Teacher Collaboration Why/Why not

• We were fortunate to have Chris Bradbeer from Stonefields share some insight into collaboration, here are some take-home points

• Collaboration can mean Cooperating and collegiality (getting along)
• Teachers often think they are collaborating, when they are not.
• Collaboration is a more intense and sophisticated approach than what we can achieve by ourselves.
• If we want to achieve effective team teaching are we all using the same language?
• We need to pre-empt what the little stresses will be and make arrangements and allowances.
• "A process through which parties who see different aspects of a problem can constructively explore their differences and search for solutions that go beyond their limited vision of what is possible.'
• It's beneficial to learn from colleagues and their strengths and skillsets. There is no point trying to collaborate if people aren't interested in developing these skills.
• 
  
  In Viviane Robinson's  Introduction to Open-to-learning Conversations, At the heart of the model is the value of openness to learning – learning about the quality of the thinking and information that we use when making judgments about what is happening, why and what to do about it.

Teacher Collaboration

Why?	Why Not?
Opportunities to learn  (Johnson, 2003)	Loss of Autonomy  (Johnson, 2003)
Collective Teacher Efficacy leads to increased teacher performance  (Moolenaar et al, 2011)	Time-consuming, increased workload (Bovbjerg, 2006)
Co-Planning and Co-teaching leading to decreased workload  (Egodawatte et al, 2011)	Tension amongst colleagues (Bovbjerg, 2006)
Teacher learning for Novice teachers  (Westheimer, 2008)	Balkanisation: teams as closed social structures (Bovbjerg, 2006;Main, 2007)
Improved student performances 9Goddard et al, 2007)	Hierarchies can emerge (Gunn and King, 2003)