Effective CollaborationRebbecca Sweeney (M.Ed), 2014

Inquiry - how can we learn more about what to do?

http://noii.ca/noii/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Spiral-of-Inquiry-Guide-to-the-six-phases-2014.pdf

Alright stop! Collaborate & listen...Common signs that a network of schools is effectively collaborating include:

• commitment to a common, needs-based goal

• use of inquiry and knowledge-building cycles

• the presence of challenge and critique practices

• a focus on evidence-based needs, and

• the presence of role clarity and relational trust

among network members.

• pooling funding

• sharing ideas for classroom practice or

professional learning and development

• teachers visiting each others schools to get

ideas and to be inspired.

Sharing is nice but it’s not enough

Are you ready to critique your cluster ?

Getting on the same page: self review

I’m noticing…Maybe…I’ve observed…We need…So, if...then…There seems to be…

Image credit: Mark Osborne, 2014

cc ey Mark Osborne

Focus on a common, needs-based goal

To learn and improve

Practices schools should and should not use to foster deep needs analysis and

effective goal setting

Do Don’t

Provide opportunities for teachers to plan and negotiate the meaning of new knowledge and skills.

Have a common needs-based focus.

Have a joint enterprise that is negotiated and agreed between schools, that is defined by all schools, that is a stated goal and that enables mutual accountability for outcomes.

Involve teachers in negotiating the meaning of new knowledge through using data that indicates their progress towards desired goals.

Have a shared understanding of what the collaborative group is doing and why.

Assume commitment or agreement to goals without checking for group consent.

Rush into setting goals without spending considerable time analysing data and facilitating dialogue to ascertain the needs of students, teachers and communities.

Set goals at leadership level without involving teachers and students (and whanau/community) in the process.

In the Do column... In the Don’t colum...

yellow highlight = we do this

blue highlight = we don’t do this

Circle any practices we see in our cluster/network

Inquire using evidence

for continuous improvement

Practices schools should and should not use to facilitate change and improvement

Do Don’t

Ensure focused teacher learning.

Use evidence during teaching and learning.

Focus on learning rather than teaching.

Ensure that teacher practice is referenced to impact on students.

Have a common needs-based focus in your network.

Learn and discuss strong content that is useful to improve student outcomes.

Ensure that underlying concepts and thinking in inquiry based practices are understood by all.

Assume that change leads to improvement in student outcomes without checking for evidence.

Use teacher and leader self-assessments as the only indicator of successful change in practice.

Set goals without involving teachers, students and communities.

Set goals without ensuring a detailed analysis of needs using evidence.

In the Do column... In the Don’t colum...

yellow highlight = we do this

blue highlight = we don’t do this

Circle any practices we see in our cluster/network

Use practices that challenge

critique your work and figure out how to improve

● Teacher Talk - Annan, Lai & Robinson (2003)● Asking the tough questions - Fullan & Hargreaves

(1991)● External expertise – Timperley, Wilson, Barrar &

Fung (2007)

Practices schools should and should not use to encourage practices that challenge

Do Don’t

Check to ensure that agreed knowledge and practices are actually used in each others schools.

Provide contexts where network members can confront limits to their own knowledge, learn from common difficulties and challenge their beliefs.

Use a framework that exposes and then focuses on improvement of teacher practice and establishes norms for professional interaction.

Continually check each other to ensure that rules and standards are not violated.

Allow issues of context to be addressed, ideas to be challenged and the effectiveness of the collaborative work to be checked (problem analysis).

Challenge teachers about the way they interpret data.Use conflict as a catalyst for positive change and improvement.

Foster the presence of tension between building trust and maintaining a level of debate that lead to knowledge growth.

Use practices such as advice-giving, trick-trading and material-sharing.

Allow a climate that is too “positive” where members do not challenge each other.

Have a preoccupation with relationships.

Share expertise without a challenging dialogue.

Use a critical friend with a pre-existing relationship in the network or who is also in a position of power.

Value collegiality and friendship over challenge and conflict.

In the Do column... In the Don’t colum...

yellow highlight = we do this

blue highlight = we don’t do this

Circle any practices we see in our cluster/network

Revisit purpose regularly

don’t become stagnant!

