Collaborative Teacher Learning Research Articles

Teacher learning and collaboration in a life sciences cluster in South Africa

There is increasing focus on collaborative teacher learning in South Africa. In the Mpumalanga province, the Department of Education uses cluster meetings as a model of teacher development. Clusters are groups of teachers from different schools who teach the same subject. In this article we focus on the learning activities that took place in 1 cluster of life sciences teachers during 2016 and 2017. Data were generated by observing 6 cluster meetings (at provincial, district and circuit level), and by interviewing 11 members of the cluster and 2 departmental officials. Wenger’s concepts of mutual engagement, shared repertoire and joint enterprise were used to analyse the data. The findings show that the professional learning activities that took place in the cluster meetings were mostly directed at improving the Grade 12 learners’ results. The subject advisors, rather than the teachers, initiated the learning activities. The routines and resources used also focused on improving learner results. We thus argue that a managerial discourse of professionalism underpins the cluster model of professional development, primarily providing strategies intended to improve the pass rate of the Grade 12 learners and to monitor school-based assessment, rather than supporting collaborative professional learning.

Using video enhanced mobile observation for peer-feedback in teacher education

Mobile tools are integrated into teacher education settings to provide contextualized, connected, and collaborative teacher learning practices. In this case study, the video-enhanced observation (VEO) app was used in a science methods course to facilitate preservice teachers’ reciprocal peer-teaching of inquiry-based lesson study. This research examined preservice teachers’ perceptions on the challenges and affordances of using video enhanced mobile observation with peer-teaching feedback. Results from the technology acceptance model (TAM) revealed moderate levels of perceived ease of use, usefulness, and intention to use the VEO app. Further analysis of the open-ended questions and semi-structured interviews revealed self-reflection, feedback, and inquiry-based teaching support as emerging themes for the app integration. This research offers recommendations for implementing video enhanced mobile observation as a promising formative and performative-based assessment strategy within peer-feedback contexts in teacher education programs.

Pedagogical and epistemic uncertainty in collaborative teacher learning

Studies of teacher learning often focus on individual teacher uncertainty as a source for reflection and inquiry. This study examines the emergence of group uncertainty during practice-based professional development, and the ways participants manage it. Through linguistic ethnographic discourse analysis, we examine two contrasting teacher discussions about the concept of feedback in one teacher meeting. In our analyses, we distinguish between pedagogical uncertainty and epistemic uncertainty and explore the strategies participants employ to navigate them. Specifically, we highlight the importance of examining socio-epistemic positioning and epistemic moves to better understand how participants respond to group uncertainty.

Understanding Teacher Learning Through Teacher-Created Knowledge Products and Transactions

Mutual learning between teachers and their colleagues plays a vital role in their professional growth. However, previous studies show that collaborative teacher learning tends to be confined to small groups, and that it is difficult to make it explicit, showcase, or transfer teachers’ tacit knowledge. This study explores this problem by creating a digital system that allows teachers to create, display, and trade their knowledge products; 508 teachers from one K–12 school created and traded their knowledge products, while 1,148 teachers from other schools participated in the knowledge product transaction on the digital system. Using social network analysis, we discovered that teachers use this method to generate a lot of interaction and that teachers who taught similar subject areas communicated more with one another. There is a significant correlation among each teacher’s number of created knowledge products, knowledge products sold, and the number of knowledge products purchased from others. The study has potential to contribute to research on teacher learning, thinking, and actions.

Facilitating collaborative reflective inquiry amongst teachers: What do we currently know?

Collaborative teacher learning is thought to improve teaching practice and student outcomes. Key to such learning is Reflective Professional Inquiry (RPI); seen as vital if practitioners are to engage effectively with new knowledge and ideas. Yet RPI is under-conceptualised and little is known about how to facilitate effective RPI. With this study we engage in a meta-narrative literature review, covering a range of disciplines (including education, medicine, and psychology), in an attempt to fill these knowledge gaps. Findings indicate that there are no existing interventions designed to foster RPI that have been rigorously evaluated. Consequently, there are no approaches that could be employed as part of collaborative teacher learning, with the expectation that practice or student outcomes will subsequently improve.

