Building Bridges Between General Practitioners and Educators of the Gifted: A Study of Collaboration

Abstract

The Collaboration Research Study examined the incidence of collaboration, as well as the assumptions of those who entered collaborative alliances. Collaboration was defined as "dialogue and planning between professionals in which the goal is to provide differentiated services for high achieving students." Two hundred and eighty-nine enrichment specialists, classroom teachers, and administrators, selected purposefully, took part in this national, descriptive, ex post facto research. The response rate from the three groups was 61%, 55%, and 51%, respectively. Results indicate that more than 80% of those sampled engage in collaboration. Data suggest that classroom teachers and enrichment specialists enter the collaborative relationship with different, and sometimes conflicting, sets of assumptions about the skills and attitudes of their collaborative partners. These empirical findings suggest that collaboration is a complex, interpersonal process. Implications of the study are twofold. First, collaboration depends upon highly developed interpersonal skills. Second, successful collaborative relationships rest upon the match between the assumptions that each party holds about the other. In order to ensure collaborative alliances that can produce high quality, differentiated learning options, the assumptions of each party need to be understood and, if necessary, bridges need to be built when gaps exist between the assumptions and the actual skills and attitudes of collaborative partners.