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Researchers and educators alike praise teams for keeping faculty
motivated, providing focus for efforts to improve student performance,
and enhancing the development of professional community.
But teaming also can create dilemmas for schools.
This brief examines some of the potential conflicts between teacher
teaming and the development of schoolwide professional community.
According to this brief, professional community in a
school is strong when the teachers
demonstrate five critical elements:
1?Reflective Dialogue: discussion
which forms the basis for shared
norms, beliefs and values that shape
plans for action.
2?De-Privatization of Practice:
Teachers share practice ?in public,?
learning new ways to talk about what
they do and building new relationships
with peers.
3?Collective Focus on Student
Learning: Teachers assume that all
students can learn at reasonably high
levels. A mutually felt obligation
keeps teachers committed to overcoming
the often-daunting obstacles
that students face outside of school.
4?Collaboration: Teachers feel
encouraged to work together to
develop shared understandings of
students, curriculum and policy, to
produce materials and activities that
improve instruction and assessment,
and to revamp staff development.
5?Shared Norms and Values:
Teachers affirm common values that
support a collective focus on student
learning.
Within a strong professional community,
teachers and administrators
continually examine their practice
and the conditions that affect their
work, with the shared goal of
improving student performance.
Members of the community feel a
mutual sense of support,
which
sustains those who want to try
new methods and ideas. As a result,
teachers are more likely to feel they?ve
chosen a socially rewarding profession.
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