Creating conditions for professional learning communities (PLCs) in schools in China: the role of school principals

ABSTRACT School principals play a key role in the creation and nurture of school conditions conducive to Professional Learning Communities (PLCs). In China, whereas the term PLC itself is an imported concept and rarely used by school practitioners, the precept of PLCs, collaborative teacher learning activities, are firmly embedded in teachers’ daily work. However, little research has examined the relationships between principalship and PLCs in the country. This article uses data collected from over 100 primary school principals across six regions in China to explore the role principals play in building and sustaining PLCs in Chinese schools. The article specifically asks what Chinese school principals do to create the structural, cultural and relational conditions needed to foster PLCs. The study identifies some common leadership strategies adopted by Chinese principals and related insights into embedding ongoing professional learning in schools.

Fostering collaborative teacher learning: A typology of school leadership

AbstractPrevious research indicates that supportive school leadership is a key condition of collaborative teacher learning. The purpose of this study was to develop a typology of how school leaders foster collaborative teacher learning. We adopted an integrative perspective on leadership by examining both learning‐centred leadership and distributed leadership practices that are supportive of collaborative teacher learning. Data were gathered by means of interviews with ten school leaders and a questionnaire that was completed by 39 teachers from six secondary schools in the Netherlands. The aim of the interviews was to identify to what extent school leaders applied learning‐centred leadership and distributed leadership practices. The questionnaire measured teachers' perceptions of the role of school leaders in teacher learning. As an outcome of this study, we constructed a typology that provides insights into how school leaders foster collaborative teacher learning. Four types of school leaders were distinguished: (a) integrators of teacher learning, (b) facilitators of teacher learning, (c) managers of teacher learning, and (d) managers of daily school practice. Our findings suggest that integration of learning‐centred leadership and distributed leadership practices can help school leaders to support collaborative teacher learning.

Investigating teacher learning in Lesson Study: the important link between reported observations and change of plans

ABSTRACT This study explores the processes of collaborative teacher learning in a Lesson Study group at a lower secondary school in Norway. In this context, teacher learning is understood from a sociocultural perspective, as making sense of the world, solving problems and exploring new perspectives through social interaction. Audio-recorded teacher discussions are analysed, using a coding system adapted to identify whether teachers’ reports of observations from the classroom are related to interpretation, evaluation and further planning. Findings reveal a strong link between reported and interpreted observations, evaluation of student learning and teaching, and further planning. The article suggests that the sharing phase of the post-research lesson discussions provided the foundation for this relationship. Planned observations operationalised through observation forms contributed to rich reports of observations from several observers. The collaborative sharing process opened up for extended perspectives on the research lessons. However, the most crucial aspect for teacher learning was shared ownership of challenges and a common wish to change and improve the next lesson. These findings contribute to enlighten the potential of teacher learning processes in Lesson Study.

Lesson study design features for supporting collaborative teacher learning

Teacher learning communities have been promoted as a promising approach to promote systemwide improvement of teaching and student learning. However, our knowledge about what design features of collaborative learning processes in teacher groups support teacher learning is still limited. Based on a teacher survey of lesson study, this study found that facilitators’ focus on student thinking, the quality of materials, and duration of lesson study were significantly associated with teacher participation in an effective inquiry process, which in turn is associated with perceived positive changes in teacher knowledge, self-efficacy, and expectation.

Exploring Models of Team Teaching in Initial Foreign/Second Language Teacher Education: A Study in Situated Collaboration

The demonstrable potential of team teaching as a productive mechanism for developing collaborative teacher learning is now broadly understood in the field of teacher education. However, there is less evidence of the use of such collaborative teaching as a means of strengthening initial foreign/second language teacher education. This paper reports on the findings of a multiple case study in Chile that explored team teaching in a foreign language teacher education program. The study is illuminated through the lens of cultural historical activity theory framework (CHAT) and draws on the analysis of semi-structured interviews, work shadowing observations and reflections. The outcomes suggest that team teaching provides a space for developmental forms of collaboration that can promote deeper learning among pre-service teachers. The findings support the argument that collaborative practices could be a path for developing and deepening the prospective reflexive practices of pre-service teachers.

