COLLABORATION
IN THE CLASSROOM Strategic insights for school leaders
CONTENTS 3
WHAT IS THIS EBOOK ABOUT?
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THE WORLD IS ALREADY COLLABORATING
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WHAT COLLABORATIVE WORKING IS
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WHAT COLLABORATIVE WORKING ISN’T
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WHAT COLLABORATIVE WORKING DOES
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3 WAYS TO WORK COLLABORATIVELY
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UNDERSTANDING THE BARRIERS
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DEVELOPING A PEDAGOGICAL MODEL
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5 STEPS TO BUILDING A FRAMEWORK
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1. Create a Collaborative Environment
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2. Integrate Feedback for Collaboration
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3. Indentify Appropriate Assessments
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4. Enable Physical and Virtual Spaces
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5. Design Learnign Collaboratively
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MANAGING POLICY
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CASE STUDIES: HOW WE’RE COLLABORATING, TOO
24 iTEC 25
Creative Classrooms Lab
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PROJECT FINDINGS: RECOMMENDATIONS FOR ROLES AND ACTIVITIES
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FURTHER READING
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ABOUT PROMETHEAN
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ABOUT THE AUTHORS
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WHAT IS THIS EBOOK ABOUT? Policy leaders and education decision-makers know that deep collaboration skills are essential for enabling more effective forms of education and, ultimately, for supporting modern economies. The recent inclusion of collaborative problem-solving in the PISA 2015 assessments also puts collaboration high on the education agenda. Collaboration is high on the employment agenda, too. According to the National Careers Service, employers are looking for candidates with soft skills such as communication, decision-making, flexibility, leadership, problem-solving, team working, and accepting responsibility1 – the very skills which we believe collaborative working develops. Unfortunately, however, the 2014 Workforce Survey by the British Chambers of Commerce found that these are the very skills which over half of employers (57%) said were lacking in young people.2 As we visit schools around the UK, we see excellent examples of collaborative practice. Forwardlooking schools are investing in techniques and technologies which help staff and students to work together faster and better. In and out of the classroom, on- and off-line, they’re working collaboratively in ways which empower students and enable them to become world-ready citizens. These are also the schools which can attract the brightest and most innovative new teachers. But it’s not happening everywhere. For a variety of reasons, and often understandably, many schools are finding it difficult to adapt to more collaborative working, or to using it well. But we know they’re keen to get it right. After all, the problems of tomorrow cannot be solved with the tools, processes and education systems of the past. That’s why we’ve produced this guide. We’ve drawn on research evidence, proven best practice and our own experiences to present an overview of collaborative practice: what it is, what it does, and how to do it. Our intention is to help schools begin their transition to more widespread, more effective collaborative practice.
Mark Robinson & Gill Leahy Promethean Education Strategy Team
1 2
https://nationalcareersservice.direct.gov.uk/aboutus/newsarticles/ Pages/Spotlight-SoftSkills.aspx http://www.britishchambers.org.uk/press-office/press-releases/youngpeople-need-more-support-to-make-transition-from-education-to-work,says-bcc.html
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Education today is much more about ways of thinking which involve creative and critical approaches to problem-solving and decision-making... about the capacity to live in a multi-faceted world as an active and engaged citizen. These citizens influence what they want to learn and how they want to learn it, and it is this that shapes the role of educators.
Andreas Schleicher
OECD Education Directorate3
3 http://www.oecd.org/general/thecasefor21st-centurylearning.htm
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THE WORLD IS ALREADY COLLABORATING Students need to be prepared for a world of work which is changing rapidly. Now, more than ever, society’s progress is achieved through mass collaboration, even at global level. For example: Hackathons
The NASA-led International Space APPs Challenge4 and the British-government-led DementiaHack5 use global mass collaboration to develop solutions which benefit the economy and society.
