Collaboration in the school as a learning organisation.
I missed the forum I was supposed to comment on last week and so thought I would share some thoughts here.
I think the most glaringly obvious thing is that collaboration is GOOD.
And that, in an ideal world, everyone would be working with everyone else to share ideas, offer support and facilitate growth. It seems to me that learning organisations are so called because everyone is thinking and learning and changing together, and the organisation moves forward because everyone is encouraged to be an innovator rather than following one person who is doing the innovating.
Shared vision and sharing ideas is the cornerstone of the learning organisation, and effective collaboration facilitates this and leads to change.
What is not good is innovating separately, or innovating for innovations sake. Yes, the goal should be to increase student achievement and help them reach their potential, but it needs to be organic and school wide. Competition doesn’t seem healthy or helpful. Having my students perform best doesn’t necessarily mean that they learn well.
And I think this is where the TL comes in. It is part of the TL’s role to see that collaboration meets student needs, that resources are available for teachers and students to facilitate learning. The TL crosses all curricular boundaries and is in the best postion to front the learning organisation.
Valenza’s article is a map for that ideal world where collaboration is effectively undertaken. The question then is - How do we merge that ideal world with our own?
No comments:
Post a Comment