COLLABORATIVE LEARNING TEAMS
The teachers in the Arlington Public Schools are working together in collaborative learning teams (also called professional learning communities) to analyze student data, find areas for improvement, and improve instruction to address the targeted needs. The below article is an excerpt from the educational "Marshall Memo", which discusses the importance of this type of work by educators.
The Power of Professional Learning Communities
In this advertisement in Education Week, Solution Tree consultant Bill Ferriter says that “groups are almost always smarter than individuals… No challenge is ever too great for a collaborative team.” He cites three characteristics of the best teams from James Surowiecki’s book, The Wisdom of Crowds (Bantam, 2004):
• They are cognitively diverse – When group members have a varied set of aptitudes and abilities, they consider a wider range of ways to tackle problems – which increases the chances that they’ll develop the most effective and efficient solutions.
• They are independent – This protects against groupthink, says Ferriter, because members are “able to act as individuals free from the influence of their peers and willing to push against early conclusions whenever necessary.”
• They are decentralized – Within the boundaries of common learning objectives and assessments, teacher groups should have a measure of flexibility to be creative and divergent in how students are taught.
Professional learning communities don’t have to be in the same school building, says Ferriter. Teachers can join in online forums like Classroom 2.0 http://classroom20.com and The English Companion Ning http://www.englishcompanion.ning.com to study topics of personal and professional interest. Teachers can also use Twitter to share resources, ask questions, and lend just-in-time support, as well as organizing webinars, following blogs, and creating wikis (see http://twitter4teachers.pbworks.com to find teachers at the same grade level or content area). Some teams also use an RSS feed reader to organize blogs written by classroom teachers and spend five minutes a day browsing the latest articles. “Leave comments for the authors,” suggests Ferriter. “Ask questions. Challenge thinking. Eventually, you’ll notice a shift in the kinds of conversations you’re having with colleagues. Provocative thoughts drawn from shared texts will replace small talk in no time!”
But in the end, face-to-face work with your local grade-level or content team is the most powerful, says Ferriter. “Peers with a nuanced understanding of local circumstances will always be able to offer better advice than colleagues in other counties, countries, or continents.”
“Growing Smarter Together” by Bill Ferriter in Education Week, Sept. 15, 2010 (Vol. 30, #3, p. 13), no e-link available