2. What is Collaborative Teacher Development? A process that
involves all teachers in a school system or setting It is an
engagement that is beneficial to all individuals Inclusive to
teacher study groups, whole faculty study groups, or book studies
Levine and Marcus (2010) asserted that engaging in collaborative
activites may improve teachers and positively impact collaboration,
teaching, and schooling overall.
3. Objectives for Teacher Study Groups To support and nurture
teaching learning To put teachers in charge of their own learning
To support and create discussions about the improvements of a
school To learn from peers about new strategies or best practices
To work together to achieve a common goal!
4. Benefits of Teacher Study Groups There are many benefits of
becoming apart of a teacher study group which include the following
1. Create lifelong learners 2. Form action researchers 3. Establish
relevance for the individual 4. Promote peer interaction 5.
Collaborate to increase needs of students
5. Organization is Key!!!!! Regular meetings: least twice a
month for 90 minutes each Objective/Vision: what do we hope to
accomplish and why? Teacher leadership: which teachers are
proficient in their area and how can they showcase their best
practices to the group Visitation: collaboration with other
teachers from another school site to help support our goals.
6. Examples of Teacher Study Groups Practice Study Groups:
focus on a strategy; metacognitive learning Topic-Centered Groups:
educators from different schools are focused on the same topic
Issues Discussion Groups: formed around questions and concerns on a
shared issue Teachers select a group based on the individual needs
of their school and students!
7. We Do Discussion!!!!! Everyone participates and contribute
(open ended questions, written responses, verbal responses)
Reflect, analyze, and critique! Saaeverda (1996) believes: The most
important aspect of the study group is that it provide times for
teachers to reflect, analyze, and critique practices together (p.
273) Discussion leads to us learning and growing from each
other!
8. Now Time to Apply!!! We will collaborate together for our
first teacher study group session two weeks from now. English and
social studies will collaborate and math and science will work
together. Each teacher will be responsible for bringing back one
question and concern that they have regarding their students
academic performance (will be based on our issue discussion groups)
Teachers will share their sentiments, reflect, analyze, to create a
vision statement or objective that they would like to be
accomplished based on their common concerns/questions.