4.5 Skills and conditions needed for teacher collaboration by EUN Partnership aisbl

Barbara

barbara_anna_zi — 2016-11-14 12:14:11 UTC

Personally,I think it is very hard to collaborate with someone who does not want to do it. Of course, you can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make him drink. Teachers who do not collaborate or who have never done it before might not be aware of all the advantages of collaboration. It is our job to show them why they should change their teaching practice.

Stella Maris Berdaxagar from Argentina.

SMBerdaxagar — 2016-11-14 12:57:30 UTC

I have found it more difficult to engage colleagues than students in collaboration. It requires soft and hard skills and a whole-community plan that integrates collaboration , ICT and pedagogical approaches that support them, as well as time availability and a passion for innovation. Teachers ready to collaborate motivate students and shape the way they learn because they see them as mentors in the same way that students ready to collaborate motivate teachers willing to improve their practices. Unfortunately ,Comfort Zone is the most populated scenario nowadays but this should not discourage us or tempt us to be one of its residents.

Marianthi Arvanitidou- Greece

1canislupus22 — 2016-11-14 13:09:51 UTC

Effective communication and collaboration are essential to becoming a successful learner. It is primarily through dialogue and examining different perspectives that students become knowledgeable, strategic, self-determined, and empathetic. Moreover, involving students in real-world tasks and linking new information to prior knowledge requires effective communication and collaboration among teachers, students, and others. Indeed, it is through dialogue and interaction that curriculum objectives come alive. Collaborative learning affords students enormous advantages not available from more traditional instruction because a group--whether it be the whole class or a learning group within the class--can accomplish meaningful learning and solve problems better than any individual can alone.

Maria Daniela Roberto

2016-11-14 14:42:55 UTC

Surely the collaboration requires commitment and clarity of the journey;It's about sharing the same commitment, the same tenacity in theperformance of a common task, albeit through different disciplines. Thisis difficult sometimes, because there's the same enthusiasm fromeveryone.

Cristina

cristinapeicuti — 2016-11-14 15:14:46 UTC

I work with teachers who are sceptical about collaboration, and what and I tried to help them see the advantages of this way of working , let them see my work, invite them to assist my lessons and share experience...

Cristina Fuertes, Spain

2016-11-14 15:43:18 UTC

I work in a big school, and it is very difficult to work collaborative with other teachers because the leadership do not take into account this option.

Nils

2016-11-14 16:21:57 UTC

In our schol there's not much collaboration. Most teachers work on their own and there are only a few colleagues who collaborate. The atmosphere does not support collaboration.

Maria, italia

mariagranatiero — 2016-11-14 16:41:43 UTC

certainly not all my colleagues are open to this new way of school, especially the piùradicati to the page of the book.

Helen, Belgium

2016-11-14 17:02:39 UTC

All the skills listed as essential for collaboration between colleagues are those which we want to develop in students. With this in mind, we need to model good collaboration for our students. Currently, I plan with a colleague and our students are starting to realise that we collaborate and discuss our ideas to make their learning experiences richer. They are keen to have shared learning experiences where we work together between classes as often as possible and they see that this can work because they realise we feel comfortable working together. In my previous school, we had collaboration time built into the schedule for teams of teachers to plan for learning and assessment. I worked as the curriculum coordinator and was fortunate enough to work with all the teams, as well as work with colleagues in other parts of the school. I learned a great deal from this experience. From experience, I have learned that it takes time to build up trust within a team and to feel confident enough to collaborate effectively. once the trust is there, we learn to appreciate and utilise the skills and talents of our colleagues.

Marilena, Greece

becsa1 — 2016-11-14 17:15:55 UTC

I do agree with the list of skills and conditions mentioned. I think the most important one is attitude; egos must be set aside, because they often get in the way and affect the collaboration process, so the final result is lacking.

Alessandra, Italy

alessandra_marini1 — 2016-11-14 17:23:04 UTC

I really appreciate the part when she talks about the collaboration between the principal and the teachers, a collaboration recognized by students and their parents and which has a positive effect on the learning and teaching processes

Carmen Carella, Italy

carmencarella — 2016-11-14 17:24:54 UTC

If I were to be drawn to work collaboratively with my colleagues, I would really need some preconditions to exist, such as: perceiving

an uncompetitive environment
a comfortable creative space
a technological environment
colleagues who are in favour of changing things
a headteacher who listens carefully to our ideas benefiting the students and not for the school seeking and earning attention from the public
I am part of a big scope I am moving towards for the benefit of my students and of me improving in my relationships with colleagues and students.

So difficult.

Rosa/ Italy

rosadilonardo — 2016-11-14 18:00:19 UTC

I agree with this idea. They need knowledge, they need attitudes around wanting to collaborate, they need to have the skills for communication, for working with others, dealing with conflict – they need to have a motivation, so there has to be something there that motivates them to want to work together

Vasso Lalakidou, Greece

lalakidou — 2016-11-14 18:08:33 UTC

I believe that collaborative working is difficult and for me it depends on the skills and the conditions which are mentioned on the video. The basic obstacle for this collaboration is the teachers's resistance to change their methods and practises. And this obstacle is not easy to be passed as the teachers are getting older. Fortunately, this is not always a rule.

Cinzia Centrone

centrone_cinzia — 2016-11-14 18:40:33 UTC

For collaborative teaching are very important skills as knoledge, motivation, attitude, communication. Of course for a serious collaboration is rilevant to share a goal. in my school a lot of colleagues think their work in solitude. They don't believe in collaborative taching maybe because they don't knowit or don't want to change their method. I think that the best way to motivate them to work in team is to show them through our activity the advantages of collaborative teaching

Belgin Saka, Turkey

belgins — 2016-11-14 19:29:08 UTC

I agree with the list of skills and conditions mentioned as necessary for teacher collaboration..

Francesca, Italy

francesca_lombardi1973 — 2016-11-14 19:32:14 UTC

As a very busy teacher and mother, I believe the most evident barrier that prevents teachers collaboration is the lack of time and opportunity in italian schools.

Despoina Amarantidou, Greece

damarant — 2016-11-14 19:43:14 UTC

I absolutely agree that skills, knowledge, attitude and motivation are important components of a good collaboration. Moreover, shared responsibility, trust, sharing, negotiation and acceptance are necessary aspects for effective and collaborative work among colleagues.

Els Teerlinck Belgium

els_teerlinck — 2016-11-14 20:58:33 UTC

There is nothing I would like to do more than this. The problem is however that if we do this, we won't have 24 but at least 40 children in one classroom and this may be to much. You also need to find the right person to collaborate with and I would need a big classroom in wich there can sit 40 students or more...

Annama

2016-11-14 21:01:23 UTC

Annamaria Egido, Italy

2016-11-14 21:01:23 UTC

I agree with the list of skills and conditions mentioned as necessary for teacher collaboration.

Natalija, Serbia

dikovicnatalija — 2016-11-14 21:31:00 UTC

Cooperation and tolerance is necessary for each common work. Very important is the role of parents in the joint actions. All this is for the benefit of students.

Angelo, Rivoli, Italy

Angelo — 2016-11-14 22:26:47 UTC

I totally agree with Majella's analysis: learning to collaborate is really a very complex developmental task, a real competence that takes years of reflective practice. Among the skils and attitudes mentioned I would add tolerance of ambiguity: there is always am anxiety-inducing moment of disorientation when you work in a group. You must know how to cope this ambiguity. The stakes are our growth as genuine people capable of a deep relatedness.
I absolutely agree that we need to begin to work together towards a common goal, but that goal is not enough: we must also share values and a vision, a dream.

Alex_PT

teacheralex_dua — 2016-11-15 00:33:31 UTC

Sadly, there is no collaboration and the example comes from above…I’ve collaborated more with teachers across Europe in eTwinning projects than with any colleague at my school. Too many are sceptical about collaboration, about trying our or implementing whatever is different from what their status quo.

I agree with the list of skills and conditions presented by the teacher

trainer so that teacher collaboration can flourish in any school – wish more colleagues would enrol these MOOCs but as time goes by and teachers at my school become older (there has been no “renovation” of teaching staff and we are now all over 40), patience decreases and mindsets aren’t changing – quite the contrary, they are becoming more and more intolerant to changes.

Anita .M.Italy

2016-11-15 07:28:07 UTC

This teacher-trainers said really what basicly we need as teachers before thinking about collaboration .We need to reflect about "ethical" questions implicated in our job . Teachers need knowledge, they need attitudes around wanting to collaborate, they need to have the skills for communication, for working with others, dealing with conflict – they need to have a motivation, so there has to be something there that motivates them to want to work together .Discussing ourselves about our psychological needs and motivations , give us empathy to work together and perceive what is in our co-group .Similar than our students we need really a good leader to help us .We need also incentives and satisfied goals to go on .Values we share as teachers are values we give to our students as co-model in the workgroup .

Helly, Vinna

h_swaton — 2016-11-15 10:20:12 UTC

In my school most of the teachers are more than 55 years old and work together since 30 or more years in the same school. They know each other- the strength and the debility of each colleague. So they developed teams to help each other.
In the last two years a few young teachers brought new ideas and some “old teachers” didn’t want to accept this. Our headmaster mixed the teams one “youngster” among the “oldies”. And this year will show if they succeed in collaborative teaching.

Valerica-Romania

dvaly2010 — 2016-11-15 12:09:20 UTC

I agree. A real team has different skills together. It is important to share, to give positive feedback, to be open at the others ideas. It is complex, but possible.

Cinzia F., Italy

nicomd — 2016-11-15 12:18:16 UTC

It is not easy to work collaboratively and you certainly need the skills mentioned in the video . It goes beyond the sharing , it is much more about taking decision together , valuate the pro-cons of a certain action, be able to questioning your way of teaching and share responsibilities.Now our institutions are putting more emphasis on collaboration but I think that a lot of work has to be done yet.

Maria Panou/ Kalymnos, Greece

maria_themelis — 2016-11-15 12:38:02 UTC

I agree that these skills are helping very much for collaboration among teachers. Knowledge, attitude and motivation, rseponsibility, trust, sharing, negotiation and acceptance are necessary for been effective.

