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Collaboration Overview
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Collaboration and professional learning
Collaboration builds professional learning into the culture by making
planning, problem solving, improvement...better informed and better supported
(consider the relevant proverbs).
Change
ICT introduces the issue of change by making it possible to
- do old things easier and better and/or
- do new things increased collaboration
Learning together
Learning together means sharing knowledge, experiences & products from
one's professional activities
- A more ‘natural’ way to go…
- Consider ICT as a part of collaborative planning
- Work in pairs, teams and other natural groups
- Share within and beyond the learning group
- Build knowledge of who knows what (the key resource!!)
Learning together makes change easier & safer … ‘It is OK to have problems because…’
- Experiences (good, bad...) are validated by others
- Problems can be solved by drawing on the knowledge and experience
available
- Shared achievement leads to shared celebrations of success
- Everyone can be a contributor and a beneficiary ( the hallmarks of
belonging)
Roles in professional learning
The action research case studies have shown that there are a number of roles
involved in the delivery of effective professional learning. Some of these roles
are situational and informal such as in much of the tutoring situations.
Other roles (such as the Principal and In School Mentor are more formal since
they they are official and involve the explicit placement of the professional
learning activities in the context of the institution (school).
Common roles and purposes
| Role |
Focus |
Provides the learner |
| Learner
(ongoing) |
Self |
Personal professional motivation
- relevant knowledge and experience |
Co- Learners
(shared) |
Sharing learning
& experience |
Encouragement, understanding, shared perspectives, finding useful opportunities, little problems solved... |
| Tutors
(informal and
workshops) |
Doing |
Operational knowledge of 'How
to...' |
| Mentors
(ongoing) |
Professional
knowledge |
What practices to use and why: guidance, backup,
trouble-shooting, access to support, resources… |
| Supervisors
(as required) |
Endorsement &
clarification |
Clarification of expectations
& purposes, opportunities.... Appreciation & validation of efforts
and of achievements |
These roles 'overlap' in a developmental way, especially in a collaborative
learning context:
- Co-learners are also learners
- Tutors are also co-learners (with the person they are tutoring) and
learners
- Mentors also provide tutoring (often as a demonstration) and are
co-learners
- and so on...
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