Teacher Collaboration in School Improvement

Education ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hayley Weddle ◽  
Marie Lockton ◽  
Amanda Datnow
Keyword(s):  
School Improvement ◽  
Student Learning ◽  
Teacher Collaboration ◽  
Strong Relationship ◽  
Collective Work ◽  
Potential Benefits ◽  
Improving Instruction ◽  
Improve Instruction ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Collaborative Efforts

Research on teacher collaboration as a lever for capacity building is vast, spanning international contexts. To facilitate collaboration, many districts and schools have dedicated time for groups of teachers to meet and exchange ideas, with the goal of improving instruction and promoting student learning. Collaboration meetings serve as opportunities for teachers to shape ideas together through sharing perspectives, knowledge, and strategies. The potential benefits of collaboration are well researched and include decreased isolation, the development of supportive relationships, and increased understanding of content knowledge as well as pedagogical approaches. Engagement in formal collaboration is linked to changes in classroom practices, impacting learning environments in potentially transformative ways. Several studies exploring the impact of teachers’ collective work on student learning have found a strong relationship between collaboration and student achievement. Teachers’ collaboration experiences are influenced by a variety of factors, including leadership, interpersonal dynamics, external accountability pressures, and the availability of time and space. Close relationships with colleagues based on trust and respect are also pivotal for teachers navigating collaborative efforts to improve instruction. Such relationships must allow for disagreement and debate, as these characteristics are key to promoting growth and deprivatizing practice. This article explores the features and outcomes of teacher collaboration for instructional improvement and includes an overview of foundational literature shaping current research on teachers’ collective work. While teacher collaboration has the potential to improve both teacher practice and student learning, this review of literature demonstrates that achieving such outcomes is challenging. Given complexities related to policies, relationships, and infrastructure to support collective work, teachers’ collaborative efforts often fall short of espoused goals.

Teacher collaboration, differing expectations, and emotions in school improvement

2019 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hayley Weddle ◽  
Marie Lockton ◽  
Amanda Datnow
Keyword(s):  
School Improvement ◽  
Teacher Collaboration ◽  
Common Ground ◽  
Instructional Improvement ◽  
Longitudinal Case Study ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Emotional Process ◽  
Collective Work ◽  
Emotional Geographies ◽  
Emotional Dimensions

Purpose While the benefits of teacher collaboration are well documented, less is known about how emotions intersect with teachers’ collective work. Educational change is an emotional process, as reform efforts often involve shifts in teachers’ daily routines and professional identities. To better understand these complexities, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the emotional dimensions of teachers’ collaborative efforts to improve instruction. Design/methodology/approach Drawing on qualitative data, this longitudinal case study of one teacher team explores how teacher collaboration for instructional improvement intersects with emotional geographies. Data analyzed include three years of meeting observations and annual interviews with teachers and school leaders. Findings An analysis of data reveals how emotions both shaped and were shaped by teachers’ collaboration experiences. Varying beliefs about practice, expectations about collective work and identity (in this case, gender) impacted collaboration and subsequently opportunities for instructional improvement. Practical implications This study demonstrates how attending to the emotional aspects of teacher collaboration could serve as an effective strategy for bolstering capacity-building efforts. Findings highlight the interplay between emotional geographies, suggesting that common ground across one geography could potentially be built upon to close gaps across others. Originality/value This study provides a unique longitudinal exploration of the emotional dimensions of teachers’ collective work. The study also contributes to new knowledge about the ways in which teachers’ emotions and collaborative experiences intersect, including the interplay between emotional geographies.

A Taxonomy of Instructional Learning Opportunities in Teachers’ Workgroup Conversations

2016 ◽  
Vol 68 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-54 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ilana Seidel Horn ◽  
Brette Garner ◽  
Britnie Delinger Kane ◽  
Jason Brasel
Keyword(s):  
School Districts ◽  
School Improvement ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
Teacher Collaboration ◽  
Learning Opportunities ◽  
Urban School Districts ◽  
Sampled Data ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Collective Work ◽  
Work Supports

Many school-improvement efforts include time for teacher collaboration, with the assumption that teachers’ collective work supports instructional improvement. However, not all collaboration equally supports learning that would support improvement. As a part of a 5-year study in two urban school districts, we collected video records of more than 100 mathematics teacher workgroup meetings in 16 different middle schools, selected as “best cases” of teacher collaboration. Building off of earlier discursive analyses of teachers’ collegial learning, we developed a taxonomy to describe how conversational processes differentially support teachers’ professional learning. We used the taxonomy to code our corpus, with each category signaling different learning opportunities. In this article, we present the taxonomy, illustrate the categories, and report the overall dearth of meetings with rich learning opportunities, even in this purposively sampled data set. This taxonomy provides a coding scheme for other researchers, as well as a map for workgroup facilitators aiming to deepen collaborative conversations.

