Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/supporting-collaboration-among-teachers/5013251/
Collaboration among teachers isn't a new idea. Good teachers have always collaborated - as a strategy for solving problems, reducing isolation, finding others with like interests or concerns, and validating or celebrating successes in the classroom. Alternately called mentoring, coaching, reflecting, and even sometimes, problem-solving, collaboration is considered a successful strategy for preventing the isolation of teachers, supporting beginning teachers, reducing teacher turnover, improving the quality of care and early education, and supporting professional development of experienced teachers (Love & Rowland, 1999).Attention is being given to collaboration in our professional literature and in practice, primarily because teacher educators are recognizing its potential for improving the education of teachers in training and helping new teachers succeed. Collaboration as a strategy for supporting teachers as they learn and grow shares in a way that enriches the learning experience for all involved.
Some kinds of collaboration are formal in nature - set up for a specific purpose; other kinds are informal - emerging from the relationships that develop in schools among teachers, directors, parents, and the community. Whether formal or informal, collaboration can be very powerful. The teachers in the programs of Reggio Emilia value the collaboration process so much that it is considered ...