Practising the public? Collaborative teacher inquiry in an era of standardization and accountability

This paper analyses the nature of collaborative teacher learning as a form of ‘public sphere’, under current policy conditions. The research draws upon Habermas’ notions of communicative action and public spheres, and literature on the nature of teachers’ learning in the context of standardized curriculum and assessment reform, to analyse how teachers’ work and learning can be understood in light of pressure for increased accountability for improved performance. Drawing upon transcripts of professional learning meetings—referred to as ‘Inquiry Cycles’—at a school in northern Queensland, Australia, and interviews with participants, the research reports that while the Inquiry Cycles constituted a ‘public sphere’ for teachers’ learning and inquiry, they were simultaneously influenced by more instrumental policy support for an increasingly prescriptive curriculum, and pressure for improved performance, particularly against standardized measures of literacy and numeracy. The research explores how a public sphere in the form of the Inquiry Cycles was responsive to these more instrumentalist forms of rationality, revealing a need for cautious engagement with such initiatives under current policy conditions, even as they have the potential to effect more productive learning on the part of teachers.

Promoting teachers’ instructional practices in alternative assessment through teacher collaboration

This paper reports the findings of a study which aims to examine the processes and effectiveness of the collaboration between teachers in their professional learning which some Singapore schools are currently engaged in. The learning process attempted to raise the profile of teacher professionalism in classroom alternative assessment through action research. A total of nine schools participated in this two-year study. Participants included teachers and school leaders. Guided by a university researcher and supported by a cluster superintendent and school leaders, the collaboration helped familiarise teachers with alternative ways of assessing student learning, connect theories with practice in their classroom assessment, and acquire the skills of doing research. Facilitated by a structure that supports the development of partnerships between teachers from different schools, the collaboration focused on teachers working on a common task. The data reveal how teachers took ownership of their own learning through this process and led their peers in their respective schools in curriculum customisation through alternative assessment practices. Such an education reform process, which has driven the effectiveness of the collaborative teacher learning in promoting teachers’ instructional practices, is analysed from four dimensions, namely, (a) macro level (systemic reform), (b) school level (school improvement plans), (c) teacher level (teacher community), and (d) micro level (classroom level). This paper concludes with a discussion of the challenges in sustaining teacher collaboration across schools in Singapore.

Facilitating collaborative teacher learning: the role of “mindfulness” in video-based teacher professional development programs

In teacher professional development (PD), the component of collaborative participation among teachers is emphasized. Especially in video-based PD programs, the role of building up a teacher learning community and a trustful exchange among group members is important. Since general rules for productive collaboration do not exist at the beginning of a PD program, the role of a facilitator is pivotal for the successful development of a teacher learning community. In this paper, we present a new video-based PD program, the “Dialogic Video Cycle” (DVC), focusing on the improvement of classroom dialogue. In describing the DVC and the facilitation actions (“moves”), we highlight the role of the facilitator as mindful in providing teachers with new knowledge and with guiding the exchange among teachers about teaching practices and reflections. Results of a final evaluation of the program showed positive perceptions of the facilitation approach in the video-based PD program.

Opportunities and Challenges for Teacher Professional Development: A Case of Collaborative Learning Community in South Korea

This study investigates how characteristics of a collaborative professional learning activity support and hinder teacher learning and growth by examining the experiences of three Korean secondary teachers who participated in a school-initiated collaborative teacher learning project. The findings demonstrated that this learning opportunity supported teachers in their learning and professional development in the following ways. First, teachers experienced professional growth through collaborative learning with colleagues. Second, teachers learned to self-reflect on their classes. Third, the program fostered an inquiry stance toward teaching. Also identified are some of the obstacles encountered, such as time constraints, psychological barriers, and the lack of a discussion culture.

Teachers at the zone of proximal development – Collaboration promoting or hindering the development process

This study focuses on collaborative teacher learning during an in-service education course that supports teachers in creating knowledge and practices for teaching. The study investigates what types of activity support or hinder collaborative development within more-or-less successful teacher teams' group discussions. The findings indicate that collaboration that supports collaborative development consists of ideation, further development of ideas and raising questions. Excessive agreement appears to prevent successful collaborative development. The study suggests that in symmetrical peer-to-peer collaboration, equals are able to support creative collaboration by revising and questioning developed constructions and the developmental process itself, through the application of theoretical knowledge.

