Collective Teacher Efficacy (Collaboration)

Collective Teacher Efficacy (Collaboration)

DEFINITIONS

Collective Efficacy: Is a shared belief and resulting team collaboration by a group of teachers, that they have the collective skills to positively impact student outcomes. It represents the collaborative process of teachers working in teams to plan, implement, and review instructional strategies, and student outcomes that facilitate learning.  It represents the “power of professional educators” working together to build capacity, improve practice, and boost learning.

Collective efficacy is a “groups shared confidence and belief in the conjoint capabilities to organize and execute the courses of action required to produce given levels of attainment. Hattie et.al, Illustrated Guide (2024, pg. 90).

Collaboration Requirements: Educational leaders need consistent support time  to meet;  up-front training in how to collaborate; a leadership shift that shares responsibility; a “safe” environment and learning culture that focuses on teacher improvement; a realization that all students belong to all teachers; and a space where relationships are so strong conversations and debate can be encouraged around tasks and ideas. Sahlberg (2021)

DATA

• 7 Meta Analysis reviews

• 205 Research studies

• 35,000 Students in research studies

• 3 Confidence level.  Hattie (2023) p. 217

QUOTES

“Individual teachers benefit from collaboration with peers when they share the belief that through united efforts they can overcome any challenges and produce intended results. Teachers need to exist in a culture that believes: we are evaluators; we are change agents; we use evidence-based practices; we collaborate.” Hattie (2023) p. 228.

We do not learn from experience…we learn from reflecting on experience. John Dewey

Cooperation: Is easy – share information if needed and make independent decisions.

Coordination: slightly harder – share goals and leverage resources but maintain independent responsibilities.

Collaboration: most difficult – need a framework for decision making, share responsibility for implementation, and work together evaluating the effects of decisions.Duke (2013) p. 511

Too many teachers cling to the principal of the “fresh start” and thus do not spend enough time learning about students in advance leading to more seamless transitions, and wasting time learning about their students. They should be taking advantage of past teacher knowledge and success. Elmore (2010)

It’s not rigid adherence to standards; it’s not purchasing new curriculum materials on a 5-year-cycle; it’s not curriculum alignment…all of these approaches have there place but they don’t influence student achievement much.  Instead, we need to invest in our teachers!  We need to break down the doors to classroom isolation. We need to spend many more hours weekly in collaborative teams discussing students find reviewing potential interventions, and we need to learn about and apply what works best: evidence-based practices. Create this environment for teachers and they and their students will flourish. We have been spending money on all the wrong things – spend it on teachers working collaboratively with a menu of evidence-based options.   Tompkins (2024) EBL

“No one finds time for collaboration…one makes time.” Dufor (2015) p. 133

Teachers need agency – they cannot be passive recipients of decision made by administration.  They need to collaborate in order to learn evidence-based instructional methods, agree on curriculum expectations, develop formative assessments, and create methods to enhance learning for all students. Lefstein (2020)

“Is not adjusting the curricula, tinkering with structural aspects, introducing new grouping or enrichment classes, worrying about resources or the deficits of parents, asking for more money, and building brilliant web pages…instead it is the promotion and development of building the collective community of adults in the school to positively impact student learning and outcomes.” Hattie (2023) p. 72

“Why change if it’s the student’s fault? The most powerful lever for changing professional practice is concrete evidence of irrefutably better results. The other lever for persuading teachers is the power of positive peer pressure.” Dufor (2015) p. 178

“Many educators settle for PLC lite; they may create a rubric for assessing the quality of student work but avoid the collaborative process of applying the rubric to actual evidence and then using this evidence to develop a response.  PLC groups need the transparent sharing of results…PLC lite teachers peak in generalities about students rather than focus on strategies of instruction.”  Dufor (2015) p. 186