Elisabete Carvalho, Olga Seabra, Paula Cavadas, Paula Usha_Portugal

2016-11-15 13:13:29 UTC

Collaborative work among teachers is not always a simple task. It is not easy to put together all the skills that are effectively needed for true collaborative work to occur. But even when we have a group of teachers who bring all the skills together, most of the time, the schedule to carry out the collaborative work isn´t always sufficient, there isn´t a comfortable creative space that allows work together and the technological assets aren´t always available.

But we all agree that if teachers can work collaboratively, that will be an asset to students and will be an inspiration.

Achieving successful learning outcomes will be the key to changing mindsets and making collaborative learning a current practice.

Nehir ÇABUKER

nehircabuker — 2016-11-15 13:43:34 UTC

I agree that collaboration among teachers is really important but it s hard to make that, generally they dont want to take extra responsibilites in my school

Elisabete Carvalho, Olga Seabra, Paula Cavadas, Paula Usha_Portugal

2016-11-15 14:47:01 UTC

But we all agree that if teachers can work collaboratively, that will be an asset to students and will be an inspiration.

Achieving successful learning outcomes will be the key to changing mindsets and making collaborative learning a current practice. :

Elena FP, Italy

2016-11-15 15:01:10 UTC

In my teaching life I have experienced various models of collaboration and I still do. While listening to the video, I have realized that the collaboration I have established with a small group of colleagues is going on the positive way, because we share skills, not just ideas, and discuss roles and contribution to collaborative projects. Honestly, it's not always easy, but since we are motivated, we have established a good standard of collaboration. Some work has to be done on 'higher levels' anyway. The leadership 'quarters' don't always promote this collaboration, and it surely does not facilitate it in terms of time for meetings, space etc. Lots of the work has to be done informally, in extra hours etc.

Kimberley Edwards, Ireland

2016-11-15 15:03:37 UTC

The list of skills and conditions mentioned are very important when taking a collaborative approach into account. My university and school where I teach promote a great environment for teacher collaboration. very few of the teachers I work with are unwelcoming to these ideas.

Mimma, Italy

mimma_gioia — 2016-11-15 15:03:50 UTC

I think collaboration is very important for teachers that have got shared responsibility. They have a shared goal and a role within that. The real obstacle for collaboration is the teachers resistance to change their methods.

Mirjana Jovanovic, Serbia

mirjana_jovanovic_ns — 2016-11-15 15:16:03 UTC

According to my experience, students are more open to collaborative learning than teachers. I think that lack of motivation is the main reason for teachers not being very fond of collaborative teaching and learning. Collaboration requires openness to new ideas and new technologies, willingness to learn new approaches to teaching... Unfortunately, many teachers are not ready to cope with all that.

Serena Visai, Italy

2016-11-15 15:55:23 UTC

I agree with the list of skills that a teacher should have to be a good teacher and to collaborate more efficiently. However, in the Italian school system collaboration “ends” at the end of elementary schools where teacher meet regularly to work on the curriculum. At Middle school and High school we tend to work alone. In my school there are few projects to work collaboratively but it’s a sort of puzzle where everyone prepares a piece and them someone put everything together. This is not collaboration.

Arlindo Pereira, Portugal

2016-11-15 17:20:08 UTC

I agree with the list of skills and conditions mentioned as necessary for teacher collaboration in schools. It is very important the communication between teachers and the motivation for teamwork. Sometimes it is not easy either because of lack of time or due the mentality of each teacher. Teachers who are sceptical about collaboration should know practical examples of its advantages, so they should see some projects and / or participate as observers, as mentioned in the video. I think that in this aspect the school itself may also have something to say.

Richard, Brussles

2016-11-15 17:48:12 UTC

Building time into the school week where teachers collaborate is crucial. Many of us create this time after school, but encouraging staff to do this would help to create a collaborative culture within the school.

School leadership can also offer training opportunities to demonstrate the effectiveness of both collaborative learning for children, and collaborative teaching for staff. This would strengthen the culture of collaboration and win more staff over.

Angelamaria Galderisi, Italy

soleemare_a — 2016-11-15 18:24:38 UTC

I think that the necessary skills and conditions for teacher collaboration are a shared goal and responsibility, an input and role within it. The most motivating condition is the idea of reward: where treachers collaborate their students do better. I think that teachers are often most-motivated by what their students can get out of something.
In the school where I work there is a bit collaboration among teachers because everybody is collaborative and willing to help the others if needed, but there is no model collaboration. I hope this will be possible as soon as possible with the help of compulsory refresher courses Italian teachers will do from this school year onwards.

Sarah Mallia, Malta

sarahborg85 — 2016-11-15 19:12:27 UTC

The SMT at my school do encourage collaboration but at the same time not to the full extent. I think that collaboration most of the times happens out of the teachers' own free will.

José María Díaz, Spain

josemaria_diazfuentes — 2016-11-15 19:22:59 UTC

I agree with actually need time to build the team-skills and to get to know the different members of the team, and to build trust and trustworthiness.
In our school, collaborative work is now only experimental and only a few teachers venture into it.An this is the true question: Do we trust the rest of the team, and do we genuinely have a common goal that we are trying to reach?

Fátima, Portugal

fffcaeiro — 2016-11-15 19:53:58 UTC

The collaborative work among teachers, even if we are in different schools, begins with the wise use of the technological tools that are at our disposal to exchange ideas, construct materials, to work in new scenarios, with new methodologies and assess the success of these experiences. These challenges will certainly bring new skills and new perspectives to our work.

It is very important to discuss different ways of approaching a content and to make students fell that they are in the center of the work as decision makers of the tasks that must be performed, deciding by themselves what to do and how to do.

Developing orientation, organizational and leadership skills are fundamental to have good students and, above all, good human beings, beyond the school space.

Clara Abegão, Portugal

acjesus — 2016-11-15 19:54:22 UTC

I agree 100% with the phrase “They need knowledge, they need attitudes around wanting to collaborate, they need to have the skills for communication, for working with others, dealing with conflict – they need to have a motivation, so there has to be something there that motivates them to want to work together”. The leadership in my school motivates me to do collaborative work with my colleagues, and of course, this is very positive for our students. Of course I have co-workers that are skeptical about collaboration and the use of collaboration tools, and I´m sorry, but I have no idea about how I can help them see the advantages of this way of working.

Jasna Šojer/Croatia

jasna_sojer — 2016-11-15 20:41:24 UTC

Some teachers are willing to collaborate and I try to make collaboration enjoyabl for both sides. Some of them just say politely that they have no time for it.

Filipe Mira, Portugal

filipe_mira — 2016-11-15 21:31:43 UTC

I agree with the skills and conditions mentioned in the video. I think it is crucial that teachers are motivated for teamwork. Teachers who are already working collaboratively should encourage colleagues to do so by showing the advantages of collaboration.

Carla Diogo, Portugal

2016-11-15 21:38:24 UTC

It's so difficult to work collaboratively with other teachers...maybe this is why we have problems on having students working collaboratively, as well...
We were not taught to work this way but times have changed and we need to realise that. This is a new paradigma and we have to adapt to it. The main problem to me is the lack of conditions schools give us. There should be a proper period in our timetable to work collaboratively...

Lena Rossiou, Greece

itpspth — 2016-11-15 21:42:06 UTC

Carla Diogo you are so right!!

João Sá, Portugal

joaosa — 2016-11-15 22:32:06 UTC

Like Lena Rossiou, I tottally agree with Carla Diogo.

João Reigado, Portugal

2016-11-15 23:42:41 UTC

I don’t think anyone will question the skills that have been indicated. In my opinion, the existing conditions can make all the difference. For example, I think the school learning environment also interact with the extent of effective teacher collaboration. Not only the physical spaces have to be rethought (collaborative workspaces for teachers and students, interactive learning labs, etc.), but also the school has to put a great focus on academic success. My school has made a huge effort to promote collaborative work among teachers. Several training actions have been undertaken within this area and teachers are being encouraged to adopt these practices. Teachers' own schedules already allow for a few hours for collaborative work between colleagues and for the development of co-lab teaching projects. I believe that the practice of peer observation and subsequent reflective dialogue among teachers could act as a demonstration of the potentialities of collaborative work.

CÁTIA SANTOS - PORTUGAL I fully agree with the skills needed by the teacher to collaborate. Although working in a school that promotes collaboration, there are always colleagues, with whom we work who are skeptical, but worse are those who are only teachers because they can not be anything else or change their lives and so are not motivated when see students Happier, which is what happens with collaborative learning. I will always continue to share with them my activities and try to motivate more skeptical colleagues..

badkat187 — 2016-11-16 00:59:29 UTC

Isabella Santoro

issabella1 — 2016-11-16 05:04:23 UTC

All the skills listed for collaboration between collegues are necessary for a new way of school.

Vanesa, Croatia

2016-11-16 07:33:12 UTC

I agree with the list of skills and conditions mentioned as necessary for teacher collaboration.
There are teachers who love collaborative way of learning but there are also sceptic ones

emma giurlani, Italy

2016-11-16 08:25:30 UTC

I agree about the need of specific skills to develop an effective collaboration among teachers and that this kind of collaboration should involve every member of the school community and might go beyond the school walls. I registered a real positive effect on my classes by collaborating with other teachers of my school and other schools in Europe thanks to eTwinning and Erasmus+projects. Our collaboration through skype, google drive and the eTwinning platform gave us the opportunity to plan together and share feedback among teachers and students as well and this raised and sustained teachers' and students motivation. Of course we had also troubles but the satisfaction of all the members involved was greater than the several disappointments we had to face . I believe that we have jet a long way to go towards real collaboration in our schools but nevertheless we are given also many opportunities to change the situation tanks to a common effort to encourage collaboration at any level. I think that what Majella Dempsey,says about the promotion of people bringing their different expertise into the group, while taking shared responsibility for substantive decisions could bring the real change of mindset she pinpoints as the key of our success both with our colleagues as a teaching community and with our students as effective learning groups

Cristina Paliotes, Portugal

2016-11-16 10:08:01 UTC

Learning from others is important, challenges us, motivates us Sharing tasks and getting feedback from the same tasks is a shared responsibility, but constructive trust and uncriticality are necessary for effective, collaborative work among colleagues.

