Collaborative Learning and DevelopmentSession 2 – Collaboration in Education

@TeachFirst @teachfirstuk

Session Objectives:

• To define what we mean by “collaboration”

• To identify and evaluate the benefits and challenges of collaboration in education

• To discuss and contract how you will work together as a group throughout this module

Activity

1. What does “collaboration” mean to you? On your own, try to write a definition for “collaboration”.

Collaboration is…

• “the situation of two or more people working together to create or achieve the same thing” (Cambridge dictionary)

• “a practice of learning and working together to achieve common goals and tasks” (Griebling, et al 2011).

• “a continuous process of supporting one another’s efforts to sort out problems in the classrooms and to enhance the quality of teaching in schools” (Little, 1982)

• “a community working to achieve a common goal through the sharing of practice, knowledge and problems” (Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership)

• “peer interaction, peer dialogue, peer feedback, listening to one another, and sharing experiences and ideas” (Musanti & Pence 2010)

How do your definitions compare?

• How would you describe this collaboration?

• What were the benefits of collaborating?

• Did it pose any challenges?

• Was it successful or unsuccessful? Why?

• What was the impact of the collaboration on you or others?

Think back to a time when you collaborated with other teachers during Year 1.

“The point is that calling nearly every shared effort in school collaborative, whether it is or not, diminishes

the value of the concept, dilutes professional understanding of what it requires and fosters a false belief that there is not much to collaborating. Not

surprising then that this belief can perpetuate poor practice and disappointing outcomes… Let’s quit implicitly defining the word collaboration as an

activity involving more than one person, and reserve it for situations in which it is appropriate.” (Friend 2000)

A continuum of teacher collaboration

(Vangrieken et al 2015)

Cooperation Collaboration

Vangrieken et al (2015) conducted a systematic review of 82 studies of teacher collaboration.

As we discovered today, he too found that “collaboration among teachers is not a black and white issue”.

They found that collaboration in schools ranges from “mere aggregates of individuals to strong team collaboration”.

At one end of this continuum, teachers work independently of one another in a cooperative manner – we can call this “cooperation”.

At the other end of the spectrum, members of a group work interdependently, relying on one another for success - we can call this

“collaboration”. They note that these truly collaborative endeavours can be the most challenging.

Cooperation – when working cooperatively, groups will often divide work into smaller tasks for individual members of the group to take away

and undertake independently. Once completed, the outcomes of these tasks are then joined together to reach the final goal. For example, a

subject or phase department might divide up a scheme of work and task one teacher in the department with planning lessons 1 – 3, another

teacher lessons 4 – 6, and a third teacher lessons 7-9. The teachers would go away and plan these lesson independently, then come back

together to share their lessons, thereby fulfilling the goal of writing a full scheme of work.

By comparison, collaboration involves “joint interaction in the group in all activities that are needed to perform a shared task”. So in the case

of planning a scheme of work, for this to be a truly collaborative process, teachers would work together to write the outcomes for each lesson,

to create lesson resources and activities, to script explanations of key concepts, to plan formative and summative assessments, and so on.

Think. Write. Discuss.

1. Where on the continuum would you place your example of “collaboration” from Year 1?

2. Can you think of other examples of times when you have “cooperated” and/or “collaborated?

3. What are your thoughts on the collaboration continuum? Is it helpful to make this distinction between collaboration and cooperation? Why or why not?

Cooperation Collaboration

What does “collaboration” mean within this module?

In this module, collaboration means:

a group of 3 or more trainee teachers working and learning together to achieve a common goal within their subject or phase.

Activity

Why might a teacher want to collaborate with other teachers in the

same or different departments and schools?

• What might be the benefits of teacher collaboration?

• What might be the disadvantages or drawbacks of

teacher collaboration?

• What challenges might teachers face in collaborating?

Bullet point your answers

The benefits of collaboration:

• Improves pupil outcomes (Morris 2017)

• Leads to higher morale, greater job satisfaction, lower absenteeism, greater retention rates and enthusiasm (Hall & Hord 2001; Lee, Smith & Croninger 1995)

• Helps to meet challenges (Cross & Thomas 2017)

• Improves confidence, trust, and voice, and reduces teacher attrition. Improves student outcomes as teachers builds social capital through close, professional relationships (Leana 2011)

• Increases teachers’ knowledge and skills (Wong 2003)

• Enhances teachers’ confidence, trust, and voice (Bisplinghoff 2005; Hudson 2005, Cross & Thomas 2017)

• Reduces the sense of personal isolation (Musanti & Pence 2010)

What does the research say?

• A lack of trust, a lack of time, and feelings of pressure to participate (Schieffer 2016)

• Skills required to collaborate effectively do not come naturally to most individuals

(Dittman et al. 2010). For example some people lack the communication and

organizational practices required for collaboration (Moore 2016)

• Individuals need to have an internal desire to improve and a readiness for change –

external motivation alone isn’t enough (Fullan 2006)

• Competition can get in the way of collaboration (Demir, Czerniak, & Hart, 2013)

• Issues with technology can hinder progress and detract from the purpose of the

collaboration (Capobianco et al 2016, p. 264)

• Social loafing, group think, and confirmation bias (Main, 2007)

The barriers to collaboration:

What does the research say?

BENEFITS

confidence

trust

voice

pupil outcomes

social capital

knowledge and skills

enthusiasm

higher morale

25/09/2019

What could you and your group do to maximise the benefits of collaboration and to minimise the potential barriers?

BARRIERS

communication

organisation

lack of trust

competition

readiness for change

technology

social loafing

groupthink

confirmation bias

Element

title

Collaboration

Call 1

Formulating

a common goal

Collaboration

Call 2

Collaboration

Call 3

Collaboration

Call 4

Collaboration

Call 5

Reflecting on the

collaborative process

The next part of this session involved groups scheduling time for collaboration calls which will

happen mainly in the evening (see module guide) and for writing a contract for their group.

If you are not in a group due to an absence is it VITAL you contact Rachel Johnston

(Regional Manager – Programmes) who will help you rectify this

(rjohnston@teachfirst.org.uk)

Levels of Contracting

Admin

Professional

Psychological

formal arrangements

goals and process

expectations

(Clutterbuck 2005)

Levels of Contracting

Admin

Professional

Psychological

When and where shall we meet next?

What is your email address/phone number?

How shall we keep in touch between meetings?

How shall we prepare for and run our meetings?

What do we want to get out of our meetings?

How do you feel about working with others?

How do you respond under stress?

How do you like to be challenged?

“teachers tend to restrict collaboration to more safe and less

threatening aspects, focusing on psychological safety and cohesion, avoiding conflict, and preserving

their norms of privacy and autonomy” (Vangrieken et al 2015)

There is a danger when evaluating collaboration in deeming “feel good” factors as indicators that the collaboration was successful. But collaboration is

not about making friends and feeling good – those positive feelings are a by-product of collaboration,

not the primary goal; it is not about “like”, it is about respect (Friend 2000, p.131).

And finally…

To prepare for Collaboration Call 1

25/09/2019Slide footer if required 19

Task 1

Read the quotes on collaboration and respond to the questions that follow.

Task 2

Write 5 ideas of possible common goals and be ready to share these with your group at Collaboration Call 1.

To prepare for Training Day 2• Source a subject or phase

specific academic paper

• Read and critique the paper

• Devise 3 pertinent questions

• Prepare to lead a 20-minute mini-seminar

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Thank you.