A CHAT perspective on pupil collaboration and teacher collaboration.

Ian Thompson and Harry DanielsOxford Centre for Sociocultural

and Activity Research (OSAT)University of Oxford

Research Questions

• Does collaborative teacher activity lead to an emphasis on pupil collaboration?

• What is the effect of collaborative activity for vulnerable learners?

• What effect does the culture of the school have on collaboration and the attainment of vulnerable pupils?

Collaborative problem solving

• provides schools with access to this valuable yet often untapped resource.

• celebrates the contribution of the teacher and seeks to enhance professional standing and confidence.

• places the teacher at the centre of educational development and seeks to support the systematic, reflective action that is characteristic of the best of teacher research.

• We view such research as a defining theme for school improvement.

Oxford’s Cultural Historical Contexts

Oxford City Learning

• ‘Meeting the needs of vulnerable learners’• Establishment of Professional Learning

Communities (PLCs)• BUT• On-going concern about well-being and

attainment remain• Concerns about variation between the 9

schools with regard to pupil attainment and the implementation of the intervention

School Culture

• Previous research has shown that interventions that involve teachers taking a collective responsibility for pupils' well-being and attainment through collaboration that is focused on their pupils' learning are effective in supporting the progress of vulnerable learners (Bolam et al, 2005).

• This involves a school culture that promotes a high degree of teacher collaboration, openness, and explicitly shared values.

• However, we hypothesise that where this is not the case then collaborative interventions have little impact on pupils' learning.

  Contracts 

 

 

 

     

 

 

Permissive individualism

 

Corrosive individualism

CULTURE

 

 

Collaborative cultures

 

Professional learning communities

 

 

Contrived collegiality

 

Performance training sects

 

Professional learning communities and performance training sects

Communities of practice

• Transform knowledge

• Shared inquiry

• Evidence informed

• Situated certainty

• Local solutions

• Joint responsibility

• Continuous learning

Sects of performance

• Transfer knowledge

• Imposed requirements

• Results driven

• False certainty

• Standardised scripts

• Deference to authority

• Intensive training

Questions

• How does changing the division of labour impact on the rests of the activity

• What legacy rules inhibit the changes in the DoL

• If successful does the change in DoL give rise to new objects notably with respect to vulnerable learners

questioninganalysingmodelling

interrogatingimplementing

Expansive Learning Stages

after Engeström

Intervention

• We argue that interventions that seek to promote pupil collaboration in learning need to attend to changes in the collaborative activity of the adults who mediate this learning.

• Research 2 phases: • a. to examine practices of PLCS (SNA; interviews) • b. to intervene in the two lowest performing

schools (PLC and attainment)

Peer Support Training

• Creating collaborative practices and ethos can be problematic. Professional individualism has been seen as an obstacle to such collaboration and has been attributed to the organisational structure of schools.

• Bedward & Daniels (2005) demonstrated that effective peer support in schools does not occur spontaneously but instead requires formal training in the skills of supervision/support, the successful development of a sense of ownership among practitioners for the model of supervision/support, and ongoing support and facilitation from management and employers.

" Creating networks – changing cultures"

The development of collaborative cultures at the school level in which working in teams with the other teachers is highly valued; in which the head and teachers work together to focus on student performance and on what it takes instructionally and otherwise to make continuous improvements; M. Fullan Infrastructure is all

SCRIPT

Actor 1 Actor 2 Actor 3

object 1 object 2 object 3

Shared Object

Actor A Actor B Actor C

SCRIPT

Shared

Object Script

Actor AActor B

Actor C

Definition

• Collaborative consultation is an interactive process that enables people with diverse expertise to generate creative solutions to mutually defined problems. The outcome is enhanced, altered, and produces solutions that are different from those that the individual team members would produce independently. (Idol, Paolucci-Witcomb, & Nevin, 1986).

Implementing the model•Need to find a way of shifting the patterns towards a ‘communication’ based model (Engeström et al 1997). •Seek to do so in the belief that this would give rise to more explicit emphasis on the regulative discourse within the school. Our belief in this form of intervention is based on previous studies of collaborative problem solving in schools Creese, Daniels, and Norwich, (1997), Norwich and Daniels (1994). •These studies were concerned with the relation between teacher tolerance and active engagement in developing appropriate forms of teaching and learning experience.

Teacher Support Teams

• School based problem solving system• Teachers help and support each other in

generating strategies for problematic situations

• It can be used for many problems in the workplace

Teacher Support Teams

TSTs are based on the belief that• “Teachers have vast knowledge and talent that

is often not shared with others”• “They create a forum for allowing professional

educators to share problems and solve them” Pysh and Chalfont

Aims of TST• To enable teachers to discuss common concerns

affecting professional life• To provide opportunities for reflection and problem

solving• To enable the exchange of ideas on curriculum

teaching methods and ways of dealing with student behaviour

• To develop approaches to classroom management Rogers (1990)

What is a TST?• Teacher support teams usually consist of 3

members of staff• The members meet on a regular basis• The teacher seeking assistance arranges a meeting

in confidence with the team• The teacher then selects from ideas developed

jointly by the group

TST intervention-CHAT perspective

• When viewed from the perspective of CHAT, we argue that changes in the division of labour (staff) give rise to changes in subject (teacher) orientation and engagement with the object/motive of teaching.

• We further suggest that such an intervention makes the likelihood of transformation in the division of labour of pupils during collaborative activity more positive and secure.