Co-creation
Businesses increasingly work with external agents to develop products and services. FedEx worked with medical teams and suppliers to develop a sophisticated logistics technology which ensures on-time, zero-defect delivery of live tissues for organ donation.6
Open innovation
Innovative ideas are being sought from outside the traditional R&D context. When the UK’s National Primary Care Development Team asked patients for their ideas, they saw a four-fold reduction in mortality for patients with coronary heart disease.7
Collaborative research
CGIAR, an international partnership of 15 research centres and 10,000 scientists and staff members, is using mass collaboration to tackle a wide range of agricultural problems, including rural poverty and food insecurity.8
Approaches which promote talk and interaction between learners tend to result in the best gains9. 4 https://2015.spaceappschallenge.org/ 5 http://dementiahack.devpost.com/ 6 https://www.visioncritical.com/5-examples-how-brands-are-using-co-
creation
7 http://www.stueckpharmacy.com/downloads/ppt/overview_primary_
care_uk.ppt, September 2004
8 http://www.cgiar.org/our-strategy/cgiar-research-programs/ 9 Education Endowment Foundation Toolkit 2015 http://
educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/toolkit/toolkit-a-z/collaborativelearning (retrieved 6 June 2015)
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WHAT COLLABORATIVE WORKING IS Collaborative learning is an umbrella term for a variety of educational approaches involving joint intellectual effort by students, or students and teachers together. Usually, students are working in groups of two or more, mutually searching for understanding, solutions, or meanings, or creating a product… Most [activities] center on students’ exploration or application of the course material, not simply the teacher’s presentation or explication of it10. It’s done together
Collaboration involves learning as a social act and not in isolation, 11 in groups or teams, towards a common goal. However, collaborators don’t need to be sitting at the same table or in the same room, or even working at the same time: collaboration removes artificial boundaries of time, space and group size – the very constraints which abound in the classroom.
It’s a way to build vital soft skills
Students who engage in co-operative learning are more successful12 at problem-solving, which will serve them in every aspect of life.
It’s more effective
Research shows that collaborative learning is more effective than individualistic methods in deepening learning and ensuring the ultimate impact of education13. And when students contribute together to their own learning, the sum of the parts is greater than the whole. However, it leaves room for personalised learning, where appropriate.
It’s empowering
Collaboration lets students take control and responsibility for their own learning. Instead of passive recipients of teaching, they become curious seekers of learning. They negotiate learning methods which they find most enjoyable and effective.
WATCH OUR COLLABORATION ANIMATION
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11 12 13
Smith, BL & MacGregor, JT (1992) “What Is Collaborative Learning?” in Collaborative Learning: A sourcebook for higher education, National Center on Postsecondary Teaching, Learning, and Assessment. Vygotsky, L. (1978). Mind in Society: The development of higher psychological processes. Harvard University Press. Qin (1992), Qin, Johnson and Johnson (1995) Hattie (2008) Visible Learning: A Synthesis of Over 800 Meta-Analyses Relating to Achievement
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It’s a lifelong skill
Collaboration involves learning how to be together. It demands, and develops, a set of lifelong social skills which are essential for living, learning and earning in the modern world.
It’s a whole-school thing
Learners can’t be expected to develop effective collaboration skills unless they see them modelled by the stakeholders responsible for their learning. Collaboration must be visible and meaningful in the wider environment to have any real currency with pupils – not isolated in one classroom or department.
It makes the most of what we already know
Collaboration builds on pedagogical praxis and uses the latest technologies to deliver more engaging, impactful shared learning experiences. It is rooted in the principles of education theorists such as Bloom, Bruner, Dewey, Johnson and Johnson, Slavin and Vygotsky.
It’s the responsibility of educators
Developing collaboration skills, and the social skills which support them, begins at the earliest age, when a parent encourages their toddler to share a toy. Since they have the charge of students for so many of their most formative years, schools inevitably share the responsibility and opportunity of developing these skills. It’s increasingly apparent that students need to be better prepared for a changing world, and the most relevant place for that to happen is at school.
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WHAT COLLABORATIVE WORKING ISN’T By 2020, the annual contribution of soft skills to the economy is expected to grow in real terms to £109 billion, and to just over £127 billion by 202514.
It isn’t a quick fix
Moving to a collaborative approach means a change of mind-set for everyone involved, and it doesn’t happen overnight. We see it as a journey, upon which staff and students embark together. As they travel, they’ll learn how to continually improve and how to contextualise collaboration for their own school.
It isn’t an overwhelming proposition
Collaborative working doesn’t require turning an oil tanker – or setting fire to the oil tanker. It doesn’t abandon other teaching models; on the contrary, it invites schools to use the best model in each circumstance, but to be fully aware of all that collaborative practice has to offer.
It isn’t more work
Since collaborative practice is about a transfer of the ownership of learning from the teacher to the student, it doesn’t demand more work from teachers – just different work (and sometimes less work).
It isn’t as radical as you might think
Teachers are often surprised when we point out how much collaborative work they’re already doing – without realising it. The point is to understand it better, do more of it, and do it more effectively.
It isn’t something you do to students
It’s a behaviour and an approach adopted by a whole school, or an entire education community.
