Gabriel Diaz Maggioli talks about why collaboration is such an important part of professional development, why it is often neglected and how collaborative practice can be encouraged.
We posed the below three questions to Gabriel:
Why is collaboration such an important aspect of effective professional development?
Teachers go through lots of different stages in their development and career from teacher training right up to retirement and at each stage there are challenges which cannot be tackled on their own. Working in institutions and being surrounded by a wealth of knowledge and experience is the perfect recipe for tackling those challenges together.
Why is collaboration often neglected?
In general employees don’t see it as an investment so don’t offer enough time for teachers to sit down and work together. “Teachers need to step back from the classroom and look at their students and themselves through a different lens”. Not every community is a functional one. Some can become disfunction. We need teachers to come to together to overcome those challenges.
How can collaborative practice be encouraged?
Institutions need to be encouraging collaboration and offering enough paid time to spend on professional development. Ideas such as establishing a mentoring scheme, reading groups and conference visits are essential so that they can use their new ideas in the classroom with other teachers and not on their own.
You can read more professional development tips.