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Title
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Teacher Collaboration in School Improvement
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Abstract/Description
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Research on teacher collaboration as a lever for capacity building is vast, spanning international contexts. To facilitate collaboration, many districts and schools have dedicated time for groups of teachers to meet and exchange ideas, with the goal of improving instruction and promoting student learning. Collaboration meetings serve as opportunities for teachers to shape ideas together through sharing perspectives, knowledge, and strategies. The potential benefits of collaboration are well researched and include decreased isolation, the development of supportive relationships, and increased understanding of content knowledge as well as pedagogical approaches. Engagement in formal collaboration is linked to changes in classroom practices, impacting learning environments in potentially transformative ways. Several studies exploring the impact of teachers’ collective work on student learning have found a strong relationship between collaboration and student achievement. Teachers’ collaboration experiences are influenced by a variety of factors, including leadership, interpersonal dynamics, external accountability pressures, and the availability of time and space. Close relationships with colleagues based on trust and respect are also pivotal for teachers navigating collaborative efforts to improve instruction. Such relationships must allow for disagreement and debate, as these characteristics are key to promoting growth and deprivatizing practice. This article explores the features and outcomes of teacher collaboration for instructional improvement and includes an overview of foundational literature shaping current research on teachers’ collective work. While teacher collaboration has the potential to improve both teacher practice and student learning, this review of literature demonstrates that achieving such outcomes is challenging. Given complexities related to policies, relationships, and infrastructure to support collective work, teachers’ collaborative efforts often fall short of espoused goals.
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Date
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2020
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In publication
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Oxford Bibliographies
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Publisher
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Oxford University Press
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IRE Approach/Concept
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Data Use
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Teacher Collaboration
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Collaborative Inquiry
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Language
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en
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ISBN
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978-0-19-975681-0
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Citation
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Weddle, H., Lockton, M., & Datnow, A. (2020). Teacher Collaboration in School Improvement. In H. Weddle, M. Lockton, & A. Datnow, Oxford Bibliographies: Education. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/obo/9780199756810-0248
Peurach, Donald J.
Oxford Bibliographies: Continuous Improvement in Education [Special Series]
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