Collaborative work is difficult and depends on the skills and conditions mentioned in the video. The basic obstacle to this collaboration is the resistance that we teachers have in changing methods and practices. This is a major obstacle, it will take a long time before our mindsets change and we realize the advantages of working collaboratively.

At my school and with my work group we have already worked in this direction. We sit down, talk to each other, decide, plan together, reflect, discuss, analyze, and find different strategies. Working as a team makes our daily life easier and more motivating.

Gaia, Italy

gaialombardi69 — 2016-11-16 11:23:03 UTC

In my opinion, teachers need specific skills to develop an effective collaboration. The attitude is, to me, the main skill required: learning from other is a challenge, but is also very motivating.

Nadiia Holovchuk

sashka_nadiya — 2016-11-16 11:24:38 UTC

I think that all skills are necessary

Hülya, TURKEY

hulyaos31 — 2016-11-16 11:35:59 UTC

We need knowledge, we need attitudes around wanting to collaborate, we need to have the skills for communication, for working with others, dealing with conflict – we need to have a motivation, so there has to be something there that motivates us to want to work together.

ana_lufranco — 2016-11-16 11:37:16 UTC

I had previously mentioned that it is necessary to create preconditions for collaborative work to work.
It seems obvious to me everything that was presented. It is only with examples that our students make their enthusiasm even greater.
As I have already mentioned, although the characteristics / organization of teaching in Portugal, if the direction of the school is motivated to collaborate, to show and to create the conditions for this purpose are certainly inspiring groups.

Katarzyna Kwiatek-Grabarska, Poland

2016-11-16 11:40:35 UTC

Cooperate teacher can open for communication. Unfortunately, after many years of work in the profession I see teachers closed and only focused on the delivery of knowledge and preparation for testing. With these teachers fail to which correctly no cooperation. For me, this is the minimum that the teacher can offer from each other. Meanwhile it is very important is to develop yourself, schools, a student in a social context. For this you have to be predisposed.

Jesus Leão, Portugal

2016-11-16 12:28:33 UTC

In fact, for the collaboration of teachers to flourish in schools, it is important to take into account all the skills and conditions mentioned: knowledge, attitude; will; Communication capacity; Knowing how to work with others; Dealing with conflicts; Be motivated.
Taking into account the ethical dimension, it is important to be a good team member, contribute positively, take a lot of personal skills around: communication, conflict management, emotional, psychological.
Based on my experiences, I would just like to add to this list the need for schools to have the conditions (physical, organizational and technological) to promote collaborative work among teachers.
Leadership in the school where I teach seeks to be and encourages collaboration. However, there are still many skeptical teachers who like and make a point of working alone with the door closed.
To try to help them see the advantages of this way of working, I think it is necessary to create structures and define forms of organization where they are forced to work together. I believe that only after experiencing it will they feel and accept these advantages. Not an easy task!

Paula Gomes-Portugal

2016-11-16 13:45:53 UTC

I tottally agree with with the list of skills and conditions mentioned as necessary for teacher collaboration.
At my school and with my work group we have already worked in this direction. We sit down, talk to each other, decide, plan together, reflect, discuss, analyze, and find different strategies. Working as a team makes our daily life easier and more motivating.

Heidi Belgium

heidischrijversterbeuke — 2016-11-16 13:51:15 UTC

Sure. they are all important. But as I mentionned on the previous padlet there is still something " scary " about letting other teachers into your classroom. I would love to promote teacher AND student collaboration. During this course I have gained more knowledge myself. So I will keep trying to change that culture issue. It is a great benefit for teachers, but also it can bring a lot of extra value for the students.People need to learn how to communicate, how to work together, handle conflicts and the most important be motivated. If you have a motivated team you can reach very valueble teaching

Ester Degennaro, Italy I totally agree with the the skills required by teachers to work collaboratively even if one of the most important things is that there has to be a task or goal that they all have to work towards.

esterdegennaro — 2016-11-16 14:34:57 UTC

It's necessary that all teachers are aware of having an objective in common to reach,
only in this case any resistance from sceptical teachers would be overcome.

Maria Chiara, Italy

mcricci — 2016-11-16 14:51:26 UTC

I was particularly struck by the sentence that it's easier preaching than practising: in our school my principal always stresses the importance of collaboration but very little is done to create the conditions for implementing it. On my side I try to propose collaborative units in the yearly planning but we are still far away from an effective realization of collaborative teaching.
Anyway I will keep on working on finding ways of collaborating

Anna and Maria, Italy

annagrignetti — 2016-11-16 15:08:06 UTC

We totally agree with training teacher.
We must change our mindset. Unfortunately, students are not used to work together because teachers work individually and so don't have a collaborative model. My colleague Maria and I are trying to work collaboratively also in CO-LAB.

Maria and Anna, Italy

mariadecarlo — 2016-11-16 15:09:20 UTC

We totally agree with training teacher. We must change our mindset. Unfortunately, students are not used to work together because the teachers work individually and so don't have a collaborative model. My colleague Anna and I are trying to work collaboratively... also in CO-LAB.

Emiliana, Italy

emiliana_rufo — 2016-11-16 15:33:10 UTC

I think the list of skills and conditions mentioned are necessary for teacher collaboration. It is easier to work in an individualistic way, but schools don't flourish this way. We have to do efforts to collaborate, share. We can't teach collaboration to students if we have problems in collaborating with other teachers.

Tina M_Macedonia Greece

tinamellos — 2016-11-16 17:39:30 UTC

I do agree that knowledge, skills, attitudes and motivation are core for a successful collaboration in schools. Furthermore, changing mindsets is what greek schools need to work the most! We, teachers, tend to teach collaboration among students without being able to achieve a certain level of collaboration with our colleagues for ourselves!

viki dogani, greece

2016-11-16 18:49:49 UTC

agree,

viki dogani, greece

2016-11-16 18:49:50 UTC

agree

viki dogani, greece

2016-11-16 18:49:57 UTC

agree, I use collaboration activities with students and teachers

viki dogani, greece

2016-11-16 18:49:57 UTC

agree, I use collaboration activities

viki dogani, greece

2016-11-16 18:50:10 UTC

agree, I use collaboration activities with students and teachers

viki dogani, greece

2016-11-16 18:50:10 UTC

agree, I use collaboration

Jaime Martins, Portugal

joncmartins — 2016-11-16 18:58:31 UTC

Jaime Martins

joncmartins — 2016-11-16 18:58:47 UTC

Catarina Rodrigues, Portugal

canrodrigues — 2016-11-16 19:02:10 UTC

I do agree with the list of skills and conditions mentioned. Of course that leadership means a lot. In my school I work with teachers that are sceptical about collaboration.. for those I think that some tasks should be mandatory ones (planning of the curriculum in a teacher group, p. ex. )

Catarina Rodigues, Portugal

canrodrigues — 2016-11-16 19:02:24 UTC

Camelia, Romania

2016-11-16 19:16:39 UTC

The list of skills and conditions mentioned as necessary for teacher collaboration is very complex. Teachers don’t have much time to participate in collaboration activities.

Paulo Martins_ Portugal

2016-11-16 20:34:21 UTC

I agree with Majella Dempseyabout the list of skills and conditions mentioned as necessary for teacher collaboration to flourish in our schools.

I think we have some work to do in teacher collaboration because sometimes teaching is a very isolated and isolating practice when we are in our classrooms and close our doors. We have to give example, to motivate our students and working together is the way to do so.

Some teachers are sceptical about collaboration, but in my opinion it is not a question of failure afraid or lack of skills to do so, it is the “status quo”, the system, and we have to overcome these obstacles. I will try to be an example and by doing so, maybe I will inspire my peers to teacher collaboration.

Antonia, Netherlands

chanja — 2016-11-16 20:53:28 UTC

Majella basically mentions the same conditions and skills we as teachers try to provide and train in our students in order for them to collaborate.

Jaime Martins, Portugal

joncmartins — 2016-11-16 21:29:59 UTC

I also agree with Majella and her list of skills and conditions mentioned as necessary for teacher collaboration to flourish in schools.

Caterina Fantini, Italy

cate_67 — 2016-11-16 21:35:17 UTC

I agree with the teacher trainer, but it isn't easy work together between teachers. There isn't time to make collaboration activities, every teacher thinks only to her jobs. But students learn to work in group only if teachers work in group and collaborate for a common goal.

Kristijan Cincar,Serbia

2016-11-16 22:06:57 UTC

I also agree with Majella and her list of skills and conditions mentioned as necessary for teacher collaboration in schools.

Ângela and Tânia, Portugal

taniaalves23 — 2016-11-16 22:51:52 UTC

In our view, there needs to be knowledge, attitudes, skills and motivation for collaboration to flourish in schools. There is shared responsibility, a spirit of leadership and collaboration is born when we talk about various issues, valuing everyone's opinion.
We still find teachers in other schools who find it difficult to share their practices, being skeptical of everything that is different and new.

Catia, Sweden

katyfpr — 2016-11-17 09:59:35 UTC

I full agree with Majella, she bought up important issues related with collaboration in school. In my opinion is very important that teachers understand that collaboration is important and school manger should incentive teachers to find ways for collaborate more often.

Sandra, Portugal

sandra_alves_ — 2016-11-17 10:42:55 UTC

I agree with the list of competencies that teachers must have to carry out a collaborative work, they are also competence that we try to develop in our students.
I think that one of the most important competencies referred to is the attitude towards collaborative work, not being predisposed to collaborative work, it is not possible to implement all the other skills that one has.
I also think that sharing in collaborative work allows the teacher to develop less worked skills, improving their participation in the group.

Ana, Portugal

2016-11-17 11:43:50 UTC

I totally agree with the conditions mentioned as necessarry to build a collaborative environment at schools but as I wrote in previous comments, the school Administration of my school doesn't invest in this type of work. With my students I'm introducing collaborative work and as a Librarian I introduce some topics of the benefits of collaborative tasks...but it's still a long path.

