Through collaboration with colleagues at your school-site, you can partake in p
Through collaboration with colleagues at your school-site, you can partake in problem-solving in the classroom and school-site as well as extend your learning professionally as an educator by learning from your peers. Hooper and Bernhardt (2016) identify that interaction and active engagement with teachers is the core of effective instructional leadership and that transformational leadership is a mutual influence relationship based on collaborative actions taken by individuals.
It is important to make creative use of another’s range of expertise so everyone can learn as well as be willing to change. Through constant practice, teachers will benefit from working with others to build commitment to an innovative collaborative culture. These collaborations will be “a continuous process with evidence of new quality thinking and intentional changes in practice is embedded” (Fullan & Quinn, 2016, p. 70). With the implementation of meaningful collaboration, teachers can problem solve more effectively as well as grow professionally as educators through the extended learning they will receive from their peers.
From an educational perspective, collaboration is key to maintaining a quality learning system. A quality learning system can be ensured when instructional leaders (e.g. principals) are hands-on in working with teachers directly on curriculum – that there is a collaborative effort in understanding the standards, content, engagement, assessment, and other factors (Hooper & Bernhardt, 2016). Leaders must be able to identify the strengths and gaps in the capacity of the faculty so they can utilize everyone’s capabilities appropriately and give intentional feedback to inform and adjust instructional practices. It is the leaders and the faculty enjoying a shared purpose for enabling students to perform at high levels that contribute to a quality learning system and faculty. Well known educational researcher, John Hattie, also indicates that teachers, principals, and classrooms who work collaboratively have the biggest impact (TEDx Talks, 2013). Thus, in order for the highest levels of collaboration to take place, having the right tools at one’s disposal is critical in making this happen.
Online Collaboration Tools
Many people today are already familiar with online collaboration tools whether or not they are aware of it. For example, Apple iPhone users have had “FaceTime” (a proprietary video chat technology) in their hands since 2010 (FaceTime, n.d.). Even several years prior to the release of the iPhone, Internet users were already familiar with video chatting through Skype software — which already enjoyed over 600 million subscribers by 2010 (Skype, n.d.). Businesses today utilize various sorts of technology in order for their employees to work together online, including synchronous and asynchronous resources.
Teachers can use digital resources like these to bounce around ideas with colleagues or leaders by sharing their experiences with individuals usi