Collaboration is very important

I think collaboration is the key to providing a terrific school learning environment and student success. Louis and Kruse (1995) provide explicit evidence that schools that collaborate had much better student performance than those who did not.It is important that teachers and schools have a clear purpose for all student learning and to engage in collaborative planning to achieve this purpose. I have found that quite often teachers work with their own group of children in their classroom working hard to cover the curriculum and they are isolated from the rest of the school, most of the time not intentionally. The school and all the teacher involved need to get together to plan strategically. We need to work together to place students needs at the forefront and to share our skills and processes.Effective collaborative cultures value diversity because that is how we can get different perspectives. Hopefully a school culture is developed where we should not be worried about offending others, but approach it in an idea sharing and team building activity Fullan (1999, p.37). I really value working with other teachers, sharing knowledge and team teaching, it is extremely effective for both student and teacher learning. There definitely has to be more time set aside for collaboration!

References
Fullan, M. (1999). Chapter 3: The deep meaning of inside collaboration. In Change forces: The sequel, (pp.31-41). London, Falmer Press.