Director of Studies

A Director of Studies (DOS) is effectively the head teacher in a language school.

Responsibilities

The DOS has many responsibilities including:

• Liaising between teachers and management
• Observing teachers' lessons
• Dealing with student problems
• Internal and external exams
• Organising and managing teachers' meetings
• Choosing coursebooks
• Creating syllabuses
• Interviewing new teachers
• Creating teachers' and students' timetables

Challenges

The aims and priorities of the school's management and those of the teachers' may not always coincide, and the DOS may have to walk a difficult line in attempting to keep everyone happy.

Whereas some Directors of Studies are well-trained professionals skilled at managing this tricky task; there are others who have neither the aptitude nor the training. These may sometimes give the position a bad name and may even generate unrest among the teaching staff.

The Peter Principle

The Peter Principle states that:

“

In a Hierarchy Every Employee Tends to Rise to His Level of Incompetence.

”

In other words, workers continue to be promoted until they cease to competent - or until they are promoted to a position for which they have no skills or aptitude. It is possible that the occasional DOS may have fallen foul of this principle...