing the Chasm, Inside the Tornado, The Gorilla Game and Living on the Fault Line. Forgive my cynicism as Moore is probably a lot better known, richer and wiser than I am but I do wonder how he got to be in the top fifty really.

My first problem with this book, then, is the method by which the top fifty were chosen: a non random and possibly non representative sample of around 1,200 people started it off ...

In the book, every thinker is tagged with a word or phrase that is meant to summarise who they are or what they do. With slight amendments by me to some of the words they use, impudent I know, here is my tally of what these thinkers do:

Title/Job	Number of Thinkers
Educator	21
Author	4
Businessman	8
Consultant	11
Journalist	3
Psychologist	1
Economist	2

Using this book

1 All of that gives you pause for thought and as an exercise for teachers and students, especially the older and wiser of our students, you could set them the question: who is the most influential living management thinker ... to make their lives easier, you could provide them with the latest Thinkers50's list, presented in alphabetical order, to ensure that they can choose someone whom they at least have heard of.

If you are teaching or working at undergraduate and post graduate level, don't give them the list, encourage them to use their own knowledge and experience.

2 Scour the profiles of each thinker for clues relating to why the laureates have been nominated. Some will be obvious and others won't. Sir Richard Branson as a thinker? Erm, major entrepreneurial adventurer but not a thinker. Jeff Bezos a thinker? Well, he's just had the one idea that I'm aware of, setting up amazon.com and despite what it says in the book about him and amazon, he's still only surviving by the skin of his teeth.

Business and management is a fickle area of study too as Tom Peters (thinker number 4) demonstrates and as Peter Drucker has freely admitted. Peters reads the business news wires and cobbles them together in a series of threads and then says things like Wow! and Excellence! People buy his books in their droves only to find that he's just written another book. Drucker, who sadly died last November so is now permanently disqualified from the thinkers 50 bemoans the fadists: me too! Drucker was thinker number 1 in both of the first two thinkers 50 lists and I'm sure he would have headed this latest one too.

Three of the Fifty: I'm going to look at what we can learn about the top three thinkers now both by using the book and by using some of the other sources suggested by the book

Thinker 1: Michael Porter ... he's almost a living legend, has written 18 books and countless articles, consults widely with the Monitor Group, above all he is an educator.

Porter's books include Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analyzing Industries and Competitors, Competitive Advantage, The Competitive Advantage of Nations and Can Japan Compete?.

Every profile in the book contains a link to a web page so let's look at the link for Porter to see where it leads: in this case, we are led to Porter's profile on the Harvard Business School and unlike many of the links provided in this book, this one is not that illuminating. It's fine and you can use this to garner some useful information about Porter and his work.

In this case, I clicked on the link to The Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness: this is a comprehensive site and although much of the materials listed here are for sale there is still a lot that poor teachers and students can learn free of charge. Please note that some of the links are now dead so be prepared to be a little disappointed because of that: there is still a huge amount to marvel at, however. Some links take us to places where we need to register to continue: if that's a problem for you then you will be disappointed again, I wasn't as I am a registration freak as I am prepared to take a look at many things in order to sort the wheat from the chaff.

For example, I found a synopsis of an article in the Harvard Business Review that Porter wrote with two others: Seven Surprises for New CEOs (co authors are Jay W Lorsch, and Nitin Nohria and it was published in the Harvard Business Review in October 2004). The synopsis is at this page and says this:

As a newly minted CEO, you may think you finally have the power to set strategy, the authority to make things happen, and full access to the finer points of your business. But if you expect the job to be as simple as that, you're in for an awakening. Even though you bear full responsibility for your company's well-being, you are a few steps removed from many of the factors that drive results. You have more power than anybody else in the corporation, but you need to use it with extreme caution. In their workshops for new CEOs, held at Harvard Business School in Boston, the authors have discovered that nothing--not even running a large business within the company--fully prepares a person to be the chief executive.

The seven most common surprises are:

• You can't run the company.
• Giving orders is very costly.
• It is hard to know what is really going on.
• You are always sending a message.
• You are not the boss.
• Pleasing shareholders is not the goal.
• You are still only human.

a) These surprises carry some important and subtle lessons. First, you must learn to manage organizational context rather than focus on daily operations. Second, you must recognize that your position does not confer the right to lead, nor does it guarantee the loyalty of the organization. Finally, you must remember that you are subject to a host of limitations, even though others might treat you as omnipotent. How well and how quickly you understand, accept, and confront the seven surprises will have a lot to do with your success or failure as a CEO.