It doesn’t mean everyone does everything together
Collaborative working offers great flexibility. It offers a full range of models which can be adapted to suit whole-class, multi-team, small-team and individual settings.
14 www.backingsoftskills.co.uk/The%20Value%20of%20Soft%20Skills%20to%20
the%20UK%20Economy.pdf
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It doesn’t lose sight of the individual
There’s still room for personalised instruction: for customising activities to different personalities, learning styles, attitudes and abilities. There’s no expectation that everyone will travel at the same pace, or feel equally comfortable with collaboration. It also doesn’t mean that brighter children are being held back if they have to use group time to teach other students: the research shows there are a multitude of benefits from high-quality collaboration.
It isn’t just for students
Collaborative practice is a powerful way for everyone to work together – between staff, between schools, between schools and employers, and between schools and colleges/universities. In fact, the more teachers use it among themselves, the easier it will be to use it with students.
It isn’t cheating
Students (and even teachers) may fear that collaborative working overlaps what traditionalists might term copying, stealing ideas or even cheating. But when the collaborative spirit is inculcated across the school, this is no longer an issue15; everyone understands what’s happening, and why. Genuine risks of cheating are made clear.
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Kirsch, G & Sullivan, PA (1992) ‘Collaborative Scholarship in Composition’ in Methods and Methodology in Composition Research.
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WHAT COLLABORATIVE WORKING DOES It improves performance
A robust body of research gathered over decades shows that collaboration is more effective than individualistic methods16 in building student performance and progression, and ensuring the ultimate impact of education.
It embeds learning
The real test of learning is if children can remember and apply knowledge some months or years after the test – but statistics on the retention of learning are deeply worrying. Collaboration embeds knowledge much more powerfully; a student is more likely to remember something learned from and with a peer than something broadcast by a teacher to a whole classroom.
It builds confidence
Well-planned collaboration allows all students to recognise and value their own personal contributions, skills and strategies. It gives them the confidence to be willing and able to teach and learn from others – especially their peers, but also their teachers.
It improves psychological health
Johnson and Johnson, who have conducted extensive research into collaborative learning, found a strong correlation between co-operativeness and psychological health. They found that this approach leads to emotional maturity, well-adjusted social relations, strong personal identity, ability to cope with adversity, basic trust and optimism about people, and independence and autonomy17.
It accommodates everyone
Collaboration accepts that there is no such thing as an ‘average child’, and it doesn’t seek to homogenise students. In fact, it can give outlier students unique ways forward. In any group, everyone brings their own strengths and skills; effective collaboration recognises this and allows each to work to their best and to get the support of others when needed.
It creates well-rounded citizens
Collaborative practice can become so inculcated in a young person that they take their skills not only into onward education or the workplace but into all their relationships and their transactions with the world. The more people are equipped in this way, the more harmonious society and effective society can become.
Click here to view the infographic
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Hattie, J (2009) Visible Learning: A Synthesis of Over 800 Meta-Analyses Relating to Achievement. Abingdon, Routledge. 17 http://www.co-operation.org/what-is-cooperative-learning
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3 WAYS TO WORK COLLABORATIVELY ‘Collaboration’ is a loose term, and we don’t seek to make it any more prescriptive than descriptive. Its very flexibility is liberating for educators, recognising that one approach does not fit all. There is no blueprint. Teachers can begin by delivering a level they feel comfortable with, reflecting on it afterwards with students and colleagues. As they develop, they can add new techniques and technologies where appropriate. Almost all teachers are already doing some form of collaborative teaching. They will have observed that students sometimes work in parallel, with minimal interaction. Sometimes they’re working together. Sometimes they’re competing. All of these can be part of collaboration. Given the amount of group-work-based activity which happens every day in classrooms, any possible improvements should be prioritised, since there is high potential for both academic and personal outcomes.
1 Full collaboration
Full collaboration means students making personal progress alongside and with others, with a focus on the desired output. Students are accountable to one another and, with the correct guidance, will self-manage this. Pupils are prepared to expect and understand difference, recognise it in themselves and others, and harness it.
2 Co-operation
Co-operation involves inherent inter-dependence – like the cast and crew of a theatre production, for example. Roles and responsibilities are clearly defined, but are open for negotiation. There is a strong sense of accountability.
3 Competition
Used well, competition can be an effective method of collaboration, particularly between teams, in achieving a target, goal or success. It can be popular (especially when linked to rewards), and can help to develop entrepreneurship and leadership skills. It needs careful handling, however.