Tara

2016-11-17 12:25:10 UTC

Yes i agree with Majella. Teachers must lead by example and show how collaborative learning is extremely beneficial.

Kristina Kaučić, Croatia

2016-11-17 14:06:43 UTC

It is very important for eachers to collaborate, but most of my colleagues do not want to do that. I am enthusiastic about it, so it might help, once they recognize the benefits of collaboration. Young teachers are aware of the importance of collaboration, but those who work more than 15 years think that this is not beneficial for them or their students.

Grazia, Italy

graziampl — 2016-11-17 14:12:13 UTC

The phrase that struck me most of Majella's video is that students work collaboratively if their teachers work in the same collaborative way. The example first. How can I teach the rules of team building if I do not believe in the value of sharing and collaboration?

Cristiana, Portugal

cristianafreire — 2016-11-17 14:16:24 UTC

I agree with the list of skills and conditions mentioned as necessary for teacher collaboration to flourish in schools; I would specify the importance of having the the capability to accept that others may have greater ideas and that we are not always right.

Leadership in the school I teach model collaboration althougt I think it is more beneficial for teachers than for students, to whom their work is not so evident.

Yes, I work with very ceptical teachers about collaboration!!! I will follow the exemple mentioned on the vídeo; I´m always available to show things I do… I´ll give then time to see for them selves the results.

Sara, Portugal

sgamito — 2016-11-17 15:30:19 UTC

I agree with the list of competencies that teachers must have to carry out a collaborative work, because they are also competences that we try to develop in our students. I think one of the most important competences that is referred to is the attitude towards collaborative work, not being predisposed to collaborative work, it is not possible to implement all the other skills that we have. I also think that sharing in collaborative work allows the teacher to develop less worked skills, improving their participation in the group.

Costas Moschonas

2016-11-17 16:48:06 UTC

I totally agree with the list that it has been mentioned in the video.

DEBORA

debora_defina — 2016-11-17 18:02:49 UTC

Collaboration among teachers is something really important for the grow of school and the skills of students.

Maria Teresa / Italy

teresarughi — 2016-11-17 18:31:39 UTC

I agree with the list of skills and conditions mentioned in the video. If collaboration is an attitude with an ethical basis, we should enhance that kind of competence and transform school into a community of practice.In my experience the headteachers' role is really crucial in this sense. As leaders and guides they should path the way in this direction , but not many have this purpose.Most of the teachers I work with are deeply sceptical and few of them believe that collaboration goes beyond displaying. What I have done so far is encourage them to collaborate in etwinning projects, but we lack curriculum spaces for collaboration planning most of the time.
I think that in the video the ideal team for collaboration is clearly defined:

Curriculum expertise
Technology expertise
Rich tasks designer

Anabela Gonçalves, José Rui Ferreira and Teresa Fonseca, Portugal

2016-11-17 19:29:18 UTC

The list of skills and conditions presented in the video is quite complete and it pretty much covers everything you need to be a good collaborator or to have a good collaboration space. Interpersonal skills and the ethical dimension referred to are very important, as it is the highlight given to the needed groundwork ahead of time (to assure that the group will work well together). In Portugal our curricula don’t have much space for collaborative planning, and that hinders the whole process, especially when teachers are responsible for preparing students for national exams. We would say building trust is probably the most important aspect a team needs, because one needs to feel really comfortable to share and receive criticism. We don’t think leadership in our school models collaboration because collaborating isn’t that well-organised or planned in advance. Some of our colleagues are still a bit skeptical about collaborative practices as they are used to working alone, to having their own space, their classrooms (sacred places). This mindset is gradually changing and more and more colleagues are finding their way into collaboration.

Ana, Portugal

anasalonso — 2016-11-17 20:07:09 UTC

I couldn't agree more with the list of skills and conditions mentioned as necessary for teacher collaboration to flourish in schools. In fact, the skills needed for teachers to effectively collaborate with other teachers are: knowledge, attitudes, skills, motivation and ethical dimension. It is also important to implement responsability, to value what each individual brings to the group and some conditions are needed for teacher collaboration in the school environment like responsability among all, take on different roles, curriculum space for collaborative planning, etc...
In the 21st century, there are still teachers who are sceptical about collaboration and it is necessary to show them the advantages of this way of working.

Olga Keramida-Greece

2016-11-17 20:52:49 UTC

The video covered me about the topic.

Heidi, Germany

2016-11-17 21:42:52 UTC

I fully agree with the list of skills that were mentioned here. Maybe I would add intercultural skills to an international collaboration like an etwinning project.
In my school we often collaborate within the age groups where we teach together. I also have to work in groups where teachers are skeptical, observe, don't want to collaborate so much. Sometimes I could convince them, sometimes they prefer to shut the door behind them and don't want to work in teams.

Ana Fernandes, Portugal

apmfm — 2016-11-17 22:16:18 UTC

I agree with the list of skills and conditions mentioned. In my opinion, in schools a "fake collaboration" is often practiced. Although there is sharing and common group activities planning, moments of feedback, reflection and discussion are few.
It's really needed for a change of mentalities to happen!
Leadership is important for collaboration and brings good results to students but the articulation between leadership and collaboration is scarce.
In portuguese schools there are lots of sceptical teachers about collaboration. Letting them get to know good examples of collaborative work and calling them to work this way might help them change.

Carlos Silva, Portugal

2016-11-18 00:15:18 UTC

I agree with the list of skills presented. I can find teachers working in a collaborative way, but I don´t see them developing these collaborative skills on students. I have some sceptical teachers working with me, but I respect them. Sometimes I present them the results of some collaborative projects, and I invite them to take part of some of these kind of results. Anyway it’s still very difficult. The good examples of these collaborative work have to be presented at schools.

Jana, Germany

oldpadlet — 2016-11-18 07:25:29 UTC

One major problem I encounter is that teachers of the same subject seem to be locked in competition. I find it much easier to collaborate with teachers of other subjects. Additionally though, we have time and space issues that just need to be addressed by the authorities before we can tackle collaboration. Our problem: this will cost money.

Kateryna Kramnychna, Ukraine

rocksy_12 — 2016-11-18 07:32:27 UTC

Truely saying I do love teacher collaboration! When I became a new teacher in my school, It was very hard for me to start working normally. Nobody wanted to help me. But then I started to show my own opinions, thoughts and desires. And then I found a like-minded collegue. We are sharing ideas, discussing every day school problems. And only now I realize that collaboration means. The collaboration help you to see your best sides and to worship people communication and friendship

Giovanna, Italy

giovanna_biceg1 — 2016-11-18 07:38:35 UTC

Teacher collaboration needs the basic condition that teachers think as a group but it is quite complex. Often competition and isolation emerged

Paola, Italy

2016-11-18 08:26:43 UTC

I agree with the list of skills and conditions mentioned in the video. But I think it’s useful to work together our colleagues a common curriculum of expertize and a strong motivation to work together in a schoolsystem which it’s not open to collaborative teaching.

Thomas, Austria

2016-11-18 11:08:45 UTC

I agree with the skills and conditions mentioned in the video.
I especially like the idea of setting up structures so teachers have to be part of a team and the idea that if a teacher doesn't want to collaborate s/he could sit in as maybe an obsever.

Agata Kuźmiek - Poland

2016-11-18 13:25:34 UTC

I Consistent with the fact that skills and conditions in the film are real, in fact. It should cooperate and share information with others who we They can also learn other interesting methods.

Margarida Sousa PT

margaridaferin — 2016-11-18 13:59:05 UTC

I would add " recognition". Teachers must have their work recognised official or even inside schools.
We all have the skills to work with others...we are teachers, we aren´t in a closed office. We work with children . We have to motivate taeachers first...in order to have the motivation to do and to collaborate in different projects.
I have the luck to have a collaborative group of work in my school and across my subject.

Maria Natália Couto, Portugal

2016-11-18 15:12:33 UTC

Though I agree the skills mentioned on the video, I think that in my country, it is difficult to develop them. The first reason is that teachers, nowadays, are given no time for reflection on their practices and they are really worn out by their routines. So, the willingness to change is reduced. another issue is related to "formating" students for national exams and concerns about rankings of schools. While we are absorbed by this, we won't dare to take

Conceição Varela / Portugal

conceicao_varela — 2016-11-18 15:27:06 UTC

From the various conditions listed as required for teachers to collaborate, I believe three are of paramount importance:

preparatory background work at the school level - if a school is considering collaborative learning as a viable and positive experience for the students, the way the change is planned says a lot about the intentions of integrating collaborative work principles in the school's culture and is of crucial importance for the success of the initiative.
time built in the teachers' timetables solely dedicated to collaborative work - if teachers have no time to sit together and discuss/plan the implementation of collaborative activities while they are at school then it will be very difficult for these kind of activities to gain momentum. At least during the very first steps of collaboration, time together is invaluable for building trust, splitting roles, assess each others skills, etc.
teachers' skills - the most important skill a teacher is required to bring to the group is the willing to work together with other teachers for the benefit of her/his students. Even if the teacher is not very experienced in the use of the many digital tools that are available today, this can be tackled through quick learning courses or the help of another teacher which happens to know how to use these tools. However, the willing to collaborate and learn from each other cannot be taught.

Finally, concerning the way to integrate teachers who are not immediately thrilled by the prospect of collaborative work, I agree that allowing them to participate in a somehow passive way in the preparation of the collaborative activities might make them realise the benefits and power of collaboration.

Elvia/Italy

2016-11-18 15:58:02 UTC

In our school we organized workshops for teachers to disseminate teaching collaborative practices, what I can say is that they work.
In fact the number of teachers interested in collaboration practices increased and at the same time the most skeptical ones don't speak anymore, but they seem a little interested in what has happening around.
at the beginning of the next year, we will start new workshop and new training course for teachers in order to developing collaborative skills.

