10 Ways Teachers Collaborate

The Importance of Teacher to Teacher Collaboration

Teachers are the most influential people in a student’s education, apart from the student themselves, so imagine the benefits of teachers working together. Imagine the increase in positive influence in a student’s education when teachers collaborate. Add in the support of school leaders, teacher aides, learning support staff, subject specialists, and then combine wisdom, knowledge and passion for improving students’ achievement, and there is an enormous impact. Hence, COLLABORATION amongst teaching colleagues is important. Such collaboration may be within a teaching team who teach the same year level in the same school. It may be teachers in different year levels in the same school. It may be teachers from different schools teaching the same year level or subject who meet face-to-face or via online platforms. It may be teachers who network across the country or even across the world through conferences, blogs, or any number of online platforms.

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In asking my staff at St Martin’s Primary School, Carina in Brisbane, how and why they may best collaborate to improve students’ learning, both teachers and support staff generated a long list of ideas. I refined the lists into themes and offer these now to you. I suspect that you will be doing most, if not all, of these strategies and the rationale for them. In which case, these lists should be affirming of good practice. With this list, I am providing a list of how and a list of what to collaborate, teacher with teacher. (Teacher with support staff is for another article). The most common strategies that teachers use when collaborating include:

• Face-to-Face Conversations: Simply having a verbal conversation, in person.

• Email: This is the second most common way that teachers choose to collaborate. They may send each other messages at their convenience. Email also provides a record of the dialogue. It won’t replace face-to-face conversations, however it is convenient and offers an easy way to share resources.

• Team Meetings: This is where teachers in the same cohort would have meetings or teachers across year levels may meet to collaborate face-to-face on a regular basis.

• Listening: Interestingly, teachers also listed listening as a strategy which promotes collaboration. So, teachers, remember to use your mouth and your ears in the same ratio as which they exist: We should be listening twice as much as we should be speaking, even when collaborating with our colleagues.

• Staff Meetings and Daily Check-Ins: These are more formal settings, but still provide the chance for teachers to collaborate and share their ideas.

• Text and Phone Calls: These more informal conversations can also be powerful ways to connect teachers without any pressure, proving to be a powerful tool for collaboration. They are the strategies which teachers use to collaborate. So now let’s explore why they collaborate. What is the rationale for working together?

The most common reason for collaboration was “sharing at the load” when planning. Planning was the most common response when asked why we would collaborate. The second most common reason why people would collaborate was the sharing of resources. Teachers value working together to share resources and the workload they each encounter. They also valued sharing teaching roles, as well as various opportunities. For example, when it comes to preparing homework, planning resources or creating resources, teachers valued sharing that workload. They also appreciated
the opportunity for moderating students’ work when it comes to assessments. This allows for consistency of judgment. Teachers also valued discussing students’ needs and setting of goals. Similarly, when discussing students’ behaviour, teachers appreciate the opportunity to work with their colleagues so discussing behavioural expectations was also a common response. In our top ten responses, teachers also included asking for advice, discussing the programme and keeping a sense of humour while looking after each other.

Finally, in the top ten reasons for collaborating, was the importance of providing feedback to colleagues. So, there are the top ten reasons why teachers choose to collaborate and how they collaborate. Remember, two heads are better than one. Let’s work together.

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Andrew Oberthur


Andrew Oberthur is a primary school principal with over 30 years experience teaching and leading primary schools in Brisbane. Andrew has been on ABC radio a dozen times in the last couple of years. He is available for presentations and workshops for school staff and parents. In 2018 he published his first book “Are You Ready for Primary School This Year? which is about building a culture of trust, collaboration and enquiry between parents and teachers. His book is available from his website:
www.creativecollaborativesolutions.net