Restructuring schools for collaboration: promises and pitfalls By Diana G. Pounder
This book (preview) discusses the need for and problems in achieving collaboration in schools. It focuses on inter-teacher collaboration. It states the 2 main benefits as:
1) To increase the democratization of schools
2) to enhance school effectiveness and/or increase productivity
Sociology of Education: Major Themes By Stephen J. Ball
This book (preview) expounds the virtues of collaboration, again focussing on teacher-teacher collaboration, citing research that goes into point 2 above in great depth- improving teacher effectiveness, morale, and willingness to take risk. It also reduces the dependence on outside experts, and with today's (the past few decades') more diverse, inclusive, classrooms, allows teachers to face these demands by sharing their differing strengths- e.g. sharing strategies on coping with ADHD students.
Conversely the book goes on to list critiques of such collaboration in 2 ways:
1) the difficulties of implementing collaboration e.g. teacher competition and insecurities.
2) the many different forms of collaboration, which if done poorly will not all produce positive results. For example 'contrived collaboration' is rarely as effective or welcome as spontaneous and sincere collaboration.
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As a teacher I can really identify with the benefits and pitfalls of collaboration.
ReplyDeleteThe benefits:
As the research suggests, there are huge benefits in team planning, indeed this is necessary for fairness to students being taught the same courses in different classes by different teachers. Teachers observing each other can gain a great deal by copying each others' techniques. In many schools, a teacher must be observed by a principal and/or HoD. By watching other teachers, I've learnt a lot about, in particular, how to handle difficult students, but also the kinds of activities, and the times spent on each in classes.
Marking together/moderation is necessary to ensure far marking.
The pitfalls: 'As Conflict Amid Community: The Micropolitics of Teacher Collaboration' by Betty Achinstein — 2002 says, a big problem with collaboration is that teachers run into differences in professional beliefs. I'd add to this the problems of competition and insecurities, which are linked. By competition and insecurities, I mean that teachers are often competing for approval from colleagues and students, and for results and so promotions. This can lead to teachers, perhaps deliberately, undermining each other, or withholding expertise, resenting each others' feedback and learning. I imagine this holds true for most professions, but perhaps especially in teaching as each teacher is something of a master of his domain, and hates to be undermined in front of students.
I'm not a school teacher, but I heard some from others. In China, school teachers have the tradition to prepare lessons together for teachers teaching the same course. They share their teaching plans, courseware, and experience of dealing with problems. The purpose is for students in different classes to have approximately the same progress and quality in the school. In each city, there is a central teaching institute responsible for central administration of school teaching in the whole city. Staff in the institute visits school to listen in class and gives feedback and recommendation regularly. I think this mechanism can in some extent guarantee the basic quality of teaching and promote collaboration between teachers.
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