Comparative levels of student progress in one year
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Hattie, J (2009) Visible Learning: A Synthesis of Over 800 Meta-Analyses Relating to Achievement. Abingdon, Routledge.
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UNDERSTANDING THE BARRIERS Traditional individualistic ideas still linger in schools: The concept of learning communities goes against the grain of how most classrooms operate.19 Teachers may lack confidence and skills in collaborative pedagogy. Teachers and students may have had negative personal experiences of collaborative work which was poorly planned and executed. Educators may believe they are already ‘doing collaboration right’. Teachers may believe that collaborative working is at the expense of the individual. Teacher may feel that certain pupils may sabotage collaboration, deliberately or otherwise. There are insufficient and inadequate assessments or frameworks for measuring the impact of collaboration. Individual assessments are seen to be far easier and to carry more credence. Schools may believe that there’s not enough time to innovate new pedagogies.
How to overcome these: 1. Explore collaborative working as a whole school, possibly with the support of a specialist. Develop a model (strategy) and framework (tactics) to identify how collaboration can best be developed across the school and beyond. 2. Use the model and framework to identify where teachers and students are already exploring or owning collaboration, and use the output as a focus for the identification of local best practice and for professional development. 3. Allocate a realistic amount of time for teachers to learn and develop new techniques. Teachers must know how to create and manage meaningful learning experiences which engage students, activating both group goals and individual accountability;20 putting pupils together in groups and asking them to work together is not enough. This will include tactics for handling pupils who struggle or resist. 4. Identify where opportunities for collaboration exist: between staff, subjects and schools, etc. 5. Learn by introducing an effective working culture of collaboration among the staff before implementing widespread practice among students. 6. Help teachers understand that collaboration means passing a degree of control over to students: teachers become activators, not just facilitators. 7. Help teachers to understand how to form groups intelligently for different purposes, and to use different methods to compose and recompose groups.
19 http://www.journeytoexcellence.org.uk/resourcesandcpd/research/ 20
summaries/rscollaborativelearning.asp Slavin, RE (1989). Research on cooperative learning: An international perspective. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, 33(4), 231-243
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8. Help students understand that they are active owners of their learning, and provide them with the social and technological tools they need to activate peer learning and other student-centred methods (for example, training peers to teach peers). 9. Engage with students to restructure lessons, curricula and courses to take advantage of collaborative practice. 10. Develop structures for reflection, feedback and assessment – involving the students.
Read more about collaboration resistance at http://bit.ly/collaBLOG
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DEVELOPING A PEDAGOGICAL MODEL The best teachers switch naturally between teaching models for the best results Various models, or overarching strategies, exist to help shape successful collaboration. Developing a Model for Collaboration: A school leader’s guide explores these in greater depth. Experience tends to show that the simpler models work best. Our own preferred model is a three-stage progression path which shows how student, teacher and task embark on a journey together, moving from experiencing to exploring and, finally, owning collaboration. The following shows how we see what should be happening for each, at each stage: Owning
Experiencing
Teacher
Student
Manage, facilitate, plan, support
Respecting, belonging, sharing, trusting
Exploring
“Critical friend”, co-design, collaborate
Coach, guide, listen, model, observe, reflect Co-design, responsibility, accountability Negotiating, adapting, synthesising
Task
Outputs and processes are negotiated
Output focus
Process focus
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In practice Using this model enables us to project how it might look in the classroom at each stage:
Teacher
Experiencing
Owning
Setting up group work and managing learner experiences
Allowing students to own their learning and apply their knowledge in new ways, deciding and co-constructing on the learning experience
Exploring
Reflecting and interacting with the feedback from students and the task
Student
Task
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Learning core social concepts such as respect, belonging, sharing and trust
Instilling group and individual accountability
Developing skills in negotiation, listening, summarising and clarifying their ideas and synthesising the ideas of others
Providing opportunities to develop key learning processes and structured approaches plus well-designed tasks where teachers can talk, interact and reflect on the process
Nuthall, G (2001). The Cultural Myths and Realities of Classroom Teaching and Learning: A Personal Journey
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Recognising each individual’s strengths and weaknesses (including their own), planning collaboratively to maximise the resources and skills of a group, and accommodating critical comments
Empowering students to decide on their own tasks to best achieve their aims
Up to 25% of the learning that happens in classrooms today is critically dependent on peer talk21
5 STEPS TO BUILDING A FRAMEWORK Research suggests that students and teachers learn more, are more engaged, and feel like they get more out of their classes when working in a collaborative environment22 Successful frameworks, or sets of tactics, provide teachers with the time, professional development, tools, technologies and content they need to quickly and easily implement collaborative learning. We recommend the following five stages to help structure thinking and actions when implementing collaboration.