Lesson study as a vehicle for collaborative teacher learning in a secondary school

This paper reports the outcomes of a ‘lesson study’ project conducted in a mathematics department with four serving teachers in a secondary school in England. Using Dudley’s lesson study framework and drawing on Hargreaves and Fullan’s notion of professional capital, the feasibility and value of collaborative lesson study as a vehicle for the development of teacher learning were explored. Planning and evaluation meetings as well as end-of-project interviews were analysed to investigate how teachers planned research lessons together and how these were evaluated. Despite time constraints, teachers who engaged in lesson study reported that the process improved understanding of their students; that collaboration helped them to develop less-teacher-centred approaches and created a stronger sense of teacher community. The project demonstrated that lesson study has potential as an alternative or complementary model of teachers’ learning, but it also throws up substantive organisational challenges if its use is to expand.

Leadership in Disadvantaged Primary Schools

Research has indicated that schools should be developed as inclusive learning communities that would support collaborative learning and problem solving in order to address learner diversity more effectively. This article explores school leadership as one determining factor which either affords or constrains collaborative teacher learning for inclusion in the work place. The theoretical framework of cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT) provided the broad platform from which we engaged in the study. Engeström’s triangle model was employed to explore leadership in the two research schools. Leadership was framed within the democratic distributed approach to leadership: this resonates with inclusive education’s strong emphasis on equality, equity and voice. A critical activity-theoretical ethnographic research design was employed from which the findings were drawn regarding school leadership. A qualitative methodology – incorporating multiple methods of data generation – informed the study. The data was organized by employing three dimensions of the two schools as activity systems: rules, community and division of labour. The findings provided irrefutable evidence that school leadership in the two historically disadvantaged primary schools profoundly affected teacher learning for inclusion.

Teachers’ collaborative learning – development of teaching in group discussions

Teacher learning and the development of in-service education for teachers are both an active area of research and a broad challenge. In working as teachers, theory and practice are often seen as divided, or problems in teaching and the requirements of development are solved on the basis of experience. This study focuses on collaborative teacher learning as part of an in-service education course that supports teachers in connecting learning theories with practical knowledge and that aims to create new knowledge and practices for teaching. The starting points for the study are the changes of the curriculum and theories of learning. The aim is to analyse developing of teaching in teachers’ collaborative group discussions and how the theoretical knowledge of learning theories is connected with developing teaching practices. The research method of the study was data driven, systematic and qualitative analysis of the content of the discussion. The research data consist of video recorded group discussions of two teacher teams from the in-service education course meeting. The analysis focused on developing talk and further, on finding interconnections between the developing talk and the theories of learning. The analysis shows three different ways how the learning theories emerged in method developing talk. The findings indicate that theoretical knowledge can be used or left unused and imply that creating and changing teaching practices is challenging. However, the findings show that theoretical, research-based knowledge on learning theories can be applied to developing teaching practices in the teachers’ collaborative knowledge creation process. Long-term in-service education based on collaborative knowledge creation and supporting the interconnection of theoretical knowledge of learning and experience knowledge of teaching is a promising way to arrange and develop in-service education.

Collaborative teacher learning in different primary school settings

During the last two decades there has been a growing awareness of the potentially strong role teacher collaboration can play in relation to teacher and team learning. Teachers collaborate with their colleagues in different formal and informal settings. Because most studies have focused on teacher learning in one collaborative setting or are related to a specific innovation, little is known about how teachers learn within the different collaborative settings that emerge out of their teaching work. The aim of this exploratory study was to gain deeper insight into collaborative teacher learning during regular work at primary schools. Collaborative teacher learning was investigated within multiple settings, taking into account both the undertaken learning activities by teachers and the learning outcomes. Teacher and principal perceptions were collected through semi-structured interviews that were conducted with two teachers and one principal per school, including seven primary schools. Results show that teacher learning occurred within different collaborative settings in schools, however, with different degrees of intensity and outcomes across these various settings. Thus, depending on the collaborative setting, more or less different learning activities and learning outcomes were reported by teachers and principals. The results suggest that high quality team meetings can be a powerful context for teacher learning.

Collaborative teacher learning across foci of collaboration: Perceived activities and outcomes

This study compared teacher collaboration with differing foci, in terms of various learning activities and learning outcomes. A total of 411 teachers from 49 primary schools participated by completing a questionnaire. Foci of collaboration explained significant differences in the frequency with which teachers perceived learning activities and learning outcomes to occur in their collaboration with colleagues. Moreover, the focus of collaboration explained a considerable amount of between-schools differences in teachers' reported learning activities and learning outcomes. These results suggest that the school context and the focus of collaboration are related and that these both influence collaborative teacher learning.