As a starting point of a discussion of what CEOs do, I think this is good, even though it's just a synopsis. You can extend your review of these ideas as there is a link to Jay Lorsch discussing this article here. Lorsch is asked by the interviewer to explain each of the seven surprises one by one. Well worth listening to!

c) Now do a web search for Porter and see what turns up. I took the opportunity of taking a look at Google Book Search for Michael E Porter and found 28,100 pages to look at. Is this a valuable thing to do? Yes, without doubt, although anyone hoping to put off going to the library or the bookshop is bound to be disappointed as even Google's Book Search doesn't give us access to more than just a few pages for each of the books it chooses to highlight.

I clicked on the first link to the first book in the Book Search and was presented with contents page of the book Strategy that Porter wrote along with Cynthia A Montgomery. Useful? Not really.

The second link gave me the contents page of Porter's own On Competition. Useful? Not for me.

Let's try one more link ... in this case the task falls away because Porter is so famous and so well quoted that very quickly the books we are presented with are not Porter's own. The books contain lots of references to Porter's work but not a lot by the man himself.

Sorry but I think this resource would take a lot of effort to be useful in Porter's case.

b) I don't want to steal Porter's thunder; but Jay Lorsch is a very famous person within the context of business and management in his own right ... find out what he is famous for!

Thinker 2: Bill Gates ... again, Gates as a thinker? Hmm, not for me. A bit like Branson in that he is clearly an entrepreneur of significant merit but I have yet to felt in awe of anything he has thought. It was Gates, after all, who announced that 640,000 bytes of memory would be perfectly adequate for us all ... the computer I'm using now has 1,000,000,000 bytes of memory and I could still use more! Then again, if computer developers had stuck at the DOS induced 640 Kb limit of old, they might have been much more efficient and creative in their use of our memories!

Does Gates have anything useful to say to us, though? Yes, of course. Gates has always had quite a lot to say about strategy ... he has isolated six things that a company should do to achieve success in any market. It should 1. Concentrate on a market with big potential and few competitors 2. Get in early and go in big 3. Set up a proprietary position 4. Protect that position using every method available 5. Aim for high gross margins or the highest available 6. Make customers an offer they find hard, if not impossible, to refuse
Gates: thinker number 2

If you're looking for convenient lists, why not take this one from Gates. Based on e for electronic, as in email, ecommerce, ebook, here are five ethings

Gates has always sought to inject the organisation with vital components. There are five, all of which begin with the letter ‘E’:

• Enrichment: employees are attracted by high salaries and retained through generous option schemes
• Egalitarianism
• Empowerment
• E-mail
• Emphasis on Performance: employees’ performances are assessed twice-yearly. They receive a mark on a one-to-five scale. A ‘four’ is extraordinarily good: a ‘one’ means they’re fired.

Gates: thinker number 2

Question: 1 a) do you agree that employees are attracted by high salaries and retained through generous option schemes? Find evidence both for and against that assertion.
b) do these five components comprise everything that a company should inject into itself? Think of three more components (hint: they don't have to begin with the letter 'e' but if they do that's even better; and there are no single perfect answers here).

2 The book says (page 50) that Gates is not a management guru in the sense of the others. Discuss what you think Parker means by that statement.

Now let's take a look at the web link provided on page 50 of the book.

Interested in what Gates has to say about reading? Take a look at this page: Beyond Gutenberg by Bill Gates. Reprinted from "The World in 2000," a publication of The Economist Group.

Question 3 a) what is a p-book?
Set out the development of reading technologies as Gates sees it as you attempt to follow Gates' line of reasoning. Then from a marketing point of view, attempt to assess the market for e-books, p-books and possible alternatives to the book over the coming 50 years.

Let's do something a little different now since Gates tends to talk about what he knows the best: technology. This is at least partly why he can't be considered a management guru, of course. Take a look at this page Remarks by Bill Gates, Chairman and Chief Software Architect, Microsoft Corporation WinHEC "Advancing the Platform" Seattle, Washington May 23, 2006. Scroll down to where Gates makes his entrance and read on: it's geeky but interesting as it's relevant to forecasting, business trends, the application of technology, the development and testing of systems and so on ... all relevant to business and management.