Maria Laura, Italy

2016-11-18 16:22:40 UTC

Working in a big school with lots of teachers implies that you can find both the motivatred and the skeptical teachers.
As we are used to collaboration, and I think that the sttrength of my school come from departments and not from single teachers. Anyway not all my collegues put the same efforts in the common goals, so there people who do a lot and people who don't do enough. As head of the language department sometimes I have to take on some dutiies which I cannot share with everybody, or maybe it is a simple lack of trust in someone.. Who knows?

Zeljka Korlevic, Croatia

mravak57 — 2016-11-18 16:58:59 UTC

I was very pleased to see an attitude as required skill. I think it s one of the basic skills, together with motivation for successful teaching at all.

Vitor M. N. Fernandes, Portugal

vmnf — 2016-11-18 17:14:06 UTC

Yes, list is quite complete.
I would add the need for physical space to the equation and, of course, school principal must be motivated to this questions and engaged on the process with a global vision.
I think there is no explicit model. Collaboration is made at teachers will within their networks and friendships. I also don't see much transparency so that students see what is happening in backstage since they are more recipients now than stakeholders of the process. New vision and processes are required to involve students on their learning process construction and development.
Usually most personal experiences I have with collaboration with other teachers are related to teacher training and group product development. Inside school I have some projects but collaboration is at a low level per say.

Gisella de Liddo, Italy

2016-11-18 18:51:48 UTC

Yes, I agree with the list by professor Dempsey. The mind attitude to change and to question your beliefs is absolutely essential to learn from your peers and to be open to new ideas! Yes the leadership in my school encourages collaboration. My colleagues are maybe sometimes sceptical about collaboration, but my enthusiasm will be stronger than their scepticism!

Concetta Drago, Italy

concetta_drago — 2016-11-18 19:06:35 UTC

Unfortunatelly, in my school, tearchers don't collaborate very much. We just share the curriculum program but nothing about metodologies etc. On the other hand many teachers are not used to use technology for collaboration. It is such a pity!
I agree with prof. Dempsey about the skills and conditions necessary for teacher collaboration!

Sabrina Petrillo, ITALY

2016-11-18 19:42:01 UTC

The list of skills quoted by Professor Dempsey is undoubtedly a starting point to compare our experiences with more constructive examples of quality collaboration. In fact, to discuss effective collaboration among teachers as it occurs in Secondary schools such as the one where I teach means having to deal with a difficult task since not all teachers possess the innate ability to cope with it. Networks among educators may enhance students’ performances and enrich the integration among the human resources of schools especially if teachers have opportunities to be embedded in a supportive milieu which facilitates teaching, learning, and educational change. I think that high-quality collaboration requires commitment by the whole community of teachers as well as a high amount of motivation in order to overcome the tendency to isolate ourselves in the narrow space of our class.

Enrica Maragliano - Italy

EMGe — 2016-11-18 20:29:46 UTC

All these suggestions are very important and in my personal experience I've seen many times that collaboration between teachers really improve teachers' and students' performances. The leadership at school tries to encourage collaboration, even if often this means filling papers more than en effective collaboration, that can be achieved only by teachers themselves. Sceptical teachers are difficult to be convinced and probably the only way is showing them the different results we can obtain collaborating: sometimes it happens that some of them becomes aware that teachers need to become less individualist.

Rosaria Marino In my school goes collaborative work. A level of collaborative design has already been reached for the shared curricular design. What I hope that we can achieve is a cooperative activity for students. It serves communication skills and planning. Not everyone wants to work with the same intensity, but these colleagues may then decide that it is worth to participate if they see positive results.

2016-11-18 21:00:45 UTC

Cathal, Ireland

2016-11-18 21:29:09 UTC

I am one of the 3rd Year students in Maynooth University that Majella was talking about. A lot of our modules are designed collaboratively and definitely help our collaboration skills. The course that we are participating in is challenging but the collaboration of our coordinators helps us throughout the course.

Arminda Pereira, Portu

armindapereira1 — 2016-11-18 21:41:49 UTC

I agree with the list of skills and conditions mentioned as necessary for teacher collaboration to flourish in schools. As a teacher, we should:

1. Enjoy communicating our understanding to others.

2. Have confidence.

3. Have great organisational skills.

4. Work effectively in groups.

5. Be able to deal with conflict.

6. Motivate our students to do their best.

7. Empathise with our Students.

8. Give feedback.

Collaboration is very important for teachers because helps them to develop leadership skills because people take on different roles within a group or a team.

I totally agree with the list of skills and conditions mentioned to make collaboration possible and to grow it in schools.

27luglio63 — 2016-11-18 21:48:40 UTC

Francesca, Italy

francescagiala — 2016-11-18 22:55:10 UTC

I'm agree with the teacher training. In my school we rarely collaborating and sharing experience, there is scepticism between my collegues.

Marta, Portugal

istruka — 2016-11-18 22:57:00 UTC

I agree with the list of skiills and conditions needed for teacher collaboration. In fact knowledge is essential but also the attitude and motivation towards teacher collaboration and communication skills in order to plan and work together. These skills are the way to prove that teacher collaboration is a model to follow. As for the conditions needed, I think that time and a proper space are crucial for this to happen

Kondylo Glarou, Greece

seagullitsa — 2016-11-18 23:25:53 UTC

I agree with the list of skills and conditions mentioned as necessary for teacher collaboration. In my school there is collaboration only between teachers of the same subject because they have to teach the same units to prepare pupils for the final exams. �

Isabel Nunes, Portugal

2016-11-19 00:20:36 UTC

My opinion is that the culture of collaboration is seen as an important way of professional development. However collaborative work practices are not easy. Are difficult to enter regularly in the daily life of a teacher due to several factors, including the time and motivational characteristics of each teacher.

Collaboration is a process that involves people working together with common goals, being the experiences and knowledge enrichment enhancers of everyone involved and presenting itself as a strategy to address and overcome the difficulties of the occupation.

Collaborative cultures involve negotiations, joint decisions taken, dialogue and learning on the part of all participants.

Armindo Serra, Cristina Rocha, Fátima Nave, Sara Gamito, Ana Marques, Rita Gil, Martine Mendes, Carmo Martins e Alexandra Figueiredo, Margarida Coelho - Portugal

mcrisroch1 — 2016-11-19 00:44:30 UTC

We agree with the list of skills indicated by Majella. It is important that teachers underestand and accept that working together will always bring more knowledge, like extended knowledge, from what we know at the beginning and what we end up learning from each other. Not only about the subjects but also about the strategies in classroom, specially with some students that have issues with some discipline or subjects or school in a general way.
Like Majella says it is beyond the sharing. It is discussion, agreement and disagreement, but above all, it is building, trying out and improve or refine whenever it is needed.
Of course we have been already working with colleagues that feel some kind of reluctance on trying out colaboration. When ir happens, and "thankfully we are in a great school", we share what we do, ask for help and he or she gets involved somehow, and at least tries out a challenge. It also happens that, sometimes, a teacher that fears colab, after having experimented, changes completely his pedagogical practices.

Jole, Sicily

jolecapo — 2016-11-19 08:38:48 UTC

I agree with the list of skills and conditions for an effective collaboration between colleagues. Since I lack the desire to get involved ... my colleagues are very skeptical

Lúcia, Portugal

2016-11-19 11:30:00 UTC

I completely agree with the list of skills needed by teachers to collaborate: knowledge; attitude around wanting to collaborate; skills for communicating and working with others; motivation to want t work together.

I would like to enhance one fact mentioned in the video: collaboration goes beyond sharing. I believe that sometimes the concept of “sharing” is often confused with “collaborating”. The fact that we aren’t given the necessary time and conditions to collaborate is hindering and most of the times teacher collaboration happens because we are lucky enough to find a group of colleagues who is willing to share, discuss, give feedback, make decisions together.

Getting those who are skeptical involved is a challenging task since it is difficult to change mindsets. The fact that, in my country, very few young teachers are working at schools means that the routines are established and not every co-worker is willing to change their practice after 20 or 30 years of working experience.

Olga Tsaruk, Ukraine

ovotsaruk — 2016-11-19 12:38:00 UTC

I am sure we have to flourish it because collaborative learning includes all the required competencies.I work with teachers who are sceptical about collaboration but when we started working on eTwinning project and they saw the inspiration of the kids they became interested in it.

Cesare Maramici, Italy

2016-11-19 15:15:28 UTC

I agree with the list of skills mentioned as necessary for teacher collaboration as knowledge, communication skills, motivation, ability to manage conflicts, psychological and emotional skills .

Teaching is a very isolate practice and teachers often are skeptical about collaboration and they don’t like to share knowledge.

Knowledge sometime is a source of power in school environment. I rarely was able to collaborate with other teachers and share digital knowledge. I think that principals must create some groundwork and set up structures for collaborative work.

Ann, Ireland

ann_mchugh — 2016-11-19 15:22:22 UTC

Teachers must develop specific skills to engage effectively in collaboration. I think the skills Majella mentions are very important. The benefits cannot be gained without these skills; there must be some value to the activity and with skills such as leadership, constructive criticism etc, teachers can gain a lot from collaboration.

Lucrezia Di Molfetta Italy

edimol — 2016-11-19 15:46:49 UTC

t's very difficult to find teachers who collaborate in a school. I have created in my school an eTwinning team of teachers who work in the same classes teaching different subjects and they contribute to my eTwinning projects every year.

Antónia Brandão / José Ruão, PT

dolores_brandao — 2016-11-19 15:47:34 UTC

A lot of skills and conditions are necessary for teacher collaboration to flourish in schools. We can add, based on our experience, that we need a open mind and receptivity. The leadership in our current school encourages model collaboration, but there are very sceptical teachers and we fight every day to show them the advantages of collaborative work. Individualism is very present and people don’t find time to engage themselves on team work.