1 CREATE A COLLABORATIVE ENVIRONMENT What is the objective? To provide a platform for collaboration
What does ‘good’ look like? Making innovations visible across the learning community Enabling sharing and collaborative development of lessons, courses and resources Embedding assessments and analytic tools which evaluate changes and impacts on learning Allowing stakeholders to freely comment on learning and experiences
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Slavin, R E (1989) ‘Research on Cooperative Learning: An international perspective’ in Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, 33(4), pp231-243
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What’s a practical example? Using technology to create a collaborative environment. For example platforms such as Promethean Planet or ClassFlow. ClassFlow at the English International College, Marbella. ClassFlow was introduced to the English International College, whilst participating in the iTEC project in 2014. Deputy Principal, Carlos Guerrero, believes it helped elevate the standards of teaching by offering another means to present creative and collaborative learning experiences for students. He concluded, “With the development of technology and its impact on teaching, many resources and tools have been designed to help teachers. However, many of them fail to provide practitioners with a different approach to teaching and learning. Consequently, these new tools help us create attractive lessons with potential but without the pedagogical innovation. ClassFlow integrates resources, provides a framework for digital creation, and stimulates teachers and learners to focus on what’s important creating connected learning environments” Read more about the iTEC case study turn to page 24.
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2 INTEGRATE FEEDBACK FOR COLLABORATION What is the objective? To deliver high-quality feedback
What does ‘good’ look like? Focusing on goals and objectives Providing learners with the information they need to develop their own learning
What’s a practical example? Sarah Wright, Senior Lecturer at Edge Hill University, provides many practical examples of using ActivExpression for feedback combined with cooperative learning strategies in her work supporting teachers in the Education Endowment Foundation pilots. https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/projects/learner-response-systems-edge-hilluniversity/
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3 IDENTIFY APPROPRIATE ASSESSMENTS What is the objective? To evaluate collaboration effectively in the classroom
What does ‘good’ look like? Seeking out examples of good collaborative assessments and adapting these to suit your context Using teacher-specific assessments and tools such as observation rubrics: Sampling & snapshots Group interviews/debriefs Chat analysis Activity reports Using student-specific assessments and tools: Self-marking Peer-marking Activity evaluation Personal learning stories
What’s a practical example? The ATC21S Assessment Model Element
Aspect
Sub-aspect
Participation
Contribution
Action Interation
Task completion
Perspective Taking
Responding Audience awareness
Social Regulation
Negotiation Knowledge of self Knowledge of others Responsibility
Problem Solving
Planning
Goal setting Managing resources (human & other) Courses of action
Process
Systematic approach Problem analysis Information need Reasoning
Open-mindedness
Tolerance for ambiguity Flexibility
Learning
Knowledge building skills Acquiring knowledge
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4 ENABLE PHYSICAL AND VIRTUAL SPACES What is the objective? To ensure that the facilities & technology are in place to support various types of collaboration
What does ‘good’ look like? Implementing a combination of the following: Team collaboration Independent working Whole-class teaching Out of classroom and/or anytime learning Small group work
What’s a practical example? Classroom setup Bishop Wilson CoE Primary, Solihull, is a BLP (Building Learning Power) school, With collaboration and student engagement at the heart of BLP, when Bishop Wilson was preparing to move to a new purpose-built teaching facility, the building design and approach was about much more than bricks and mortar. The school defined its brief as: to implement the very best in collaborative solutions with a single and powerful software solution. The solution ActivTables were placed in a large group learning space to create small group collaboration opportunities. For maximum flexibility, two ActivPanel systems were used on a mobile stand while a series of wall mounted and height adjustable ActivBoard 500s were installed throughout the school’s classrooms. Margaret Mason, teacher, was tasked with the research and implementation of the ICT strategy: “Our group spaces are open and very fluid in terms of how learning takes place, the ActivPanel Touch provided a much more mobile solution that we can easily move around in the area. Aside from this, a fixed interactive whiteboard just wasn’t an option for the group area because of its size and the fact we change the room shape with moveable partitions. “We are also seeing the benefit we wanted with using ActivInspire. Once a lesson is prepared we can use it across the ActivBoard and ActivPanel Touch, making it easier from a planning perspective and reducing the number of software solutions teachers have to learn.” To read the full case study visit http://bit.ly/1RHoffP
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Classroom setup
Whole Class Teaching
Team Collaboration
Small Group Work
Out of Classroom & Anytime / Anywhere
Independent Working
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5 DESIGN LEARNING COLLABORATIVELY What is the objective? To involve both students and teachers in learning design
What does ‘good’ look like? Using rubrics to make it easier for teachers and students to jointly reflect on how activities are designed at the planning stage Displaying these clearly in the classroom for all to see
What’s a practical example? Enable students to use front of class technology. Victoria Park Primary School in Belfast is the first school in Northern Ireland to be using interactive flat panel technology throughout the whole school. Following its recent move to a new £3.5m state-of-the-art school building, Victoria Park has upgraded its interactive whiteboards to the ActivPanel Introduced as a full-time collaborative learning tool in all 14 classrooms, the ActivPanels are in use all day. Supporting a full-range of learning experiences, including whole class, individual, duo, small-team and multi-team classwork, the ActivPanel allows the whole class to simultaneously share ideas, practise team-based problem solving and manipulate images. Andrea Gourley, Principal said: “We get weekly visitors, either from colleagues in other schools, the Local Assessment Board and even the Education Board has paid a visit. All of them are keen to see the benefits and the positive changes the screens are bringing to students and staff.”
