Post a brief overview of the collaborative culture in your setting including a comparison with the collaborative teams in this week’s media segment.
Share specific aspects of the culture that you would like to see changed or further developed.
Explain how a specific strategy or guideline for building a collaborative culture will support collaborative efforts and ultimately lead to higher levels of student achievement.
Include information from this week’s Learning Resources to support your ideas.
Collaborative Teams
To be an effective member of a collaborative team, it is important to understand how specific behaviors and ways of communicating can enhance a group’s productivity and sense of mutual trust. Reflect on the collaborative norms that you explored in this week’s Learning Resources and think about how using these norms can lead to more effective group work resulting in improved teaching and learning. Overall, did you notice either a high or low frequency of collaborative norms?
Think about the team meeting interactions that you observed in the “Collaborative Teams in Action” media segment.
What did you notice about each group member’s norms of collaboration?
What did you notice about the individual capabilities of team members?
Did the participants engage in dialogue, discussion, or both?
Compare the team meetings in the media segment to those in which you currently participate at your school/district. Are they similar? Are they different? What actions and goals are met in each? Are the meetings focused on students and having a positive impact throughout the entire school? Is there a culture of shared learning, mutual support and respect, and authentic teamwork that leads to achievement of shared goals? Consider your own experiences working as a group with your colleagues.
Are most meetings dominated by discussion or dialogue? What specific examples come to mind?
What challenges and opportunities exist at your school/district for collaborative work?
Finally, based on your learning this week and in this course, do you believe that building a positive collegial culture at your school will lead to higher levels of student achievement? Why or why not?