Isabel Graça, Portugal

2016-11-19 15:49:56 UTC

Yes, I agree with Majella Dempsey. And I believe personal skills have huge importance. Teachers have no time to really collaborate. In my school, this year there are teachers with common times to work together, but some just share, they don’t take the step beyond, because they don’t know how or think that it just brings even more work. I’m working with a really skeptical teacher, even the work was structured that way. So, it’s an obligation and we are invading the class domain. Maybe it will get better…

Helena Louzeiro Portugal

helenalouzeiro — 2016-11-19 17:48:57 UTC

I agree that list of skills and conditions mentioned as necessary for teacher collaboration to flourish in schools. I believe that wecan learn one with each other.
But also think that is not easy to work this way, there are many teachers that like's to work alone and that thinks that the collaborative projects are a waste of time and they don't have the time to waste because what they knowis enought to teach their students.

Eduardo, Israel

eduardolina1 — 2016-11-19 18:07:21 UTC

These last two parts of this Module (4.4 + 4.5) are quite good. I am glad to say that there is much collaboration among Teachers of Spanish as Foreign Language in the framework of theh Ministry of Education in Israel. We set up professional development workshops that enable us to collaborate in many ways. To do so, we use technology quite a lot. In addition to that, we have regular meetings (we teach in different schools throughout the country), and have also opened a closed Facebook group by means of which we share much.
We are now working on a National Moodle Course that will let both Spanjsh as Foreign language teachers and Students "meet" and hopefully collaborate as they learn Spanish. It's called "let's visit Israel" and aims at teaching pupils to get to know the country in Spanish. I have developed and will
facilitate the course, but we are making improvements as we get ready to have our pupils access the course. I have attached a link to Module 4 of the course.

Cristina/Pisa

2016-11-19 18:43:28 UTC

I agree with the list of skills and conditions mentioned as necessary for teacher collaboration to flourish in schools but I wonder how many teachers posses all those qualities? In Italy, in state schools, teachers get a salary monthly and they don't have to bother too much if they are doing a good or a bad work in their classes. Of course, there is the feedback from parents, pupils and the principal, but teachers may not take that into consideration and so it is an ethical, individual , professional issue. There are lots of good teachers of course but some think of of thelmselves too high to spend time to share and plan with other teachers. Lack of time is a big issue too and an obstacle .
So, in theory I agree with what said but to me it is just "theory", something to look forward to, to aim to in an ideal workground .

Emilia/Romania

Emilia_T22 — 2016-11-19 18:56:08 UTC

I agree with what this video presents.As Camelia, my colleague from Romania, said teachers don't have time to collaborate, they are pressured by teaching for exams and don't have "free " lessons where they can plan what they want.It's easier to collaborate online with other enthusiastic teachers.

Sara Viotti, Italy

sara_viotti — 2016-11-19 21:35:20 UTC

This is my first year working in a collaborative group of teachers. We are preparing together a shared plan for an eTwinning project starting next week. Indeed, in the past my reality was very different: I used to work with colleagues who prefered designing and teaching with no interferences by other people, but it was bad for the teaching group and for the kids, because they knew each teacher had opposite aims and goals. Sharing aims and outcomes means the arise of a better learning enviroment for students!

Daniel Caridade, PT

dcaridade — 2016-11-19 22:13:34 UTC

Being a believer, I agree with everything said. But I still think there's a long way to go, to make this collaborative experience more permanent within our schools.
There are still many handicaps: sceptical educational system; sceptical teachers; loooong curriculums; exams pressures; some classes don't have enough time per week to allow the full implementation of these projects; temporary teachers who keep moving from school to school, unable to establish these projects within a certain community; lack of funds and of adequated technology.

Maria Stalia, Greece

mastalia — 2016-11-20 07:30:25 UTC

I definitely agree with the skills and conditions mentioned in the video for making collaborative teaching possible in a school. However, in my teaching context, there is neither the time or the will by most colleague teachers for collaboration. The Greek learning curriculum is so tight and teachers' drive for change is so low that I do not see it happen any time soon.

Margherita Balistreri- Sicily

margheritabalistreri — 2016-11-20 08:55:46 UTC

I agree with all what said.The conditions are the essential basis which teachers can build their work plans on, but very often school is not ready to support that extent and teachers feel unsuccessful.They often have the will , but then they can't carry out their projects. Another problem is the lack of time during the everyday activities. Not many teachers want to spend their free time "searching" new sources of inspiration , but I'm convinced many are willing to . A good, positive charismatic personality can convince the most skeptical colleagues!

Lívia, PT

liviasor — 2016-11-20 09:02:53 UTC

Firstly, skills concerning knowledge, attitudes, motivation, communication...personal, emotional and social skills. We need to want to collaborate. That's the tough part. Sometimes documents we use aren't good for collaboration. We sure need the same goals and shared responsability. The school doesn't teach collaboration. Nowadays schools separate teachers, so collaboration within the same group is difficult. It's not because the schools itself, or colleagues, it's about policies. And we need time. Most teachers are sceptical about collaboration. They aren't used to doing that type of work. We need common ground. We need to understand the tools, use them and collaborate through them.

Rossana, italy

rossana_demartino — 2016-11-20 09:54:25 UTC

It's all true in my opinion! I agree with the list of skills necessary to work in a collaborately way at school. For a better communication and interaction among teachers, it would be important to develop communication skills, the ability to solve the conflicts, the motivation and all the psychological and emotional skills. In Italy there is no a lot of information neither relevant activities to track the right path. In fact i agree with the fact that the principal has to decide and design activities to promote this fundamental approach of teaching , to convince the skeptical teachers and support all that are already excited.

Petra, USA

drpe — 2016-11-20 12:18:50 UTC

Yes, I agree with the skills and conditions mentioned. I would like to emphasize both patience and stamina as part of the required skills set. The leadership in my school does not model collaboration. Though it just announced that, in the future, more collaborative work is desired, there has not been an effort to explain the concept, define the parameters, or provide resources. Collaboration is usually seen as 'display and send' only. (So glad I’m taking this course!) Our schedules do not include free periods that would make planning meetings possible. Our longest break is 25 minutes (lunch); it is usually already used for meetings of various groups. New collaborations will have to be planned during “free” time outside of school. It can be extremely draining to work with teachers who are skeptical about collaboration. I try to stay positive, try to understand their fears/reluctance, try to list the benefits of collaborative work for the students, and to persuade with examples from previous successful collaborations.

Vitalija, Lithuania

2016-11-20 14:38:47 UTC

I really agree with the list of skills and conditions mentioned as necessary for teacher collaboration at schools. Of coutse, we need knowledge, good communication skills, we need to have motivation and wish to collaborate. Collaboration helps the teachers to develop leadership skills, develops a sence of responsibility. We have collaborative activities with the teachers of English in the region. But when we decide to share our experiences, not all teachers come to our meetings. It is clearly seen that they avoid these meetings. It depends on teachers' character and, of course, motivation. Usually the same teachers , from bigger schools take part in collaborative activities. At our school we try to collaborate also. But it's not very often and we don't share digital knowledge. Not long ago we had a really interesting and valuable collaborative meeting connected with teaching reading, where teachers came with their experiences, found materials and we discussed. Everybody felt a big impact on the matter and at the end we chose the best practices. We must get used to collaboration. When teachers collaborate, their students like this kind of work much more.

Cristina Teixeira, Portugal

2016-11-20 15:14:18 UTC

I definitely agree with the skills and conditions mentioned in this video for making collaborative teaching possible in a school and I really believe that we can learn one with each other. knowledge, attitudes, skills, motivation and ethical dimension are the skills needed for teachers to effectively collaborate with other teachers. However, in my teaching context, there are lots of sceptical teachers about collaboration and many teachers that like's to work alone Although, as the school year goes by eventually there are sharing and common group activities planning, moments of feedback, reflection and discussion.
Regarding teachers scepticism about collaboration it’s
necessary to show them the advantages of this way of working.

Donato Martano, Italy

donato_martano — 2016-11-20 15:26:56 UTC

That will sound obvious, but it's so much about being nice, good-natured and good-willing people

Maria Tomaz, Portugal

anjostomaz1 — 2016-11-20 17:05:00 UTC

It is not always easy to work collaboratively among teachers, but in other professions these issues are not even discussed, for example, doctors / nurses discuss clinical cases and work together to treat patients. Among teachers the situation is sometimes more difficult. The biggest difficulty is organizing time in school, but sometimes we also speak different languages (we have different mentalities) and we do not accept each other's opinions or strategies. It takes tolerance, simplicity, acceptance, and assertive and assuring leadership. I believe that working in this way brings us much more benefits to solve many of our difficulties but to be able to develop more and better skills in our students. It is very important to reflect on this type of work in schools to evolve in this mentality of sharing strategies and teaching methods.

Paola Biondi, Italy

paola_biondi19 — 2016-11-20 17:29:58 UTC

In Italy there is a proverb that sounds something like this: the worst deaf is who DOES NOT WANT TO HEAR. I met many colleagues who have no intention to work together and boycott any initiative! Frankly I am very distressed when I have colleagues in the same class of this type. I probably did not have a lot of leadership skills

Angeliki Kougiourouki, Greece

akougiou — 2016-11-20 17:30:55 UTC

I agree with the list of skills mentioned in order to have effective collaboration among teachers. I could add also patience and positive attitude if needed. In my school I often collaborate with other teachers, especially the ones from subjects like art, music, gym or ICT and our head teacher gives us space to do it so. In fact, I could say that he encourages us to collaborate with each other.

Fatih TOY / Turkey

2016-11-20 17:41:11 UTC

All the skills and conditions suggested in the video are also accountable for my teaching context. This quote " So, we are modelling collaboration by how we are doing this module. And I think that if you don’t model it within a school, among the teaching cohort, you are not really going to have your students really believing that this is something good to do. " is just reflecting the ration underlying the necessity of teacher collaboration. For 2 years, I have been trying to persuade all the teachers in my school to use Dropbox clouding tool but I couldn't succeed it. Maybe, I don't need to integrate all the teachers in Dropbox works, at least they can just observe as mentioned in the video.

Adina Marcu,Romania

adinamarcu9 — 2016-11-20 18:40:46 UTC

I agree with the list of skills mentioned.

Raul Coutinho

2016-11-20 18:56:35 UTC

All skills are accountable to a efficient teaching context

Grazia Italy

2016-11-20 19:07:51 UTC

Collaboration among teachers is very important to allow different points of view in planning activities.

