Case Study: Collaborative Classrooms
Questions:
1. How can the school provide for student growth and development?
2. How can the school be committed to student learning as the fundamental purpose of schooling?
3. How can administrators and teachers implement collaboration into the classrooms?
Scenario:
Green High School is a public school, located in the central area of Georgia. The school has always had the reputation as being one of the best schools in the county. Each year, the school has met AYP and has had good test scores and high graduation rates. Green is always looking at the strengths and weaknesses in the area of school improvement. Wanting to increase test scores even more, Green looked for ways to improve.
Collaborative instruction was an area that the Professional Development Committee and School Improvement Committee wanted to pursue after researching strategies for school improvement. Why implement collaborative classes in a high school? The students vary greatly in ability and prior knowledge, and the administrators and teachers wanted to be able to maximize each student’s individual potential. Collaborative classes, when taught by a general education and a special education teacher, allows both teachers to be more attentive to the students’ varied learning needs. Green’s School Improvement Committee decided to provide training to the staff in an effort to provide students with more individualized instruction for maximum growth.
The effort to include many collaborative classes in core subjects began with professional development of the staff that had little to no prior knowledge of what collaboration was. Through professional development from two different sources, a special education teacher and a consultant, the staff was able to understand the concept and try new strategies in the classrooms. The staff was open-minded about co-teaching, but was hesitant about trying the method in their own classrooms due to general unease and lack of common planning. To make the staff more comfortable, the administrators allowed the teachers to try out the collaborative strategies for one year. They wanted them to ease into some of the strategies, and see the benefit of them. At faculty meetings, the teachers were asked to share ways that they have provided collaborative instruction in the classroom and ways to be efficient without a common planning time with their respective co-teachers. This provided ideas for other teachers. At the end of the year, the teachers were asked to complete peer observations during a collaborative lesson. The peer observations were completed for two reasons: to see another teacher’s perspective of a collaborative classroom, and to provide feedback to the partner teachers about the lesson. Collaboration has been a difficult area to implement. Some subjects are more conducive to co-teaching than others, and special education teachers are not always comfortable with the academic content. The administrators have understood the hesitance, but also see the benefits of these strategies to student growth and learning. Green hopes to continue to strengthen in the area of collaborative classes and to use the strategies more consistently next year. Collaboration has been proven to increase student learning. Although some teachers, primarily the general education teachers, are resistant to change, this is an area that Green believes will boost scores, and will provide students with the best education possible.
Questions Answered:
1. Student growth and development is achieved through collaborative instruction, according to the research. Data has not been obtained.
2. The school can be committed to student learning by gradually becoming more comfortable with collaborative strategies and techniques. The teachers have been given ample time to create collaborative lessons.
3. The administrators could look for collaborative teaching during evaluations and provide feedback. The number of collaborative lessons has not been set, but the administrators have documented the teachers who have implemented some lessons and the number. Feedback has been provided when observed.
Evaluation of Study:
The principal and other administrators’ leadership style is developing in this case study. The administrators are actively searching for ways to improve instruction and learning, but it is in the beginning stages. The staff has received basic training in the area of collaboration. The staff seems to be gaining confidence in the area, but is not completely comfortable with the new way of instructing students. The administrators should expect all assigned teachers to be implementing co-teaching strategies next school year. The Professional Development Committee should pursue other collaboration workshops to act as a follow-up course or to provide Green’s new teachers with the strategies.