100-word response
Allison
Collaboration can be an incredibly broad description, as we’ve learned from the lesson this week. Primarily, collaboration is the act of working together to achieve a common goal. In terms of education, this is reflected in teachers working together to improve student learning outcomes (TKI, n.d.).
According to a study by Leonard & Leonard (2003), collaborative work environments where teachers work together as solid teams are shown to greatly improve student performance. However, Mastropieri et al (2005) believes that the success of these collaborative efforts are contingent on a seven specific features exhibited by the instructors. This includes: outstanding working relationships between instructors, strong capabilities in motivating students, dedicated time for co-planning, hands on instruction, ability to provide differentiated learning adaptations, content expertise, and effective instructional/class management skills.
This has certainly been true in my experience. There were two particular teachers that taught many of the IT-related classes at my old institution. Two of us also served as academic advisors, which meant students often approached us with concerns over their classes – even if it was not one that we taught. While collaboration and inclusivity was not always intentionally set in policy, the small scale of our school meant that it was more or less inevitable. The intimate setting meant that we had no choice but to build solid relationships with each other as instructors, and we had more direct time to get to know our students. If a student confessed to their advisor that they struggled with visualizing the concepts covered in the reading, then the advisor would quickly reach out to the teacher of the class to share this information with them. Serving as both advisors and teachers helped us learn the unique needs of students and circulate it effectively to present a united and competent front for a student.
It was not without consequences or failures, however. As highlighted by Mastropieri et al., the ability for this collaborative environment often heavily depended on our individual strengths. We were only as great as our weakest player. Being a small institution, there were many times when one of us could get overwhelmed. We may forget to communicate critical information, or we may skip our co-planning periods to meet grading deadlines. Some of us were strong in our content knowledge and flexibility for adjusting class content to suit diverse needs, while others to assigned to it may struggle from lack of experience with adaptation guidelines content to suit a student. And, while not my experience, if we had a teacher that came from a more stubborn, “isolationist” style of teaching, our entire system would fall apart – or, at the very least, become frustratingly strained and negatively impact the student.
As long as educators and their administrators can be mindful of the critical characteristics that help a collaborative environment thrive, teachers can work together to innovate strategies and share ideas in a way that provides levels of inclusivity in learning that bolsters student performance. Students with unique needs that slip through the cracks of a less experienced professor can get the support they need, thanks to the co-teacher that can fill in those strategy gaps.
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