Teacher Collaboration for Professional Learning

Facilitating Study, Research, and Inquiry Communities

Cynthia A. Lassonde, Susan E. Israel

• Publisher: Jossey-Bass
• Year: 2009
• Print ISBN:
  9780470461310
• eBook ISBN:
  9780470553978
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education Administration

Teacher Collaboration for Professional Learning contains the essential information, tools, and examples teachers and school leaders need to create, manage, and sustain successful collaborative groups. Designed to be a hands-on resource, this practical guide shows you how to:

• Advocate for collaborative teacher learning
• Develop and sustain collaborative research groups
• Organize and conduct productive research projects
• Address issues of ethics, leadership, and group dynamics
• Evaluate and sustain collaborative learning activities

Based on data from a major survey, Teacher Collaboration for Professional Learning features extensive case examples from model research communities collaborating within schools, across districts, in partnership with universities, and as online networks. The book also offers a wealth of reproducible templates as well as reflection questions and exercises?invaluable tools for organizing study groups.

PART 1

Why Support Collaborative Research?

INTRODUCTION

AN N¹ OF ONE NO MORE
By C. F. Chryst
(in collaboration with Norm Parry)

From random thought, a burning question grew.
Gathered books around me searching reams of other people’s work.
But still the question burned, a fire blown from place to place, igniting thought.
Deep conversations with paper people just wouldn’t do.

I needed to know; I had to share.
Urgency built then bubbled out, bursting on friends and family.
Some nodded; some smiled; some derided.
Some cared as best they could with conversations, leaving both unsatisfied.
Silence crept into shared space.

In a moment of bravery, the question leapt from my lips.
As I bounced my thoughts to a colleague, silence shattered;
Joy and excitement bubbled—a deep conversation ensued.
An invitation to her home to talk, to share, to think.
We explored a question that mattered to us both.

I, an N of one, once alone, gathered courage, strength, insight
With my now-friend peer. We, in a moment of bravery,
Invited another to join this quest to uncover.
New worlds of thinking evolved from deep conversation.
Surprised it did not feel like work, felt like breathing in fresh air.

Conversations in an airy kitchen around an oak table
Fed the burning question with ideas we, now three, cherished.
New questions rose, filling the silent spaces within this N of one,
Filling the spaces between each of us with energy.

No longer isolated in a sea of other people’s words,
My voice is being heard. Another remarks, “Who wrote this? It’s brilliant!”
None of us recognize the insight, but all of us hear the whisper
Of a new partner at the table—Our Voice—
Emerging clear and distinct, delivering forged insights from each of us
Born in fires of deep conversation fed by questions that matter.

The author of this poem is talking about forming a community of practice (Wenger, 1998) with her colleagues. This means that her colleagues and she become members in a group that is held together by their common pursuit of a shared learning experience. They develop practices—resources, frameworks, and perspectives—that help sustain their mutual engagement in the work or activity. Their community learns by “engaging in and contributing to the practices of their communities” (p. 7). By engaging in meaningful practices, they become involved in discussions and actions that make a difference to the communities they value.

The chapters in Part One provide insight into taking the first steps to open conversations that lead to improved student learning through collaborative learning communities that facilitate study, research, and inquiry and build teacher expertise. As you read these chapters, reflect on how the lines in “An N of One No More” connect to the approaches and research in these chapters. Also, the Reflection Questions and Study Group Exercises found in Appendixes B and C will help all readers focus on the main points of the chapters.

1

Improving Teacher Professional Learning

How to Use This Chapter

If you are reading this book, you are obviously interested in learning more about how to work collaboratively to support teacher research or how to set up collaborative study groups as a form of professional development in your school. You see its value; however, you may need further knowledge, information, and resources to substantiate its worth or to rally support from others. As a member of a group of classroom teachers, you may need to provide rationale and resources to administrators. As an administrator, you may hope to inform teachers and generate interest.

The purpose of this chapter is to provide background definitions and information for you to use as a rationale to gain support for your endeavor. When you are advocating for your project, you may want to provide specific examples, studies, and rationales from this chapter to inform others, such as administrators or funding organizations, of the value of teacher collaboration for professional learning. Consider creating a short presentation or a pamphlet that illustrates this approach for distribution to key people.