Teachers are psychologically alone even though they are in a densely populated setting…they adapt being alone by creating a culture of individuals concerned about themself rather than a culture concerned about the group and the pursuit of best practices. There is a persistence of privacy with a culture of isolation, privacy, noninterference and unwillingness of teacher to work together to examine evidence of student learning…this creates a powerful force for maintaining the status quo. Goodlad (1984)

“Successful and sustainable improvement can therefore, never be done to teachers…it can only ever be achieved by and with them.” Dufor (2015) p. 66

“The only classroom rules that matter are the ones that are actually enforced. Students quickly realize when the rules are stated but not enforced.  Adult behavior is no different. In the absence of staff collective commitments and the willingness to hold each other accountable, schools struggle with building a collaborative culture because of personal conflict and adult drama.  Student learning suffers because the adults are unable to establish truly professional relationships.” Dufor (2015) p.113

I can do things you cannot. You can do things I cannot. Together we can do great things. Mother Theresa

“Successful and sustainable improvement can never be done to teachers…it can only be achieved by and with them.” Dufor (2015) p. 66

“Are we here to ensure students are taught, or are we here to ensure that our students learn? In too many schools educators cling to the belief that their job is provide students with the opportunity to learn, but the ultimate responsibility for success or failure falls on the students and parents. Some teachers say it is unfair to hold them accountable for student success. A learning focused culture understands that the school was not built to that teachers have a place to teach; it was built so that children have a place to learn.” Dufor (2015) p. 103

“The most powerful form of accountability is peer-to-peer accountability; but the only way to develop this accountability is top-down. Leaders must be willing to address situations where people do not honor collective commitments. In high-trust schools, leaders are more (no less) likely to confront those who demonstrate a lack of commitment to the collective commitment. Dufor (2015) p. 241

“Moving from being a good school to becoming a great school requires examining the brutal facts. there is not something in the water at the best schools…what is different is they moved from viewing themselves as victims of their circumstances to masters of their own fate. They stopped focusing on what they could not control and instead took responsibility for what they could.”  Dufor (2015) p. 250

“Unfortunately, many (if not most PLC and MTSS meetings) do not produce the results that are possible. Too often teacher collaboration meetings “appear contrived, inauthentic, grafted on, perched precariously on the margins of real work…teachers prefer to talk about student problems, engage in storytelling, deflect discussion into curriculum, the attributes of students, resources, time and workload – rather than engage in discussions of instructional pedagogy.” Little (1990) p. 510

“Individual teachers working in isolation as they attempt to help all of their students achieve at high levels will eventually be overwhelmed by the tension between covering the content and responding to the students diverse needs in a fixed amount of time with virtually no external support.” Dufor (2016) p. 175

“Teachers in highest performing schools in the world (Singapore & Finland) devote 15-20 hours per week preparing and analyzing lessons, developing assessments, gathering evidence of student learning, analysis of evidence, and meeting with other teachers to plan interventions.” Dufor (2015) p. 78

“The National Center on Education and the Economy recommends that states require school districts ensure teachers spend 1/4 of their time collaborating with colleagues.”  Dufor (2015) p. 79

“At the highest levels of expert performance, the drive for improvement will always involve search and experimentation at the threshold of understanding, even for the masters dedicated to redefining the meaning of excellence in their fields.” Lipton & Wellman (2022) p. iii

Teachers who effectively collaborate on a regular basis in planning instruction, creating assessments, and defining interventions have demonstrated significantly improved student achievement rates. Teachers need to time to work together and training / skills in collaboration to achieve these outcomes.”Adams (2006) 

“Unless people believe they can produce the desired effects by their actions, they have little incentive to act, or to persevere in the face of difficulties. Whatever other factors serve as guides and motivators, they are rooted in the core belief that one has the power to effect changes by one’s actions.” Hattie e. al. (2024, pg. 91)

“Improvement in teaching is a collective rather than individual enterprise. Analysis, evaluation, and experimentation in concert with colleagues are conditions under which teachers improve.” Hattie, J. (2024, pg. 96)