What Research Says

This leads me to educational researcher John Hattie, who wrote Visible Learning for
Teachers: Maximizing Impact on Learning. Through his research, one of his goals is
to aid teachers in seeing and better understanding learning through the eyes of their
students.

Hattie has spent more than 15 years researching the influences on achievement of
K-12 children. His findings linked student outcomes to several highly effective
classroom practices. Here I'd like to highlight five of those practices:

1. Teacher Clarity

When a teacher begins a new unit of study or project with students, she clarifies the
purpose and learning goals, and provides explicit criteria on how students can be
successful. It's ideal to also present models or examples to students so they can see
what the end product looks like.

2. Classroom Discussion

Teachers need to frequently step offstage and facilitate entire class discussion. This
allows students to learn from each other. It's also a great opportunity for teachers to
formatively assess (through observation) how well students are grasping new content
and concepts.

3. Feedback

How do learners know they are moving forward without steady, consistent feedback?
They often won't. Along with individual feedback (written or verbal), teachers need to
provide whole-group feedback on patterns they see in the collective class' growth and
areas of need. Students also need to be given opportunities to provide feedback to the
teacher so that she can adjust the learning process, materials, and instruction
accordingly.

4. Formative Assessments

In order to provide students with effective and accurate feedback, teachers need to
assess frequently and routinely where students are in relation to the unit of study's
learning goals or end product (summative assessment). Hattie recommends that
teachers spend the same amount of time on formative evaluation as they do on
summative assessment.

5. Metacognitive Strategies

Students are given opportunities to plan and organize, monitor their own work, direct
their own learning, and to self-reflect along the way. When we provide students with
time and space to be aware of their own knowledge and their own thinking, student
ownership increases. And research shows that metacognition can be taught.

Collaborating with Colleagues

Great teachers are earnest learners. Spend some time with a colleague, or two or three,
and talk about what each of these research-based, best classroom practices looks like
in the classroom. Discuss each one in the context of your unique learning environment:
who your students are, what they need, what they already know, etc.

How do you already bring these five classroom practices alive in your classroom?
Please share in the comments section below.

Collaborative teaching, sometimes called cooperative teaching or team teaching,

involves educators working in tandem to lead, instruct and mentor groups of students.
Collaboration most often occurs among professionals from various disciplines
including core subjects, special education, elective courses, library science or
guidance programs. On some occasions, teachers from the same department or grade
level may team teach to target multiple levels of learning or provide a greater variety
of supervised activities for students to practice skills. Collaboration can be
implemented across all instructional levels and subject areas.

The Anatomy of Effective Collaboration

To be effective, the art of collaboration requires thoughtful consideration on the part

of educators. Time must be set aside for developing lessons and deciding on
appropriate learning approaches to use with specific students or groups. In many
schools, administrators set up collaboration schedules a year ahead in order to ensure
that teachers will have shared planning times. Even so, many collaborative teachers
spend time before and after school to coordinate their efforts. Additionally, deciding
on which teachers will be paired together can make or break a successful teaching
partnership. Collaborative teachers need to bring their best strengths and practices to
the team while remaining flexible to adapt to new methodologies that can benefit
student learning. In this way, teachers continue to grow in their professional skills and
students gain understanding from a variety of instructional approaches. Team teachers
must also present a united front so that students perceive each as being of equal
importance in knowledge and authority thus leading to more respectful learning
environments.

Types of Teaching Collaborations

There are a wide variety of of collaborative teaching styles and many are used
interchangeably by team teachers. Particular models include the following:

 Lead, Observe, Assist – One teacher presents new content while the co-leader observes
students and assists any who may be off-task or struggling with concepts.
  Teach and Reteach – The lead teacher presents new material and activities while the
co-instructor reviews previous information and skills for retention purposes.
 Simultaneous Teaching – The class is divided into two smaller groups and both teachers
present the same material at the same time.
 Instructional Stations – Students rotate between several stations to receive new instruction
or work on activities monitored by teachers.
 Supplemental Teaching – While one teacher instructs the majority of learners, the other
takes a small group aside to work on different instructional goals related to readiness or
literacy skills.
 Co-teaching Rotation – Both teachers present new information rotating between
presentation and support roles during the lesson.

Benefits of the Collaborative Instruction

Collaboration is a wonderful teaching tool. Teachers have the opportunity to assess

and differentiate instruction for students more readily and they can learn new
instructional techniques from one another to expand their teaching repertoire.
Cooperative teaching experiences also provide mutual support and assistance for
planning and implementing lessons, assessing students’ progress, sharing professional
concerns, and addressing students’ learning needs. Most importantly, teaming allows
more opportunities for students to understand and connect with content thereby
maximizing individual learning potential.

Considering the number of ways that team teaching can be used effectively in the
classroom, it is no wonder that it remains a popular instructional model. Collaborative
teaching allows teachers to impart information to a broader range of learners using
approaches that spark students’ imaginations while supporting individual learning
differences.