INTRODUCTION

One of the most frequent remarks we hear from teachers when we work with schools and organizations to set up collaborative learning communities, such as collaborative teacher research groups, is “We just don’t have the time!” It is true that teachers are often overwhelmed with the day-to-day work of teaching and the many responsibilities that go along with it. How can teachers possibly fit even one more task into their days?

Collaborative learning communities can inspire and energize teachers to commit to this type of professional development—to become part of a community of practice—as a priority in their work. Consequently, they begin to make time in their schedules to become members in these communities. They find the experience and the resultant learning valuable and the process intrinsically rewarding and enriching. Most important, they see how students’ learning is affected.

We hope you will agree that one of our most important responsibilities as educators is to teach effectively. This involves staying updated on scientifically based research and teaching methods. We regularly attend conferences and workshops and take classes to develop as educators. As you will learn in this chapter, one of the most effective types of professional development is sustained, on-site learning such as that experienced through site-based collaborative communities. These communities can empower educators to seek out and prioritize professional development and can help members find and strengthen their voices as educators whose knowledge and experiences are valued. This newfound empowerment helps to perpetuate teachers’ membership and commitment as it motivates them, focuses them, and encourages them to develop a voice.

We do have the ability and desire to improve student learning and to develop as professionals through collaboration. As the author of the poem that opens Part One describes, silence can be shattered when we are brave enough to share our questions with colleagues and have conversations that fill us with energy. We can and must make collaborative learning a priority in our professional development. Collaboration with interested colleagues can help us overcome those not-enough-time feelings. WE can do it!

WHAT IS TEACHER RESEARCH?

Teacher research is becoming a popular means for educators—classroom teachers, special education consultants, administrators, school media personnel, university faculty, and others—to improve classroom instruction and students’ learning. Cochran-Smith and Lytle (1993) define teacher research as “systematic and intentional inquiry carried out by teachers” (p. 7). By methodically examining daily classroom practices, educators portray an insider’s view of how learning happens.

What Is Collaborative Teacher Research?

When asked what stumbling blocks they encountered in their research, Mary Linville and Brittany Steele, teachers from the A. D. Henderson University School in Boca Raton, Florida, told us, “It’s always difficult to find the time to implement an action research project and analyze the results with all of the other required teacher responsibilities.” However, to overcome this common problem, they said, “We designed and implemented our project as a team, rather than individually. We kept each other on schedule by planning and working together throughout the project.” Many teachers have responded similarly to these questions. Yes, teacher research is wonderful and needed; but who has the time? For many, the answer has become, “WE do.”

Collaborative teacher research involves “individuals who enter with other teachers into a collaborative search for definition and satisfaction in their work lives as teachers and who regard research as part of larger efforts to transform teaching, learning, and schooling” (Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 1993, p. 298). Groups come together to support each other in a learning community, sometimes face-to-face, and sometimes online or through other communication methods, to inquire about compelling topics directly related to their classroom teaching and learning or schoolwide issues. These inquiries begin with a common question or concern educators have about issues such as how students learn, how to best teach students, or even issues that span multiple grade levels or districts. Figure 1.1 lists several authentic questions that have prompted teacher research collaboration among colleagues. Note that questions here represent inquiries across grade levels, at a district level, and even at the state level.

FIGURE 1.1. Examples of Real Questions That Have Inspired Collaborative Teacher Research

Collaborative groups involved in teacher research are finding that the process provides professional development opportunities for them to reflect on their practices and to learn new knowledge (Mohr, Rogers, Sanford, Nocerino, MacLean, & Clawson, 2004). Teacher research involves reading and sharing ideas about current scientifically based research, classic theories, and effective ways to gather and analyze the information needed to answer the research inquiry. These types of professional readings and conversations help inform educators and, in turn, can lead to improved student learning.

In this chapter, to provide a foundation to frame collaborative teacher research, we first look at the relationship between teacher research and professional development. Then we share our experiences with teacher research collaborations, the rationale behind such groups, and what we have learned about other’s experiences with these collaborative groups from our research.