Ensure role clarity & build relational trust

to build skills & knowledge

• teachers need to know and understand their roles in the network and benefits should be clear - Head (2003)

• reduce vulnerability between network members - Bryk & Schneider (2002)

• leaders fostering cognitive conflict - trust and challenge together - De Lima (2001)

The new knowledge comes not out of the minds of individual group members, but from the relationships between them.

Jane Gilbert, 2005

Lencioni, 2002

Practices schools should and should not use to foster role clarity and building of

relational trust

Do Don’t

Develop knowledge with school practitioners rather than for them.Focus on positive change in thinking and practices.Foster a collective belief that the community can achieve its desired outcomes.Ensure that every network member has the goal of trying to advance the others’ learning.Ensure strong interpersonal interactions that all network members to learn from each other.

Have formal leaders in the network who hold the role of setting and monitoring the network agenda/goals.

Share the leadership role with others and provide support to build capacity.

Build capability to have respectful exchanges even when people disagree.

Use professional ties to build trust.

Allow debate among teachers and leaders over state policies.

Use personal ties to build trust.

Have a preoccupation with relationships.

Allow teachers to attach their loyalties to cliques that cause segmentation.

In the Do column... In the Don’t colum...

yellow highlight = we do this

blue highlight = we don’t do this

Circle any practices we see in PEG

Are you ready to give your views from your school’s perspective?

“Motivation for starting a network is critical - the right purpose leads to sustainability - the wrong purpose to egos and waste of resource”

Cherie Taylor-Patel, 2014 (on Twitter - @Cherie59789095)

Steven JohnsonWhere good ideas

come from – The

natural history of

innovation

The existing situation: schools15 minutes per school:

- share summary

- be clear about your school’s priorities for 2014-15 and relate to cluster goals

- who is part of your school? what are the interactions?

- what is happening in and around your school?

- what are the successes? what are the problems/issues you are facing?

- what are the causes?

Others DRAW IT!- ask questions, clarify, use words and pictures

- instead of interrogating data, we are asking “what are we looking at?”

Take 20 mins:

1. what are the common themes?

2. what are the outliers/differences?

Report back your findings...

The existing situation: schools

Back to the network picture

Successes & Issues?

What is/are the REAL problem(s)to address?

What might be some of the underlying causes?

So, what are we doing or not doing that’s contributing to this situation?” (situation analysis)

“Effective networks seem to be dependent on the quality of leadership relationships - to start, to develop, to deepen, to sustain - scary!”

Cherie Taylor-Patel, 2014 (on Twitter)

Next Steps

What information is still needed?

Whose perspectives might still need to be considered (if any)

What are the relationships within and across the organisations

that need to be taken into account - or that might contribute to the

solutions?

References

Annan, B., Kuin Lai, M., and Robinson, V. (2003) Teacher talk to improve teaching practices. Set Research Information for

Teachers, 1, 31-35

Bryk, A.S., & Schneider, B. (2002). Trust in schools: A core resource for improvement. New York, NY: Russell Sage Foundation.

Fullan, M. G., and Hargreaves, A. (1991) What’s worth fighting for? Working together for your school. Ontario: Ontario Public

School Teachers’ Federation

De Lima, J. A. (2001). Forgetting about friendship: using conflict in teacher communities as a catalyst for school change.

Journal of Educational Change, 2, 91-122

Head, G. (2003). Effective Collaboration: deep collaboration as an essential element of the learning process. Journal of

Educational Inquiry, 4, 2, 47-61

Lencioni, P. (2002). The Five Dysfunctions of a Team. Jossey-Bass

Sweeney, R. (2011). An exploration of the collaborative practices within learning networks of New Zealand Schools. Victoria

University of Wellington.

Timperley, H., Wilson, A., Barrar, H., and Fung, I. (2007). Teacher professional Learning and Development: Best Evidence

Synthesis Iteration (BES). Wellington: Ministry of Education

Contact:Name: Rebbecca Sweeney

Job Title: Professional Learning FacilitatorTel: + 64 (027) 487 3009

Email: rebbecca.sweeney@core-ed.org