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MANAGING POLICY Many changes to A level suggested by lecturers relate to pedagogy and student learning, and include allowing less spoonfeeding and ‘Teaching to the test’.23 Some schools express concern that collaboration skills aren’t yet being asked for in the high-stakes accountability measures which drive school, teacher and parent behaviours. However, the world is changing. Employers24 say that school-leavers haven’t been prepared adequately for their next step in a world which already works collaboratively, and 60% of lecturers say their institutions provide additional support classes, often focusing on writing and independent study skills, for underprepared first-year undergraduates25. Schools can therefore choose whether to embrace change sooner, preparing their students for this new world, or delay the same process at a cost to their pupils. Collaboration is about community, and community is about everyone. This means that policymakers and those in authority in education need to experience collaboration, fully understand its benefits, and dismantle the myths and barriers around collaborative working. And if teachers are to hand over control to students, then policy-holders need to exercise less control over the classroom, too. According to Education Scotland, “Many head teachers already know that top-down management does not empower teachers to create vibrant and innovative learning environments.”26 National examinations also need to begin measuring students’ ability to collaborate. This will be liberating for teachers, who must otherwise ‘teach to the test’27. Ultimately, in order to enjoy the benefits of collaborative education, policy-makers must change assessment expectations, accountability methods and definitions of success28. While this is not straightforward, strategies, techniques and technologies are available to make the transition not only possible but smooth.
When governments are too prescriptive about classroom practice, and ask for too much content to be covered, they not only reduce teachers’ morale but make it more difficult for them to run their classrooms in a way which promotes collaboration29.
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Suto, I (2012) What are the Impacts of Qualifications for 16 to 19 Year Olds on Higher Education? A survey of 633 university lecturers. http://www. cambridgeassessment.org.uk/Images/116010-cambridge-assessment-heresearch-survey-of-lecturers-executive-summary.pdf 24 http://www.britishchambers.org.uk/press-office/press-releases/youngpeople-need-more-support-to-make-transition-from-education-to-work,says-bcc.html 26/27/28/29 http://www.journeytoexcellence.org.uk/resourcesandcpd/research/ summaries/rscollaborativelearning.asp
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CASE STUDIES: HOW WE’RE COLLABORATING, TOO Promethean is involved in several classroom-based education research projects focusing on the critical areas of teacher effectiveness, new learning scenarios and digital pedagogies. Case Study 1: iTEC
In a project to help transform and scale-up the use of technology in learning and teaching in compulsory education, Promethean led pilots in 200 classrooms across 40 schools in Europe as part of iTEC. iTEC (Innovative Technologies for an Engaging Classroom) was funded over 4 years by the European Commission, and in total involved 50,000 students in 2,624 classrooms across 20 European countries. Along with 25 partners, including ministries of education, technology providers and research organisations, we helped to pilot educational tools and resources. Watch a video about how teachers and students collaborate at Ashmole Academy, a Promethean iTEC school, and read their iTEC blog.
