Page 225 - Štremfel, Urška, and Maša Vidmar (eds.). 2018. Early School Leaving: Contemporary European Perspectives. Ljubljana: Pedagoški inštitut.
P. 225
how teacher-teacher and teacher-student cooperation link with achievement ...
collective focus on student learning.1 Using the TALIS data, the concept of
professional learning communities was studied by Vieluf, Kaplan, Klieme
and Bayer (2012).
A report by the OECD (2016) addressed teacher cooperation practic-
es by conceptualising teacher professionalism as consisting of three ma-
jor domains: 1) professional knowledge (formal teacher education, pro-
fessional development opportunities, practitioner research); 2) teachers’
autonomy in decision-making (autonomy, school-based decision-mak-
ing); and 3) high peer networks (mentoring, induction, professional devel-
opment plans, peer feedback, professional learning communities). Within
this concept, the authors emphasised that maintaining high profession-
al practices takes various forms, most of which stress peer collaboration
and networks of information exchange, knowledge sharing and collective
standard setting (ibid.).
In TALIS it was recognised that the cooperation of teachers can take
various forms; teachers may, for example, exchange instructional materials
and meet regularly for discussions about individual students while more
complex forms of cooperation, named in TALIS professional collabora-
tion, include collective learning activities such as observing others and pro-
viding feedback as well as engaging in professional learning activities and
joint activities across classes and age groups (e.g. OECD, 2009). Notably,
the TALIS data consistently show professional collaboration practices are
still relatively rare compared with practices that focus on coordination and
the exchange of information and material (ibid.). Similarly, in reporting on
teacher-teacher cooperation in the context of using ICT for teaching and
learning the ICILS study (Fraillon et al., 2014) showed that collaboration
with colleagues2 was on average across countries reported by schools to rep-
resent less than half the student population. This confirms the TALIS find-
ings that more demanding collaborating practices are not very common.
1 In their explanation reflective dialogue refers to the extent to which teachers engage
in professional dialogues about specific educational issues. De-privatisation of prac-
tice means that teachers observe another’s classes with the aim of giving and receiv-
ing feedback. Collaborative activity represents a temporal measure of the extent to
which teachers engage in cooperative practices. Shared sense of purpose refers to
the degree to which the teachers agree with the school’s mission and its operation-
al principles. Finally, the collective focus on student learning indicates the mutual
commitment of teachers to student success.
2 In ICILS teachers were asked about collaboration practices that had the intention of
teacher learning, such as “working with another teacher who has attended a course”
or “observing colleagues using ICT in their teaching”.
225
collective focus on student learning.1 Using the TALIS data, the concept of
professional learning communities was studied by Vieluf, Kaplan, Klieme
and Bayer (2012).
A report by the OECD (2016) addressed teacher cooperation practic-
es by conceptualising teacher professionalism as consisting of three ma-
jor domains: 1) professional knowledge (formal teacher education, pro-
fessional development opportunities, practitioner research); 2) teachers’
autonomy in decision-making (autonomy, school-based decision-mak-
ing); and 3) high peer networks (mentoring, induction, professional devel-
opment plans, peer feedback, professional learning communities). Within
this concept, the authors emphasised that maintaining high profession-
al practices takes various forms, most of which stress peer collaboration
and networks of information exchange, knowledge sharing and collective
standard setting (ibid.).
In TALIS it was recognised that the cooperation of teachers can take
various forms; teachers may, for example, exchange instructional materials
and meet regularly for discussions about individual students while more
complex forms of cooperation, named in TALIS professional collabora-
tion, include collective learning activities such as observing others and pro-
viding feedback as well as engaging in professional learning activities and
joint activities across classes and age groups (e.g. OECD, 2009). Notably,
the TALIS data consistently show professional collaboration practices are
still relatively rare compared with practices that focus on coordination and
the exchange of information and material (ibid.). Similarly, in reporting on
teacher-teacher cooperation in the context of using ICT for teaching and
learning the ICILS study (Fraillon et al., 2014) showed that collaboration
with colleagues2 was on average across countries reported by schools to rep-
resent less than half the student population. This confirms the TALIS find-
ings that more demanding collaborating practices are not very common.
1 In their explanation reflective dialogue refers to the extent to which teachers engage
in professional dialogues about specific educational issues. De-privatisation of prac-
tice means that teachers observe another’s classes with the aim of giving and receiv-
ing feedback. Collaborative activity represents a temporal measure of the extent to
which teachers engage in cooperative practices. Shared sense of purpose refers to
the degree to which the teachers agree with the school’s mission and its operation-
al principles. Finally, the collective focus on student learning indicates the mutual
commitment of teachers to student success.
2 In ICILS teachers were asked about collaboration practices that had the intention of
teacher learning, such as “working with another teacher who has attended a course”
or “observing colleagues using ICT in their teaching”.
225