But now, click on the Multimedia Resources links at the top of the page and take a look at how the head of the world's major technology company communicates his ideas ... yes, communication is a business and management topic too.

Question 4: Try to establish Gates' audience and assess whether his message is being appropriately delivered.

The Presentation also includes materials from another speaker, Jeff Woolsey; but you can treat it as if it's all being done by one person unless you think Woolsey's style is radically different from Gates'.

There is a section of the Bill Gates web site entitled Executive email. Let's look at that now: click here to start at the Archive. I then decided to look at an email that was prepared by someone other than Gates: click here to see what Jeff Raikes (Group Vice President of Microsoft’s Productivity and Business Services Group) has to say about productivity.

Raikes says, Our goal is ambitious – to improve personal, team and organizational productivity by addressing a broad array of business processes. We're both excited by the opportunity and pleased with the results to date.

Question 5 a) assess why Raikes concentrates on what he calls Effective Virtual Teams. What are such teams and how will they operate?
b) What is XML and why does it seem to be such a vital aspect of the productivity revolution?
c) Raikes says that, In short, the end of innovation is nowhere near. Explain what Raikes meant by that remark  

There is a great deal more that I could have used of Gates' materials but the links I have given are the starting point for you to be able to do that for yourselves: he talks a lot and he has a lot to say!

Now, hands up if you have honestly, really, genuinely heard of thinker 3: CK Prahalad. Honestly?

CK stands for Coimbatore Krishnao Prahalad and he was born in India in 1941. I have read several of Prahalad's articles but I haven't read any of his books but there is a lot on the internet about him and, of course, Thinkers50 has a link to a web site to start us off. Well, not exactly start us off as it's a very thin site indeed: just a tiny bit about CK and his associates at The Next Practice (TNP).

According to itself, TNP is a unique advisory firm. We work with clients to develop the new business models, products and partnerships that are required to secure large growth opportunities in emerging markets. Our focus is innovation in emerging markets at the ‘bottom of the pyramid’. Source.

It's the bottom of the pyramid or BOP that I'll concentrate on now: look at the Thinkers50 chapter on Prahalad and you will see that the BOP idea is central to their view of him.

Prahalad maintains a deep interest in the world’s poor. This led him to write The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid (2004) ... He identified the world’s poor (the ‘Bottom of the Pyramid’ or BOP) as a potential untapped market for companies, worth anything up to $13 trillion a year. “The real source of market promise is not the wealthy few in the developing world, or even the emerging middle-income consumers. It is the billions of aspiring poor who are joining the market economy for the first time.” A market at the bottom of the pyramid could be co-created by multi-national and domestic industry, non-governmental organisations, and most importantly the poor themselves. They would then have choice over their lives and the products they used. He pointed to Hindustan Lever’s success in marketing soap-powder and detergents in smaller, cheaper units. Source, also to be found on page 130 of the book.

I did a search of the web for Prahalad and came across a wide variety of pages, including one from FastCompany.com. This page discusses Prahalad's setting up of a company called Praja with a colleague. Praja is Sanskrit for nobility ... erm, no, it's Sanskrit of common people according to Thinkers50. A minor issue for us. What is more worrying is the article itself: it starts out well by talking about Prahalad, his career to date, his wealth and his sacrifices but then it drifts into journalistic nonsense and I lost interest. This is a pity because Praja seems to be a lot better than that.

Go to www.praja.org where you will find a great deal of information about the organisation and the work it is carrying out at grass roots level in India. Praja has prepared a Citizen's Charter that reads as follows:

• Standards: The citizens are aware of the quality of services that can be expected of the MCGM and then take prescribed action if the services do not conform to these standards.
• Accountability: Through the Citizens' Charter a clear line of responsibility for the various services is established.
• Transparency: Information that is relevant to the people's needs is offered so as to enhance their participation in civic life.
• Feedback: The MCGM looks forward to the citizens using this document as we will then get an accurate response as to how effectively the public services met their needs.

