Repertoires of Collaborative Practice

Laura Varlas wrote an interesting piece in ASCD “Caught in the Middle” July 2010 | Volume 52 | Number 7
Called- Looking Within: Teachers Leading Their Own Learning

She had me at her opening line, “The most powerful and ample resource for change in education is teachers’ own expertise. Yet, teachers are regularly overstepped when it comes to leading school improvement.”

What’s not to love? Teachers developing expertise and leadership by using their voice in areas that impact them most, areas such as, professional development and curriculum.

Varlas goes on to say, “U.S. teachers also perceive little control over the content of their own professional development (PD). The National Staff Development Council (NSDC) concludes that “teachers’ lack of influence over school decisions means teachers are less likely to be engaged in collaborative problem solving around school-specific issues.”"

Why is it that we have such difficulty in generalizing what we know to be true in our classrooms with how we learn as educational professionals? Any teacher worth their weight knows that students need ownership of the curriculum being discussed for it to have relevancy. That learning by doing and deciding is much stronger than learning by being told.

Varlas discusses how other countries give teachers more voice in decision making and policy development, “The NSDC reports that Australia, Hong Kong, New Zealand, and Singapore also encourage this sort of action research. Embedded, ongoing, collaborative, capacity-building PD is the norm, the NSDC says. The study suggests that the simplest way to start building a collaborative culture is by teachers observing and discussing one another’s teaching—through videos; professional learning communities, like Critical Friends Groups; and school-based coaching programs.

Further down in the article Varlas quotes the NSDC, “Where active professional learning communities have taken shape in U.S. schools, student absenteeism and dropout rates were reduced and achievement increased significantly in math, science, history, and reading, NSDC reports in Professional Learning in the Learning Profession. Further, teachers’ professional learning communities that exhibit a shared sense of intellectual purpose and a collective responsibility for student learning were associated with narrowing achievement gaps in math and science among low- and middle-income students.”

In addition to student achievement gains, new and veteran teachers are attracted to collaborative professional communities where they have the opportunity to lead their own learning. MetLife’s 2009 Survey of the American Teacher reports that teachers in schools with higher levels of collaborative activities are more likely than others to have high levels of career satisfaction (68 percent versus 54 percent who report being very satisfied). Likewise, highly satisfied teachers are stronger proponents of shared responsibility and collaboration in schools.

Following the same kind of thinking In Team Up for 21st Century Teaching and Learning, NCTAF notes six common themes among high performing schools that use professional learning communities, which have been shown to positively affect school culture, teacher retention, teaching effectiveness and student performance. These themes include: Shared Values and Goals; Collective Responsibility; Authentic Assessment; Self-Directed Reflection; Stable Settings; and Strong Leadership Support.

As I read the findings from their research I saw so much data that supports what we are doing in Powerful Learning Practice with our team approach to PD.

A few note worthy quotes from the report. I am ordering the book today and will update you on what I learn.

Connected Learning Communities
In a book I am writing with Lani Ritter-Hall, we look at these concepts raised by Varlas, NSDC, NCTAF and others but through a 21st Century lens. We raise the question of how to harness the power of educators conversing and collaborating in their local context through professional learning communities with the learning that comes from forming DIY PD through the organization of personal learning networks, and then deepen understanding and develop a systemic approach from a global perspective through the formation of online communities of practice.

We see such power in each of these PD strategies that we felt they needed to be woven together to form a more powerful PD model for today’s and tomorrow’s educators. In an effort to discuss this concept more deeply we have coined a new, more specific term for this process- connected learning communities (CLC). We see connected educators immersed in communities that enable a situated, yet a connected experience, where participants have a common purpose and are committed to growing together and improving over time. We see CLC members developing a shared vision, common goals, beliefs and dispositions around principled change and through local and global action research, together discovering creative ways to meet the needs of the 21st Century learner. When given time, connected educators will share ideas with and ask questions of each other and their global network, often made up of a diverse group of individuals in and out of education. And from these conversations, we envision communities and collegiality/camaraderie developing that have the potential to produce lasting, positive change.

We hope you will enjoy our thinking around these concepts. We will be asking you to share ideas with us as we write. More to come about the book. We just wanted to let you know it is coming.