" 'School' in the 21st century will only attain its objectives if school teachers and administrators work together as a team; simple adjustments to traditional school practices and structures will not help."
The National Commission on Teaching and America's Future (NCTAF) report "Team Up for 21st Century Teaching and Learning: What Research and Practice Reveal about Professional Learning" provides a synthesis of five research studies and offers four case studies of innovative professional learning communities in practice.
The studies show that when teachers are given the tools and time to collaborate, they become learners-all-around; educational practices improve, and they ultimately become capable of improving student success far beyond what any of them could accomplish alone.
Key Points
The report details 6 key principles:
- Shared Values and Goals
Team members have a shared vision of students' learning needs and a clear understanding of how their collective teaching experience can be orchestrated to meet those needs. They identify learning challenges, which the team can focus on to improve student success.
- Collective Accountability
Team members have divided responsibility according to their experience, knowledge, and skills. They hold each other accountable for each other's success and are collectively accountable for the improvement of each student supervised by the team.
- Meaningful (authentic) Assessments
Team members hold themselves professionally accountable for student success by using assessments and data that provide them with real-time feedback on their students' learning and teaching effectiveness. These assessments add value to them, and they are not necessarily formal assessments.
- Self-directed Reflection
Highly effective teams establish a feedback loop on goal setting, planning, standards, and assessments that are geared toward the learning needs of students and aligned with the professional development needs of teachers.
- A Trustworthy Environment
Highly effective teams are not found in dysfunctional schools. But if a team is given the time, space, resources, and direction to their teamwork, they can turn a mediocre school into a successful learning institution. This space and time are "sacred"; it is not used for anything else. Not even the best teachers can make much impact working alone.
- Strong, Committed Leadership
Highly effective learning teams are supported by principals who establish a climate of openness and trust, a climate that encourages team members to make decisions about improving instructional effectiveness that is directly linked to student needs. This support must be balanced by positive and appropriate pressure aimed at the constant improvement of the school's performance, according to the learning needs of the students.
Special emphasis is placed on concrete, observable and measurable aspects, on which it is possible to agree, and on which the effects of the actions taken can be estimated.
For the summary document (.pdf): https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED512177
Site NCTAF
See more articles by this author