Rosella, Italy

rosella_manni — 2016-11-20 19:51:56 UTC

By being part of a supportive network, teachers can engage in reflective dialogue about their practice, thus allowing teachers to critically review and plan .
Genuine collaboration is not going to happen between strangers of colleagues that despise one another.
I would argue that the pervading issue at the heart of teachers’ reluctance to work collaboratively is individuals’ fear of having their teaching practice judged and exposed .

Mariangela Bielli, Italy

mariangela_biel — 2016-11-20 21:15:01 UTC

I agree that collaboration is a step beyond sharing and that collaboration is not just show and display but plan together and give feedback and have a shared goal. In Italy, too, at least in Secondary schools, we lack the set time for planning together. However a lot of teachers are willing to share and try to find a common path towards a new way of teaching and learning.

Silvia Zorzi, Italy

2016-11-20 21:45:43 UTC

Collaboration is fundamental, I totally agree. But I work also with teachers who are skeptical about collaboration: to leave the own "confort zone" is not easy...

Evi Karella-Greece

spevispevi — 2016-11-20 22:19:12 UTC

Yes I totally agree. But I work with people that find collaboration projects and use of digital tools without sense, they say that we loose the real meaning of education and they have negative attitude towards digital technologies in school.

Carla Nascimento-Portugal

cmfn1402631 — 2016-11-20 23:17:03 UTC

I agree with the list of skills and conditions mentioned as necessary for teacher collaboration.
But also think that is not easy to work this way because there are meny teachers that like`s alone. There are many teachers skeptical.

Rui Vieira, Portugal

miguelvieira_com — 2016-11-20 23:54:46 UTC

I think they are all important. Nevertheless there are still some tools that teachers avoid, and some practices of collaboration too. Sometimes, it is hard to colleagues to understand the other teachers in our classroom can improve the quality of the processes and promote collaboration not only between teachers, but also with students. It is very important that teachers and students work for the same goal: learn!

People need to learn how to communicate, how to work together, with an open communication. I believe there are still many teachers that only add value to delivery of knowledge and test preparation…. It is necessary to make something to CHANGE!

Nazaré Firmino, Portugal

nazare_firmino — 2016-11-21 00:03:19 UTC

Despite my limited experience in collaborative work among teachers, I agree with the list of skills and conditions mentioned as necessary for teacher collaboration. In my school we try to work more and more like this because we believe there are benefits to students, despite there are some teachers that resist the change of methodology that they have practiced since they are teachers and don’t agree using digital tools. I also agree when Professor Majella Dempsey says that skeptical teachers might become convinced of the power of collaboration if collaboration has far more positive outcomes than negative.

Maria Rizza/Sicily

rowri — 2016-11-21 00:31:46 UTC

It is undeniable that teachers need some skills to work collaboratively such as : to be willing to work, to deal with conflict, to have a motivation, to have a task or goal that they all have to work towards. Moreover, collaboration helps them to develop leadership skills because people take on different roles within a group or a team. However, it is necessary for teachers to change their mindsets and as Majella Dempseysays : “[……]. “ to change your mindset, you have to see a value in what you are doing”. The chance to change our mindset has to be offered and supported by the leadership in the school, but unfortunately this does not happen: I agree that we need the space and a certain time for teachers to meet and plan a curriculum together ; by doing so the students could benefit because they will be taught with the same methodologies and in a interdisciplinary way, so the students learning could be more meaningful and coherent.I am convinced of the positive impact that teacher collaboration can have not only on them (less stress and work to carry out ) but also on the quality of the learning provided as well as on the whole school community. I regret I can’twork in collaboration with my colleagues who believe that they have nothing to learn from others especially from younger colleagues. �^5�)c

Dulce Freire, Fernanda Cunha, Marco Fernandes and Vítor Silva, Portugal

marcocfernandes — 2016-11-21 01:50:17 UTC

We agree with everything that was mentioned in this video.

In our school there is no collaborative work, but we consider that it is advantageous and motivating for the students. And, yes our colleagues are very skeptical about collaborative work so one of the issues presented in section 3.11 was precisely what we can do to change that. We would like to be able to contribute to the change of mentality and attitude, but we are in need of help in this field.

rosa calvino

rosacalvino8 — 2016-11-21 07:39:08 UTC

I agree with the list mentioned

Paulo Torcato, Portugal

2016-11-21 09:26:37 UTC

I agree with everything that was mentioned in this video.
In my school only a small part of the teachers agree with this

Simona, the Czech Republic

simonabrothankova — 2016-11-21 10:40:12 UTC

I completely agree with the conditions. Collaboration is in its infancy in our school. I am a bit sceptical about collaboration as I have negative experience. When I suggest something, it is mostly unaccepted by my colleagues. A colleague has humiliated me twice during a lesson so I am very careful. Nevertheless I would like to try something but I must choose collegues carefully. I would like to introduce at least some elements of collaboration into my teaching.

Majella Dempsey has pointed out different aspects of collaboration and making a group work collaboratively and effectively. The skills required are of utmost importance but she has also highlighted that the most important thing is that there has to be a task or goal that teachers all have to work towards. In my personal experience I've been working and collaborating with other two colleagues of mine in my school for a few years now. The hard work ahead has brought about some good outcomes with the students and sometimes some failures. But to be honest the most difficult thing is to make ourselves understood by other colleagues and by the principal. But we don't give in.

elisabettamarigo1 — 2016-11-21 12:04:25 UTC

Teresa Pombo, Portugal

teresapombo — 2016-11-21 12:12:39 UTC

I agree with the list of skills and condions mentioned in the video.Leadership seems quite important in order to assure a clear vision of where the work is headed. The video also talks about modelling group work and it seem very importante because it can originate more and better collaborative initiatives.

Rosa Italy

rosafiorenzaguidi — 2016-11-21 14:01:30 UTC

I'm agree with the list of skills mentioned necessary for teacher collaboration.

Cinzia Masia, Italy

attasonitabas — 2016-11-21 14:29:53 UTC

Yes, I really agree with her suggestions! I wouldn't add anything because I think the list is complete! I try to involve colleagues explaining them all the advantages our students will get but...sometime unsuccessful!

Ariana Vacaretu, Romania

ariana_vacaretu — 2016-11-21 14:58:47 UTC

I agree with the list of skills and conditions mentioned. I very much liked the idea of 'going beyond sharing' - teachers communicate with each other or share their resources but this not, in my understanding, collaboration. Leadership in my school doesn't model collaboration.

Poonam Singh, India

pundirpoonam651 — 2016-11-21 17:19:10 UTC

Yes our teachers do collaborate but more informally. Sometimes the various constraints limit our collaboration.

Teresa Rowett - Portugal

2016-11-21 18:42:08 UTC

Teaching students to work in a collaborative way as part of the initial teacher education is the right thing to do. It will motivate and prepare them to work that way right from the beginning of their career, they’ll do it naturally once they start working in schools. She points out the skills needed by teachers to work collaboratively with other teachers - knowledge, skills, attitudes, motivation. The ethical dimension and having the required personal and emotional skills to work as a group are extremely important as well. But Majella also underlines the need of ground work ahead of time, that’s why some teachers say collaborative work involves much time spent around a lesson. But sitting together and discussing lesson plans and teaching methods is important because it helps teachers to develop leadership skills against isolated practices when we close the door of our classroom behind us.

Katarina,Serbia

2016-11-21 19:02:29 UTC

I am agree with the list of skills for collaboration.And I am the member of Facebook group - Study group for Inclusive Education.

Roberta Minì, Italy

robertamini — 2016-11-21 19:46:14 UTC

I'd like my collegues might have the 50% of the skills mentioned by the teacher in the video. In secondary school in Italy it happens very often to work with unmotivated teachers or with collegues who don't share the same point of you. I happended to suggest some collaborative learning activities but some doesn't agree with this type of action saying that it might not be successful; so, as always, I can share ideas just with few of the teachers of a class.

Atanasija, Croatia

atbilic — 2016-11-21 20:31:16 UTC

I agree with the list of skills and conditions mentioned as necessary for teacher collaboration in schools.
In my school a have few collegues which take part in projects on eTwinning or some projects in our school. Others, they only do what is required from them. So, many times we, my collegues and I, are under the magnifier glass. They don't have inclanation to improve their teaching skills or methodology.

Hanefi, Turkey

2016-11-21 20:31:46 UTC

I agree with the skills mentioned in the video.

Patrizia, Italy

2016-11-21 22:26:02 UTC

It is true that teachers can collaborate only if they have specific skills otherwise that is impossible

Pedro Elias, Portugal

pedroelias — 2016-11-21 22:54:34 UTC

I'm agreeing with the list of skills and conditions mentioned by Professor Majella. For the results of the collaborative work to be positive, it is necessary that each group member can add value to the group.

Teresa Oliveira

2016-11-21 23:03:28 UTC

I agree with the list of skills and conditions mentioned as necessary for teacher collaboration to flourish in schools. Although minds and practices are changing, I believe there's still is a long way to run.

Lorraine, PR

2016-11-22 04:52:20 UTC

I fully agree with the list mentioned

Marina-Italy

2016-11-22 09:55:48 UTC

I'm not that old, but I'd like to have the opportunity to challenge with younger teachers as they bring in new experiences. At the same time, I had the opportunity to see some of the lessons of a teacher older than me and got really interesting input. Yes, it's all about the state of mind, some colleagues think it a lost of time but do not realize they are not developing their skills.

Irena , Poland

irenagd — 2016-11-22 10:25:02 UTC

I totally agree with the skills and conditions mentioned. I teach in a technical school where headmistress and her deputy are strongly aware of the importance of collaboration benefits. That is why they organise different workshops to help teachers improve their methodology and use digital tools adjusting to their subject. Being honest, there are also sceptical teachers who treat these kind of challenges as a waste of time. But fortunatelly more teachers are convinced to introduce new methods and share their knowledge gained on different courses with others.