There is a great deal of information on the citizen's charter here too. Click through some of these links, or all of them if you have the time, to see what Prahalad and Praja has started.

Question 6 a) How would you describe the nature and purpose of Praja (use any additional resources you can find as you wish). Take any example from the Citizen's Charter page, from the previous link; and summarise what Praja is doing in that area.
b) What feature unites Praja's approach to Waste Disposal, Public Health, Education and so on, as per the links on the Citizen's Charter page? Hint: scroll to the bottom of any of the pages in the list on the Charter page! How effective do you think this aspect of Praja's work is or is likely to be.
c) Prime Minister John Major generated a Citizen's Charter for the UK: assess the similarities between the two charters and discuss their relative successes and failures as far as you can.
d)Prahalad is in the same league as Bill Gates and Warren Buffet in his desire to use his fame and wealth to help to give people at the BOP. Don't you think that such gifts are really just a way of someone rich easing their own consciences?

Where does Prahalad's reputation come from? What is it that got him into the Thinkers50 list? Perhaps his record of publications in the Harvard Business Review can explain for us, there have been 11 articles under the Prahalad banner:

Strategic Intent
Gary Hamel, C.K. Prahalad
July, 2005
Most leading global companies started with ambitions that were far bigger than their resources and capabilities. But they created an obsession with winning at all levels of the organization and sustained that obsession for decades.
The End of Corporate Imperialism
C.K. Prahalad, Kenneth Lieberthal
August, 2003
As they search for growth, multinational corporations will have no choice but to compete in the big emerging markets of China, India, Indonesia, and Brazil. Although it is still common to question...
Serving the World’s Poor, Profitably
C.K. Prahalad, Allen Hammond
September, 2002
Improving the lives of the billions of people at the bottom of the economic pyramid is a noble endeavor. It can also be a lucrative one.
Co-opting Customer Competence
C.K. Prahalad, Venkatram Ramaswamy
January, 2000
In the new economy, companies must incorporate customer experience into their business models—in ways hitherto untapped. Here are the challenges in doing that.
The New Meaning of Quality in the Information Age
C.K. Prahalad, M.S. Krishnan
September, 1999
A company’s software is becoming a critical source of competitive advantage and competitive risk. Yet few managers can agree on the key variables for judging its quality. Here’s a new framework for doing just that.
Competing for the Future
Gary Hamel, C.K. Prahalad
July, 1994
What drives your company’s agenda: your competitors’ view of the future or your own?
Strategy as Stretch and Leverage
Gary Hamel, C.K. Prahalad
March, 1993
Competitiveness is born in the gap between a company’s resources and its managers’ goals.
Corporate Imagination and Expeditionary Marketing
Gary Hamel, C.K. Prahalad
July, 1991
In the 1990s, competitive success will come from building and dominating fundamentally new markets. Core competencies are one prerequisite for creating these new markets. Corporate imagination and...
Collaborate with Your Competitors - and Win
Gary Hamel, Yves L. Doz, C.K. Prahalad
January, 1989
Collaboration between competitors is in fashion. But the rise of competitive collaboration has triggered unease about its long-term effects. Companies that benefit most from competitive...
Do You Really Have a Global Strategy?
Gary Hamel, C.K. Prahalad
July, 1985
Corporate response to the threat of foreign competition is often misdirected and ill timed--in part because many executives don't fully understand what global competition is. Executives must...
How MNCs Cope with Host Government Intervention
Yves L. Doz, C.K. Prahalad
March, 1980
The efforts of host governments to maintain control over their own national economies have restricted the freedom of multinational company (MNC) managers in deploying economic resources. Regulation...

 

Sidebar: Gary Hamel and Fast Forward 400

Did you spot that Gary Hamel also featured large in the list of authors of those articles? There you are, another Thinkers50 laureate: number 14. Like Jay Lorsch, Hamel is famous and worthy in his own right but since Hamel is on the current list, let me give you his web address so that you can go and see what makes him such a valuable thinker. You may come across this, said about Hamel, Professor Gary Hamel, the world's most profound business thinker. Now, where does it say that, I wonder? Could it be on Hamel's own web site? Erm, well, yes, nothing wrong with a bit of puffery is there? Good on ya, Gazza!