At the beginning of the project, iTEC teachers identified a lack of confidence with team work and collaborative activities. Four years later, however, the final report30 showed that a transformation had taken place: 88% of teachers and students agreed that engaging in iTEC learning activities increased students’ skills for collaboration. Student roles in the classroom changed; they became peer assessors and tutors, teacher trainers, and co-designers of their learning. Teachers stated that they used technology more frequently; it was systematically integrated throughout the learning process rather than reserved for research or presentations. The iTEC methodology can meet the needs of European and national educational policy aspirations (eg Europe 2020) for increasing employability and lifelong learning by developing students’ digital competency and wider 21st-century skills.
Coming soon A range of in-depth reports will be published shortly, relating to projects with which Promethean has been involved and which will be of value to senior managers in schools. The following provides some teasers to whet your appetite, and we’ll link to these reports from our website as soon as the full reports are published: The 4-year iTEC research project (Innovative Technologies for an Engaging Classroom) http://www.prometheanplanet.com/en-gb/professional-development/best-practice/itec/
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Creating the Future Classroom - Evidence from the iTEC project. Lewin & McNicol, MMU, August 2014
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How Activity Builder software can create learning activities to promote collaborative learning in small groups http://community.prometheanplanet.com/en/user_groups/itecprom/b/itecprom_experts_ blog/archive/2014/03/12/collaborative-learning-in-small-groups.aspx The iTEC story: its impact for teachers across Europe https://www.classflow.com/blog/the-itec-story
Case Study 2: Creative Classroom Lab (CCL)
Promethean’s CCL project teachers are another example of collaboration. CCL brought together teachers, policy-makers and industry partners, including Promethean, in 8 European countries between April 2013 and March 2015. The aim was to design, implement and evaluate 1:1 tablet scenarios. The project conducted pilots in 45 classrooms, collecting evidence on the implementation, impact and up-scaling of 1:1 pedagogical approaches using computer tablets.
PROJECT FINDINGS: RECOMMENDATIONS FOR ROLES AND ACTIVITIES Teachers
Students
Act as motivator, tutor, animator, observer, adviser, time-keeper
Act as observer, reporter, opponent, presenter, leader, mediator
Consider differences between learner e.g. gifted, less-gifted
Listen to others, establish common goals
Provide opportunities for assessment of the individual and group work
Search and share resources
Have regular meetings with each group
Carry out peer-and self-assessment
Encourage students to self- or peer-assess, and to relect on what they have achieved at various stages of the collaboration
Alternate between individual and collaborative tasks
Enable a physical learning environment that supports group working, and/or online learning environment that extends the collaborative work to after-school tasks
Collaborate with peers, within the classroom, within the school and other schools
Apply new ways of assessment, including formative assessment
Collaborate with teachers and experts outside school
Plan how the tablet can support different steps of the learning process and tasks
Develop and present a product, the outcome of the group work
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Coming soon A range of in-depth reports will be published shortly, relating to projects with which Promethean has been involved and which will be of value to senior managers in schools. The following provides some teasers to whet your appetite, and we’ll link to these reports from our website as soon as the full reports are published: The CCL story: implementing, impacting and up-scaling of 1:1 pedagogical approaches using tablets. https://community.classflow.com/classflow/topics/creative-classrooms-lab-eu-projectclassflow-ideas
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FURTHER READING Bruner, J (1985) ‘Vygotsky: An historical and conceptual perspective’ in Wertsch, J Culture, communication, and cognition: Vygotskian perspectives, pp21-34. London: Cambridge University Press. Dykes, G; Ripley, M; Wijngaards, G; Rodriguez, I & Samaniego, PE (undated) Learning to Collaborate to Learn. Available at http://www.prometheanworld.com/rx_content/files/PDF/ LearningtoCollaboratetoLearn-169714.pdf Education Endowment Foundation Toolkit (2015) Collaborative Learning. Available at http:// educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/toolkit/toolkit-a-z/collaborative-learning Education Scotland ‘Research summary - collaborative learning’ at The Journey to Excellence. Available at http://www.journeytoexcellence.org.uk/resourcesandcpd/research/summaries/ rscollaborativelearning.asp Gokhale, AA (1995) ‘Collaborative Learning Enhances Critical Thinking’ in Journal of Technology Education. Available at http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/JTE/v7n1/gokhale.jte-v7n1.html Goodnough, K (2005) ‘Fostering teacher learning through collaborative inquiry’ in The Clearing House 79(2), pp88-92. Hattie, J (2009) Visible Learning: A Synthesis of Over 800 Meta-Analyses Relating to Achievement. Abingdon, Routledge. Johnson, RT & Johnson, DW (1986). ‘Action Research: Cooperative learning in the science classroom’ in Science and Children, 24, pp31-32. Johnson, DW, Johnson RT & Holubec, EJ (1993). Circles of Learning: Cooperation in the classroom. Edina, MN: Interaction. Kagan, S (1999) Cooperative Learning – Seventeen Pros and Seventeen Cons plus Ten Tips for Success at Kagan Online. Available at http://www.kaganonline.com/free_articles/dr_spencer_kagan/ASK06. php Lee, C D & Smagorinsky P (Eds) (2000). Vygotskian Perspectives on Literacy Research: Constructing meaning through collaborative inquiry. