Professional Development Activity 3-A
Submitted by Sally Zepeda, University of Georgia
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This activity relates to all of the standards of collegiality and collaboration.
These standards support the proposition that successful supervision creates and sustains a learning community, reduces isolation, promotes cooperative work and risk taking, promotes a “can do” attitude, considers the affective domains in developing relationships, and supports differentiated supervisory practices to promote collegiality and collaboration. The following activities will take the reader into the field to collect and analyze data and then to develop an action plan to enhance the development of collegial and collaborative efforts and activities in the school.
Part 1: At the school site, identify what factors contribute to the development of a learning community that supports collegiality and collaboration. Start with: The leadership team (principal, assistant principal(s), department chairs, instructional coordinators, grade level leaders), teachers and staff (nurse, social worker, paraprofessionals, staff secretaries, and custodians). For each group, identify communication patterns, opportunities for collaborative work, and learning opportunities provided for each. Spend time talking with a sample from each group. Identify what you discover as overall themes about communication patterns (how people talk, and interact with one another). For each theme, develop a strategy to enhance communication and interaction. Present your findings to the administrative team.
Part 2: At the school site, identify the programs in place that support teacher development vis-à-vis collaboration and collegiality (e.g., peer coaching, mentoring, study groups, action research). Collect documents describing these programs and choose one or two programs on which to focus time and energy. For the programs you choose to examine, identify the goals and objectives of the programs and assess how these programs support norms of collaboration and collegiality.
Part 3: At the school site, identify what differentiated opportunities exist for teachers (beginning teachers, mid-career teachers, veteran teachers).
Determine:
What structured programs involve beginning teachers and veteran teachers?
What formal and informal opportunities exist for these teachers to focus on teaching and learning? (e.g., informal and formal classroom observations, opportunities to engage in action research with teachers within and across grade levels)
As a leader, what would you need to do to support these programs and help them grow and develop further? What resources from within the site and the central office could be allocated to these programs?
Part 4: Develop a survey to administer at the next faculty meeting to determine the scope of collaboration (time for teachers during the day, structured and unstructured opportunities to collaborate, the extent to which teachers are involved in leadership, desired activities to promote collaboration—study groups, peer coaching, mentoring, etc.). Next, tally and share results with faculty and administration. Form a committee to examine results, make recommendations, and develop a prioritized plan that aligns with the mission of the school and priorities in the school improvement plan. Based on data, forecast how the prioritized plans will enhance collaboration and collegiality. Develop a self-reflection on what leadership is needed to move the plan forward and the role you will play in it. To these ends, as a supervisor, you will be involved in a cycle of defining needs and goals, developing solutions, implementing a plan, providing ongoing support, and evaluating results. These activities are circular in that one activity will inform actions and resources needed to support the plans that are developed.
Assessment Criteria:
There are four criteria used in the assessment:
1. The data gathered are robust enough to identify patterns of communication that enhance and patterns that impede collaboration.
2. Based on data, the participant can identify programs for targeted school personnel (e.g., mentoring and peer coaching for beginning to career status teachers), identify areas in need of resources to support these programs, and identify what leadership is needed to enhance the ongoing development of programs.
3. The participant is able to identify key structural needs to promote collaboration (time for teachers during the day), delineate between structured and unstructured opportunities to collaborate, evaluate the extent to which teachers are involved in leadership, and knows which activities promote collaboration.
4. The participant is able to work with school personnel in defining needs and goals, developing solutions, implementing a plan, providing ongoing support, and evaluating results.
The participant’s reflection of self and the leadership needed to promote a learning community and norms of collaboration and collegiality is realistic relative to the context of the school.
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