At the language school where I work, there has been a surge in the demand for storytelling prowess. And it’s not just my school that’s embracing the creative nature of teaching. In fact, numerous educational institutions dedicated to the art of storytelling have emerged around the world.
This shift in what skills are valued professionally prompted me to reflect not only on my teaching practices, but also how I interview candidates. To keep up with the times, I realized that I needed to significantly overhaul my conventional interview approach.
The set of predetermined questions I had been using in interviews fell short in attracting skilled professionals. These routine queries had become mundane, and my fatigue — verging on burnout — was evident to candidates. They recognized that my questions were repetitive, and I recognized that change was necessary. I needed to introduce something less predictable and more engaging for assessing candidates.
What is grandomastery?
Designed for non-traditional learning, grandomastery is an integrative thinking training platform that lets students learn through creativity, competition and discussion. Grandomastery is especially useful for English learners who want to practice their speaking skills with topics you wouldn’t find in a textbook. Grandomastery is also a useful tool for public speakers.
Applying Grandomastery to Interviews
That’s when a coworker introduced me to an emerging technique called “grandomastery,” an amalgamation of “grand” and “random mastery,” which involves a series of randomized tasks with each task type featuring numerous randomized sets. This results in an extensive array of interview questions. In the section of interviews dedicated to assessing candidates’ creative capabilities, the grandomastery method introduces an unpredictable assortment of tasks. This unpredictability, shared by both the candidate and the interviewer, enhances the dynamic nature of the assessment process.
In the past, I determined the quality of a candidate’s answers by comparing them to that of other candidates. This, however, obscured my judgment. I found that I was unable to accurately assess a candidate unless I liberated myself from the constraints of comparing them to other candidates’ performances. This strategic shift in methodology enables an unbiased assessment, breaking away from the pre-existing biases that had previously influenced my evaluations.
In contemporary educational contexts, the art of storytelling plays a pivotal role. The capacity to engage students in activities and immerse them in language acquisition necessitates the application of advanced cognitive abilities commonly referred to as higher order thinking skills.
These cognitive skills are designed to be mediators, bringing out diverse perspectives among students. It is in this realm that grandomastery emerges as a valuable tool, offering a means to assess the proficiency of individuals in possessing and deploying higher order thinking skills. This methodology proves unexpectedly advantageous, especially concerning creativity assessment and the evaluation of advanced cognitive skills, encompassing the adept use of sophisticated language.
What Makes Grandomastery So Effective?
The ingenuity lies in the randomization of assignments, notably the cyclical randomization of tasks, each subject to its own randomization procedure. The grandomastery methodology, entailing the randomization of tasks within cycles, introduces an unparalleled paradigm.
One of the pivotal tasks at grandomastery involves engaging in activities centering abstraction. The core concept revolves around the fusion of, as if, incompatible and entirely distinct abstract elements through the application of abstract reasoning. This necessitates candidates to possess advanced literacy, articulate communication skills, proficiency in elevated diction, adept abstract reasoning capabilities and notably a command of contextualized language.
The essence of grandomastery lies in the absence of definitive solutions. We derive pleasure from the absence of unequivocal answers, eschewing intellectual quizzes structured around right or wrong responses and instead focusing on the ability to narrate and establish connections among seemingly disparate and disjointed concepts.
The evaluation criteria for tasks within grandomastery prompt contemplation on the assessment parameters. The assessment hinges on gauging the extent of imaginative leaps in connecting unrelated concepts, or the “degree of farfetchedness.” If this connection elicits a smile or laughter, it indicates the successful completion of the task.
Creativity and Storytelling Are the Future
On a broader scale, in contemporary educational paradigms, where the development of not only logical or mathematical skills but also soft skills and emotional intelligence is emphasized, the capacity to craft compelling narratives is crucial. This proficiency takes on heightened significance in the context of grandomastery. Present-day examinations, exemplified by the updated Program for International Student Assessment tests in schools and universities, underscore the importance of showcasing creativity and imaginative thinking.