The Principal as a Data-Driven Instructional Leader

2018 ◽  
pp. 76-97
Author(s):  
Sonya D. Hayes ◽  
Carlos G. Lee
Keyword(s):  
No Child Left Behind ◽  
School Improvement ◽  
Student Learning ◽  
Learning Community ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
Instructional Leader ◽  
Data Driven ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Improve Instruction

The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) began an educational reform movement that iterated standardization and accountability. Since the onset of NCLB, educational leaders have focused more attention on using data to guide and inform school improvement efforts. Although most school leaders and teachers have access to a wide-range of data, the examination and interpretation of data to inform teaching and to improve student learning has been a challenge for educators. In this chapter, the authors review the literature on data-driven decision making (DDDM) and elaborate on how the principal, as an instructional leader, uses the professional learning community (PLC) process to support the development of teachers in creating an authentic approach to data analysis in order to improve instruction and support student learning.

scholarly journals How do teachers collaborate in Hungarian VET schools? A quantitative study of forms, perceptions of impact and related individual and organisational factors

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Eszter Bükki ◽  
Anikó Fehérvári
Keyword(s):  
School Improvement ◽  
Teacher Collaboration ◽  
Work Experience ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Compulsory Education ◽  
Vocational Education And Training ◽  
Vocational Teachers ◽  
Structural Barriers ◽  
Organisational Factors ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Background This study investigates teacher collaboration in Hungarian vocational education and training (VET) schools based on an online survey of teachers (n = 303). Collaboration of teachers has long been appreciated for its significant benefits including increased motivation, job satisfaction, self- and collective efficacy, as well as its role in teacher professional development and school improvement. Collaboration of teachers working in VET schools, especially in VET systems where initial VET is provided to young people and (in part) within compulsory education, appears as particularly desirable, given the special context, objectives and challenges of this sector and the spread of competence-based education. However, relatively little is known about VET teacher collaboration, especially in Hungary, where three different profiles of teachers—general subject and vocational teachers and vocational trainers—work in VET schools. The aim of our study was to provide data about how Hungarian VET teachers collaborate, which could validate prior research results on teacher collaboration as well as identify any special features of the VET context. Method Our study design was exploratory, descriptive and correlational, applying quantitative statistical analysis. We measured teacher collaboration (practice and perception of impact) and explanatory individual and organisational factors selected for our research framework by adapting instruments of previous empirical studies (most importantly, OECD’s TALIS). We analysed connections between collaboration and independent variables created by principal component analysis. Results Our data show that sharing-type collaboration (professional discussions and exchange of materials) are widespread among Hungarian VET teachers. They are much less likely to participate in deeper collaborative activities that presuppose higher levels of interdependence, and they also appreciate the impact of deeper collaboration less. Female respondents participate in sharing-type activities more than their male colleagues, and middle-aged (40–55) are most active in both types of collaboration and perceive the most impact. Collaboration practices correlate most with perceptions of their impact. More frequent collaboration and perceptions of higher impact are related to teachers’ sense of higher self-efficacy and relaxed, tolerant and encouraging collegial relationships. Structural barriers seem to influence only sharing and perceptions of impact. Small, but statistically significant differences in collaboration were found between the three teacher profiles. Vocational trainers (who instruct vocational school practice) showed the highest level of participation in deeper collaboration, while vocational teachers were least likely to participate and perceived the least impact. No significant associations were found between collaboration and prior or current work experience in the taught vocation. Conclusions Our results largely confirm and validate previous research on teacher collaboration in lower level and general educational contexts by providing data on VET teacher collaboration. They also note the role of some VET-specific factors, such as structural barriers and small, but statistically significant differences between different VET teacher profiles.

MODIFIKASI MODEL PEMBELAJARAN PROBLEM POSING DENGAN STRATEGI PEMBELAJARAN TUGAS DAN PAKSA

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lita Amalia ◽  
Alda Dwiyana Putri ◽  
Alfajri Mairizki Nurfansyah
Keyword(s):  
Student Learning ◽  
Learning Outcomes ◽  
Learning Process ◽  
Learning Strategy ◽  
Student Learning Outcomes ◽  
Learning Model ◽  
Problem Posing ◽  
Reasoning Skills ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Answering Questions

The purpose of this paper is to describe the Problem Posing learning model with Task and Forced Strategy. As for the background of this writing is because of difficulties in understanding the material and also lack of enthusiasm of students in learning the material so that the impact on student learning outcomes is still low. The low student learning outcomes are, of course, many factors, one of which is the problem of applying a learning model that is still teacher-centered, so students tend to be passive. For this reason, the teacher can use the Problem Posing learning model that is modified by the task and force strategy (Task and Forced). Problem Posing learning model is a learning model that requires students to develop their systematic reasoning skills in making questions and answering questions. While the task and force strategy (Task and Forced) is a learning strategy that has little effect on students to complete the task until it is completed and on time to avoid the punishment given by the teacher as a consequence. So that students will be motivated in listening, understanding the material delivered and doing assignments on time. By combining this model and strategy can be a solution so that the learning process becomes quality.

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