Effective Professional Development

As educators, our expectations for students’ learning have changed dramatically in the past few decades. We have raised our standards and vowed to leave no child behind (No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, U.S. Department of Education). As a result, we have pursued effective ways to update and upgrade our teaching practices, knowledge, and skills. Many of us—teachers and administrators alike—have sought optimal professional development opportunities, such as conference attendance and in-service consultants or speakers, to teach us new approaches and scientifically based methods for achieving our goals for our teaching and, in turn, for our students’ learning.

What Is Professional Development?

Simply defined, professional development is participation in opportunities that result in the acquisition of new knowledge, understandings, skills, or strategies that enhance and build upon our current knowledge. Our goals for professional development in education may include

• Advancing students’ learning

• Exploring options and gaining new perspectives and ideas

• Learning new methods or approaches to advance our teaching

• Acquiring knowledge and skills that transfer to or apply to reformed curriculum

• Acquiring knowledge and skills that help us independently carry out new approaches by applying learned classroom practices

In addition, the U.S. Department of Education (USDOE), through the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, mandates that all public school teachers participate in “effective” professional development that

• Improves teachers’ knowledge

• May be part of a school- or districtwide improvement plan

• Helps students meet state learning and achievement standards

• Develops educators’ classroom management skills

• Teaches how to interpret and use data and assessments to inform classroom practice

Furthermore, No Child Left Behind (NCLB) states that to be highly effective, professional development should have a lasting impact on instruction; be based on scientifically based research; be aligned with state standards and assessments; be “developed with extensive participation of teachers, principals, parents, and administrators of schools”; and be regularly evaluated for its effectiveness (USDOE, 2001, p. 1963).

What Works?

Disappointingly, we have come to find that many opportunities in professional development do not lead to long-term curriculum reform and do not meet the needs of the students in our communities (Henson, 2001). As a whole, research shows that professional development in the form of one-day workshops has very little effect on changes to the ways teachers teach, to the organization of schools and curriculum, and to what students learn (Gullickson, Lawrenz, & Keiser, 2000; McKenzie, 1991). The reasons for this are that potential effects are frequently weakened by lack of follow-up and inconsistencies in implementation.

The most effective programs tend to be in-service training programs that offer extended coaching with frequent feedback and follow-up. These programs tend to be much more effective than attendance at “one-shot,” generic workshops or periodic in-service attendance in which outside experts who do not know the personal needs of your students, community, or district espouse their knowledge and discrete skills to improve individual practices (Dobbs, 2000; Gold & Powe, 2001). Research suggests long-term, site-based professional development opportunities engage teachers in the learning process, build from their current knowledge and practices, help them examine their beliefs with intent to transform practice, and allow them to explore authentic and personal questions as they develop answers.

There is considerable research to support that collaborative group learning is the most powerful kind of professional development (Arter, 2001; Garmston, 1999; Johnson & Johnson, 1999; Zeichner, 2003) and that collaborative teacher research is highly effective (Bullough & Gitlin, 2001; Cisar, 2005; Knight, Wiseman, & Cooner, 2000; Goatley et al., 1994). The opportunity to collaborate has been cited as the most important factor in instituting change. Stager (1995) suggests collaborative problem solving as the most effective form of professional development. Table 1.1 illustrates how the process of collaborative teacher research connects with the goals for professional development. You can see why collaborative teacher research is reputed as an effective means of professional development.

Collaborative teacher research is collaborative problem solvin...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Figures
• List of Tables
• Table of Exhibits
• Foreword
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• The Authors
• The Contributors
• Dedication
• PART 1 - Why Support Collaborative Research?
• PART 2 - Building a Professional Learning Community
• PART 3 - Collaborating Effectively
• PART 4 - Model Learning Communities in Action
• Epilogue: Supporting and Sustaining Professional Collaboration
• APPENDIX A - Tools and Templates
• APPENDIX B - Reflection Questions
• APPENDIX C - Study Group Exercises
• APPENDIX D - Valuable Resources
• APPENDIX E - Teacher Research Survey
• References
• Index