Teacher Collaboration and How to Encourage It (Lessons Learned in Longitudal and Cross-Sectional Studies of Internal Evaluations in Iceland)
Vol.17,No.2(2012)
Studia paedagogica
Icelandic secondary schools were mandated in 2006 to do self-evaluations. They have met this mandate with different approaches and great differences in teacher participation. In some schools teachers own the process of evaluating schoolwork and producing developmental plans, whereas in others one or more persons are assigned the task of conducting evaluations. Leadership approaches to the mandate were of special interest in this text. Two studies will be reported here. Study I was conducted in two upper secondary schools and two primary schools in Iceland. Focus groups were held with evaluation teams twice per year in these schools over a four year period (2000–2004). From these, themes of leader actions supporting development of evaluation emerged: a) maintaining a culture of trust and collaboration; b) encouragement of purposeful teamwork; c) supporting teachers in using data; and d) provision of opportunities for learning. Study II was done in 2006, in 11 upper secondary schools, with 250 participants. Responses were factor analyzed. A stepwise regression was used to explore the variance in internal evaluations which could be explained with the other factors. Five factors were found: leadership, professional development, school goals, collaboration on initiatives, and internal evaluation participation. Factors explaining the most variance in internal evaluation participation were: school goals, leadership and professional development, all statistically significant. In order to encourage active teacher participation in evaluation work, leaders should encourage strong use of student achievement data to inform development of school goals and facilitate related and powerful teacher professional development.
evaluation; teacher collaboration; participation; learning communities; school goals; professional development; student achievement data
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