There鈥檚 a growing body of research out there that shows collaborative time for professional learning is critical to school improvement. But it turns out jumping the hurdle to make time for collaboration doesn鈥檛 ensure that it will work.
“Time alone is not going to fix it. . . . You need to have specific protocols鈥攁 focus in your conversation. . . . Yes, collaboration, time are important, but there are essential elements that are very critical to have as part of your culture.”
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My husband hates to collaborate. He鈥檚 a 6th grade science teacher with 20 years under his belt in exclusively high-needs schools. He鈥檚 lived through several experiments with the concept of collaborative planning time 鈥� all of them enforced by a top-down mandate and developed under the assumption there are problems with the teachers that need to be fixed. His frustration is not unusual, this deficit-based approach doesn鈥檛 build trust. It undermines it. And it ignores the real assets ALL teachers can bring to the table 鈥� regardless of their level of experience or struggle.
Luckily there are ways to foster a collaborative school culture. that there鈥檚 more to it than providing the time for collaboration. Schools need to consider questions like:
- 鈥淒o we have shared agreements about what effective teaching and learning looks like?鈥�
- 鈥淎re we having the hard conversations about what鈥檚 working, what isn鈥檛, and how we know?鈥�
- 鈥淒o we share responsibility for determining the learning we most need to do together?鈥�
- 鈥淗ow are we using evidence from our classrooms to inform the work we do together?鈥�
Collaboration that is driven by the strengths of educators rather than compliance to mandates gives groups a much stronger foundation to stand on.