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. Nuthall, G (2001). The Cultural Myths and Realities of Classroom Teaching and Learning: A Personal Journey. http://www.nzare.org.nz/portals/306/images/Files/graham_nuthall_herbison2001.pdf Schleicher, A (OECD) The Case for 21st Century Learning. Available at http://www.oecd.org/general/ thecasefor21st-centurylearning.htm Slavin, RE (1989). ‘Research on Cooperative Learning: An international perspective’ in Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, 33(4), pp231-243. Totten, S, Sills, T, Digby A & Russ, P (1991). Cooperative Learning: A guide to research. New York: Garland. Vygotsky, L (1978). Mind in Society: The development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Webb, N (1985) ‘Student Interaction and Learning in Small Groups: A research summary’ in HertzLazarowitz, R (Editor), Kagan, S (Editor) & Sharan, S (Editor) Learning to Cooperate, Cooperating to Learn, pp148-172.
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ABOUT PROMETHEAN Promethean is a global education company which motivates students to learn by developing, integrating and implementing innovative 21stcentury learning environments, making everyone more engaged, empowered and successful. Teachers and students in today’s connected classroom have access to limitless learning and teaching resources. Together with over 2 million teachers around the world, Promethean’s mission is to improve education by partnering with teachers to create dynamic learning environments which motivate students to learn. Promethean believes that education technology solutions must enhance four critical capabilities for schools, teachers and students: 1. Increase student engagement by creating active learners who are intellectually curious. 2. Provide learning feedback by providing teachers with real-time insight into student learning progress, empowering them to adjust their lesson content and delivery approach to ensure a higher level of student understanding. 3. Personalise instruction by customising activities based on learning style, learning preference and level of mastery, giving students a stake in the lesson and their learning. 4. Foster collaboration – by enabling a full range of collaborative instruction and learning models, including whole-class, individual, small-team and multi-team settings.
The Future Classroom Lab School Leaders Working Group
This working group is supported by Microsoft and Promethean. In 2015, it brought together an expert group of 12 school leaders of showcase schools from Norway, Sweden, Austria, UK and Portugal, who shared their experiences of leading the change to 21st-century teaching and learning. Among the 7 examples of successful practice they identified were: The need for school leaders to work together and share best practice Networking amongst school leader peers A culture of collaboration.
Consultancy and technology for collaboration
To find out more about Promethean and the education technology solutions which support collaboration in the classroom, visit www.PrometheanWorld.com and follow @PrometheanUKI.
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ABOUT THE AUTHORS Gill Leahy Head of curriculum development & research, Promethean Gill’s research interest is in exploring and facilitating technology’s role in realising more effective educational systems through the themes of curriculum development, teacher effectiveness and assessment. She leads the design and implementation of the modern classroom toolkits. Gill is the Promethean lead on several EU projects including Erasmus+, FASMED and iTEC. She is an ex-mathematics faculty head and an advanced skills teacher. She was also part of the UK government’s national strategy team which developed Assessment for Learning (AfL) and Assessing Pupil’s Progress (APP) materials which are used by schools throughout the country.
Mark Robinson Education strategy, Promethean Mark’s role is to connect research with innovation, and to work with teachers and students to develop new teaching and learning approaches. As a primary-school teacher, Mark won national awards for his teaching and the use of technology in learning. He has developed a range of very popular online applications used by schools. He previously held the executive producer role at the world’s largest publisher, Pearson, and was R&D director for a 2.2million user education portal (the largest in the world at the time).
If you found this guide useful, why not take further steps? Watch the recording of our Collaboration for School Leaders webinar Register now to receive our future ebooks Talk to one of our education strategy consultants Talk to us about technology which enables real collaboration.
Call: +44 (0) 870 241 3194 Email: Learn@PrometheanWorld.com Visit: www.PrometheanWorld.com Follow: @PrometheanUKI Promethean House, Lower Philips Road, Blackburn, Lancashire BB1 5TH UK