Whilst looking at other ideas in this tangential discussion on Hamel, I came across the Fast Forward 400 research project that you can read about here. It's worth another tangent. Do follow some of the links to get more of an idea of what they are trying to do. I found the page on 20 times faster rather old hat and intuitive; but I might be a little unkind in saying that. Worth a look I'd say.

Back to Prahalad now, for a while.

You must visit the site with the sub title All articles related to management guru CK Prahalad.

Core competence is part of our business vocabulary; but it comes from the work of Prahalad and Hamel. There's a specific link in the menu on the left of ckprahalad.com entitle core competency ... just click it! Clicking takes you to a page with two articles on that topic:

• Inside out strategy. Explanation of Core Competence of Hamel and Prahalad.
• Business Innovation: Core Competency and Competitive

Click on (more...) to take a look at the first one, just to see what we get: a good, short, simple page on the topic that can easily be summarised by looking at its headings:

• Inside out Corporate Strategy
• Business units
• Three tests for identifying a Core Competence
• Building a Core Competence
• Core rigidities?

Not wishing to be negative at all; but let me leave that page with their warning, under the heading of core rigidities: Care must be taken not to let core competencies develop into core rigidities. A Corporate Competence is difficult to learn, but is difficult to unlearn as well. Companies that have spared no effort to achieve a competence, sometimes neglect new market circumstances or demands. They risk to be locked in by choices that were made in the past.

Click on the second of the two links to read an equally simple and reader friendly expose on core competency.

At the bottom of the home page of the ckprahalad.com site there is a list of recent articles about or by the man. That list is likely to change over time and their contents are diverse, so let me home in on the one I chose at random: How strategy guru CKP is changing the way CEOs think. It's a long article but it provides a few more insights into Prahalad's work in India as well as the impact he has had on corporate America and the rest of the world.

That's it! Rather a lengthy book review cum resource guide to a book that by itself is not worth the money but, when viewed with the eyes of a CK Prahalad, it becomes a very useful resource worth working with.

Finally, who are the other 46 thinkers, then? Here's the list from the book for 2005 and if you want to know who was in the list in 2003 and 2001, just go to the Thinkers50 web site.

The Thinkers50 List

Ranking & Name

1  Michael PORTER (2)

2  Bill GATES (20)

3  CK PRAHALAD (12)

4  Tom PETERS (3)

5  Jack WELCH (8)

6  Jim COLLINS (10)

7  Philip KOTLER (6)

8  Henry MINTZBERG (7)

9  Kjell NORDSTRÖM & Jonas RIDDERSTRÅLE (21)

10  Charles HANDY (5)

11  Richard BRANSON (34)

12  Scott ADAMS (27)

13  Thomas A. STEWART (37)

14  Gary HAMEL (4)

15  Chan KIM & Renée MAUBORGNE (31)

16  Kenichi OHMAE (19)

17  Patrick DIXON (46)

18  Stephen COVEY (16)

19  Rosabeth MOSS KANTER (9)

20  Edward DE BONO (35)

21  Clayton CHRISTENSEN (22)

22  Robert KAPLAN & David NORTON (15)

23  Peter SENGE (14)

24  Ram CHARAN (-)

25  Fons TROMPENAARS (50)

26  Russ ACKOFF (-)

27  Warren BENNIS (13)

28  Chris ARGYRIS (18)

29  Michael DELL (33)

30  Vijay GOVINDARAJAN (-)

31  Malcolm GLADWELL (-)

32  Manfred KETS DE VRIES (43)

33  Rakesh KHURANA (-)

34  Lynda GRATTON (41)

35  Alan GREENSPAN (42)

36  Edgar H SCHEIN (17)

37  Ricardo SEMLER (36)

38  DON PEPPERS (48)

39  Paul KRUGMAN (40)

40  Jeff BEZOS (39)

41  Andy GROVE (26)

42  Daniel GOLEMAN (29)

43  Leif EDVINSSON (-)

44  Jim CHAMPY (25)

45  Rob GOFFEE and Gareth JONES (-)

46  Naomi KLEIN (30)

47  Geert HOFSTEDE (47)

48  Larry BOSSIDY (-)

49  Costas MARKIDES (-)

50  Geoffrey MOORE (38)

Review: Duncan Williamson - see Duncan's courses here