Collaboration, Teamwork, and Mentoring

• Educational Leadership. School leaders must genuinely support and encourage collaboration in order to foster a positive learning environment for teachers: "Educational leaders should share with teachers a disciplined curiosity about teaching and join with them in mastering and advancing this complex human activity." (p. 43)

• Time. Time is important because schools should not always expect the quantity of work to increase with the quality of work. That is, the focus should be on enhancing the quality of teaching in order to encourage reciprocal learning.

• Motivation. School staff need to be highly motivated and prepared if they are to meet the intellectual, social, and emotional demands of collaborative teaching. According to McCann and Radford (1993), "Little's research indicates that quite apart from their personal friendships or dispositions, teachers are motivated to participate with one another to the degree that they require each other's contributions in order to succeed in their own work." (p. 43)

Indeed, teachers are their own most valued resource in the teaching profession. Teachers not only need to be acknowledged for their talents, skills, and abilities, but also must be allowed and encouraged to share these valuable resources with their colleagues. As McCann and Radford (1993) point out:

"Celebration of achievements is important to give teachers encouragement and recognition. Ways of sharing and celebrating achievements before a wider school audience should be a component of a mentoring scheme." (p. 43)

Initially, teachers may hesitate to engage in collaborative work, but McCann and Radford (1993) indicated that teachers involved in collaboration with their colleagues reported considerable personal benefits from collaboration: "Teachers in the project experience delight, surprise, and success during this learning process" (p. 25). Teachers also indicated that collaboration improved their communication skills, gave them a sharper focus in their work, increased the amount of time they spent reflecting on their work, enhanced their self-esteem and confidence in their teaching ability, and motivated them to take more risks by attempting new teaching strategies, such as team teaching.

Teachers also reported gaining sharper observational skills, improved classroom management skills, increased ability to help students become active learners, improved questioning skills and group techniques, increased use of technological devices such as computers, and a positive change in student/teacher relations.

Teachers unanimously felt enthusiasm for the opportunity to select their own learning goals, choose their own teaching focus, and be responsible for their own evaluation. Successful mentoring experiences result when both individuals actively and sensitively listen to each other and when each individual can place himself or herself in the other's position. Trust among collaborative teachers is essential, and the best results appear when colleagues emphasize the positive.

Basing collaborative group efforts on professional strength and rigor fosters vigorous critical inquiry about teaching. The collaborative group's main purpose is to discover innovative teaching strategies and pursue excellence. Although the mentor is in an expert position, successful collaborative work can be achieved only through reciprocal learning.

References