1. Effective collaboration Session 1 – A professional community

2. Introduction Welcome to the first session on effective collaboration. There are four sessions altogether and each session will introduce you to ideas and effective ways of working using collaborative teaching. This resource is part of the Professional Learning pathway developed by the Welsh Government. Each session will take about 90 minutes to read and to complete the suggested activities. We will be drawing on case studies of teachers in Wales, and referring to the Welsh Government standards for teaching. This session focuses on understanding collaborative teaching and its place in teachers’ professional repertoires. Some parts of the sessions are set up as a small-scale research opportunity, so you will be asked to undertake and then reflect on some activities. You might also like to look at the reflective practice materials as a resource to enhance both professional thinking and activity.

3. Collaborative teaching and teacher standards This session on collaborative teaching addresses the following standards. 8. Appreciate and value the contribution that support staff and other professionals make to the learning, development and well-being of children and young people. 9. Be actively involved in professional networks and learning communities which share and test beliefs and understandings with colleagues and contribute to the wider development of the school and profession. 54. Work co-operatively and collaboratively with other teachers and colleagues, including those from external agencies, to enhance the learning and wellbeing of those they teach.

4. Learning journal As with reflective practice, these sessions are going to invite you to record and reflect on the experience of being part of a collaborative teaching team. Such a record is called a learning journal (please refer to the ‘Facilitators’ handbook’ for a template). Activity 1 In the learning journal, please begin by noting down what you think a collaborative teaching community is. The following slide outlines some characteristics and you will be asked to compare your list to these.

5. What is collaborative teaching? DfES (2006) describes eight characteristics of collaborative teaching groups. Shared values and vision. Collective responsibility for pupils’ learning. Reflective professional enquiry. Collaboration focused on learning. Group as well as individual professional learning. Openness, networks and partnerships. Inclusive membership. Mutual trust, respect and support.

6. What is collaborative teaching? (continued) Activity 2 In the learning journal, please say how far your description overlapped with these characteristics. What additional characteristics did you include? How would you define collaborative teaching? (You will return to this later in this session.) Now see whether you can combine these and any additional characteristics you have identified into themes. Three such themes are suggested on the next slide.

7. What is collaborative teaching? (continued) The DfES characteristics might be brought together into three major themes. Shared focus on student learning. Professional development. Networked resource and collaboration. In each of the following sessions, we will be focusing on each theme in turn as we see it in operation within the context of collaborative teaching within schools, across schools, and between schools and the wider community. Firstly however we are going to be considering what advantages there are in teaching collaboratively.

8. Why teach collaboratively? Education in the twenty-first century is making new demands on schools. Preparing our students to learn and work in a world which is complex, international in focus, driven by technology, and changing rapidly, means that as teachers, we need to think about resources to meet these new demands. The greatest resource any school possesses is the people that work there, so it makes sense to think first and foremost about working collaboratively with those around us. But as we will see in later sessions, opportunity also exists to work with colleagues outside of our own immediate community.

9. Collaborative teaching: shared visions Activity 3 In the learning journal, please note the advantages of working collaboratively that you can see. Over the next few days, please ask your colleagues on their views on working collaboratively. You should ask about both what they understand by the term ‘working collaboratively’ and any advantages they can see. You can either conduct short interviews (please refer to slides 7 and 8 in Session 3 of the Reflective practice introduction resources) or send out a questionnaire (please refer to slides 9 to 11).slides 7 and 8 in Session 3 Reflective practice introduction resourcesslides 9 to 11

10. Collaborative teaching: shared visions (continued) Activity 3 (continued) When you have all your responses either from the interviews or questionnaires, analyse them to see to what extent your colleagues agree or disagree with the definition you had in your own learning journal earlier; what advantages did they identify and to what extent did those agree with or extend your own list of advantages? In the learning journal, please record the conclusions you draw from this small-scale enquiry. Do you feel that your own learning from this session deepened or extended your understanding of collaborative teaching? The next slide has some quotes from teachers who took part in collaborative learning activities. Are the comments similar? If not, what is different?

11. Collaborative teaching: what do other teachers say? ‘Everybody is very positive. There's nobody in the school I don't feel able to approach in a professional or personal capacity.’ ‘The big leap that's been able to help us in the last two or three years is people are no longer defensive about being observed or intermingling with each other. There's a whole new culture.’ ‘You're encouraged to take risks and be a bit more creative and to work together and develop and share good practice.’ (DfES: 2006)

12. Collaborative teaching: team work in action From the last activities, you should now have a clear definition of your own on collaborative teaching, and some useful data from colleagues showing both their understanding and what their views might be. This is the starting point for working in teams. When you have these definitions and views you can begin to see how a group will need opportunity to talk and come to an agreement about what collaborative teaching is and how it might work. The range of views you had will have demonstrated that such time is an investment – reaching early agreement on these boundaries leads to greater efficiencies in later work. You could use your findings to start a discussion with any collaborative group you decide to work with.

13. Collaborative teaching and professional learning communities Collaborative teaching is known by a number of names, including communities of practice, critical friends groups and professional learning communities. All these communities have in common a focus on student outcomes through shared values and a shared vision of excellence. Following the Welsh Government’s guidance, we are going to explore collaborative teaching communities through professional learning communities (PLCs).

14. Professional learning communities Professional learning communities (PLCs) are collaborative groups who work together on identified issues concerned with improving the quality of learners’ experiences. They have been defined as ‘a group of people sharing and critically interrogating their practice in an ongoing, reflective, collaborative, inclusive, learning-oriented, growth-promoting way, and operating as a collective enterprise’. (DfES 2006) Such groups are brought together specifically for this purpose, and are not necessarily existing groups in schools (such as subject departments). There is no expectation that each group will remain as a group. The approach is instead fluid and responsive, and new groups will form as new issues are identified. The groups design and undertake enquiry into a particular area with a view to sharing their findings with a wider professional group.

15. Who can be part of a PLC? The DfES (2006) described a PLC as having: … the capacity to promote and sustain the learning of all professionals in the school community with the collective purpose of enhancing pupil learning. It is important to note the inclusivity of this statement. PLCs value and bring together the expertise of all staff, parents/carers and the wider community. No one is excluded from a PLC, but rather involvement is on the basis of what skills and knowledge can be brought to the group by individuals.

16. Wider reading about PLCs Activity 4 In your learning journal, please note down the defining characteristics of PLCs from the wider reading available on this page, or using other reading that you have available to you. Learning Wales – Professional learning communities Digital Education Resource Archive - Professional learning communities user guideDigital Education Resource Archive - Professional learning communities user guide ASCD - What is a Professional Learning Community? A longer exploration of the idea and themes and principles can be found on the Education Scotland website.Education Scotland website

17. Summary In this session you have: considered the characteristics and structures of collaborative teaching and PLCs undertaken some small-scale research into working collaboratively that will both allow you to understand the boundaries of this construct and which can be used as a starting point for discussion with other members of your PLC. In the next session we will be looking at PLCs within a school, and focusing on the theme of shared visions of student learning.