Jose, Portugal

jafscruz — 2016-11-22 11:41:37 UTC

The pilars that are mention by Majella Dempsey, needed to address collaboration in our schools, are: school environment, leadership, and resistence to change. I think they are part of variables of any technology acceptance within an organisation. In this case it's not technology acceptance but it's related with it. In my particular case teachers are changing their way of collaborating with each other, but it was a long process, with a lot of compulsory work request, and diverse group work.

Asun Ara, Spain

2016-11-22 11:49:32 UTC

I totally agree with all the skills and conditions mentioned as necessary for teacher collaboration. Leadership is essential for teacher collaboration, but it is necessary to share this leadership and sometimes it is not easy. If leadership isn't shared, collaborative work isn't successful since there are always some people who usually assume to be the leader and the others can feel comfortable or not, but a good leader usually feels tired after a time if he/she has to be continously encourage their mates. To own leadership skills is quite difficult. There are some people who want to be the leaders but they don't have leadership skills and they get the others feel unmotivated to do the work.

I sadly work with some teachers who don't want to know anything about collaboration. And some of these teachers can see collaboration as a hard work since it must be very-well planned and that we don't have a lot of time in our schedules to do it. So, some teachers don't want to use their own time outside the school to do it.

Thus, I think that digital platforms can help us to work with other teachers who really want to work in a collaborative way although they are far away from my classroom. :)

Sue - AUS

suzanne_durick — 2016-11-22 11:59:04 UTC

I agree that the skills required are first and foremost the attitude to want to work with others, be able to address issues which may arise and resolve conflict. Be open & honest.
Leadership within my school is definitely collaborative. The best experiences are collaborative and allow shared goals to be reached. Our students are encouraged to work in groups regularly and teachers collaborate in cross curricular subject areas too.

Fátima Nave, Portugal

2016-11-22 13:14:18 UTC

I agree with the list of skills and conditions mentioned as necessary for teacher collaboration. When we have skeptical teachers in our schools, to change their point of view, we can try to show them some examples. That's what we have been doing in my school. We developed some training courses and we brought some specialists to teach us and to share their knowledge and experiences on the use of digital technologies in classes and on the application of effective teaching and learning collaboration. It was so interesting and so motivational that the initial fears and worries disappeared. Some of the skeptical teachers were won over and are now trying to collaborate more with other teachers.

Patrizia, Italy

patrizia_brion — 2016-11-22 17:01:14 UTC

I agree with the list of skills and conditions mentioned as necessary for teacher collaboration in schools.
I very much liked the idea of 'going beyond sharing' - teachers communicate with each other and share their resources. Leadership in my school isn't model collaboration.

Ioannis Velonakis, Greece

2016-11-22 17:53:41 UTC

I do agree that the skills and the conditions mentioned are necessary for a good teacher collaboration. From my experience I would also add patience and open minds as helpful conditions in some cases. The leadership in the current as well as most of the schools I have worked is far from being ideal. We teachers, especially the younger ones, have to learn how to collaborate, and not only as a teaching practice, if we want to give to our students and to our colleuges a motivation for collaboration.

Ana Schade, Portugal

ana_vaz — 2016-11-22 18:13:39 UTC

I agree with the list of skills and conditions mentioned as necessary for teacher collaboration. However, in my teaching context, there are some sceptical teachers about collaboration and many of them still like to work alone. Thefore, as it is mentioned in the video its urgent to change mentalities!

António Gonçalves, PT

2016-11-22 18:15:14 UTC

I agree that it is necessary to create conditions and skills for collaborative work between teachers in schools.
Sharing knowledge and collaborating in groups is valuable to the teaching-learning process.
In my school collaborative work among teachers from the same disciplinary group is a reality.

Maria
beltramilaura1 — 2016-11-22 18:38:33 UTC

Maria Laura Italy

beltramilaura1 — 2016-11-22 18:39:38 UTC

The list of skills and conditions mentioned as necessary for teacher collaboration in schools.

Palmira Serrano, Portugal

palmiraserrano — 2016-11-22 18:46:40 UTC

I think the list of skills and conditions mentioned as necessary for teacher collaboration to flourish in schools is very important and that it is urgent for teachers to start sharing and getting out of their "holes." Often times, teachers do not want to do collaborative work because it is easier to do as they have always done and not to innovate. Minds need change.

Ionela Lazea, Romania

kameeliah16bis — 2016-11-22 18:53:00 UTC

I work in a group of teachers who are involved in teaching and in collaborating. Our head master encourages us to work together and trust each other as members of the same group.

Conceição Aleixo, Portugal

caleixonline — 2016-11-22 19:03:21 UTC

Majella Dempsey lists a set of skills and conditions for teacher collaboration in schools. I was amazed as I found so many similarities between different schools/countries. Majella is speaking about her experience in Ireland and I saw it’s quite the exact thing that happens in my country.

Finally, I think is a very good suggestion to give teachers who are skeptical about collaboration the opportunity to observe the work of a collaborative team.

Marta Pereira

mpereira89_1 — 2016-11-22 21:14:12 UTC

I think the impact of collaboration between teachers is always positive for students. Collaborative work allows us to experience various ways of working and exchanging ideas, to improve our teaching practice.

Elisabete Gouveia, Portugal

2016-11-22 22:11:25 UTC

I agree with the list of skills for collaboration. It is necessary to create collaboration in a positive way: taking decisions together and share different skills and motivations.

Fátima Vieira, Portugal

fatima_vieira — 2016-11-22 22:56:26 UTC

I agree with the list of skills and conditions mentioned as necessary for teacher collaboration.
Teachers who are sceptical about collaboration will briefly see the benefits of collaborative work seeing colleagues work with the students.

Isabel Cabo - Portugal

isacabo_1978 — 2016-11-22 23:14:23 UTC

I agree with the list of skills and conditions mentioned as necessary for teacher collaboration to flourish in schools, by Majella Dempsey. I work with teachers who are sceptical about collaboration. In this case, I share some activities and encourage to work with me to be better our work and think about the benefits of collaborative work.

Maria, Portugal

ameliamagalhaes — 2016-11-23 00:28:43 UTC

I agree with Majella Dempsey. And I believe personal skills have huge importance. At my school and with my work group we have already worked in this direction. We sit down, talk to each other, decide, plan together, reflect, discuss, analyze, and find different strategies. Working as a team makes our daily life easier and more motivating.

Sandra Teixeira, Portugal

2016-11-23 14:26:34 UTC

I do agree with the list of skills and conditions mentioned as necessary among teachers, so that collaboration work flourish in our schools, as Majella says. I work with sceptical teachers about this theme. In this case, I share some activities and encourage them to work with me, reminding them about the benefits of that kind of work.

Maria Concetta. Catalano, Italy

cettinacatalano644 — 2016-11-23 15:47:06 UTC

I'm totally okay with Majella. A fact of which I have had direct experience is the following: when we put young teachers with more mature teachers, especially around technology, that they will learn something new from the younger teachers

Cinzia Billa, Italy

2016-11-23 17:49:50 UTC

Yes, I work with teachers who are sceptical about collaboration, not rather for its efficacy but for the real possibility to collaborate. Too few time, too much bureacracy, we're running from a class to another and maybe a further skill is to quickly realise what is a priority in that very precise moment...

Cristina Abegão

2016-11-23 17:51:46 UTC

I agree 100% with the list of skills for collaboration. It's necessary to create collaboration in a good way. Taking decisions together and share different skills and motivations is very important for my job.

Teresa Pires, Portugal

2016-11-24 14:46:30 UTC

I totally agree with Majella. It is necessary to develop good collaboration. Making decisions together and sharing different ideas and strategies is very important for my work.
I note that the coexistence of young teachers with older ones, especially with regard to new technologies, greatly helps the evolution and development of activities.

Anna Bormida

annabormida — 2016-11-24 17:27:51 UTC

Genova Italy
I agree with the list that Majella told us but in my experience it’s not so simple to collaborate at school. Sometimes

Alena Jandlová, CZE

tabor1 — 2016-11-24 18:20:22 UTC

It´s not at all to collaborate inside the school, find colleagues to work with, often there is lack of time and curriculum requirements which make things more difficult.

Alda Beja, Portugal

alda_beja_ab — 2016-11-25 14:03:43 UTC

I agree with Majella Dempsey and i also think that skills can be developed with pratice.

Marina R Italy

ruggieri_marina — 2016-11-26 11:12:48 UTC

I agree with Majella, that students could have a great benefits from teachers and principal who collaborate. As my Italian colleague says it is not so granted in Italy, above alla in upper schools where finding time for this is not easy.

Anna C. Italy

ciaramellaanna — 2016-11-26 11:51:34 UTC

I agree with the list of skills and conditions Mentioned as Necessary for teacher collaboration to flourish in schools, but unfortunately, in my school, it is difficult to convince many colleagues to change

Beata Rola Poland

2016-11-26 17:03:11 UTC

I'm afraid thet interaction is not Polish tradition

Honorata Pereira, Portuga

honoratapereira — 2016-11-26 20:19:21 UTC

I agree with Majella Dempsey these days, it does not make sense to work alone. We are in a global world, it is not just about collaborating with colleagues in the same school, but working with colleagues from other countries.
And I think that teachers are responsible for creating the conditions, with a little goodwill and a lot of imagination and creativity, everything is achieved.

Cidália Marques, Portugal

cidaliam — 2016-11-26 21:47:46 UTC

Yes I do work with teachers that are sceptical about this way of teaching, but the example makes some of them change opinion.
In my school we are doing teacher training based on the FutureClassroom methodologies and many of my coleagues are begining to see how important collaborative work is.

Anna Maria, Italy

mattielloannamaria — 2016-11-26 22:36:07 UTC

I totally agree with the list mentioned. I think it is necessary in our school to work in a collaborative way, but unfortunately this is not easy in my school

Marília Bação, Portugal

mariliabacao — 2016-11-26 23:20:36 UTC

Yes, I totally agree. Even for the more sceptical.

Rosa Caeiro, Portugal

rosafcaeiro — 2016-11-27 01:33:07 UTC

I agree with the opinion of this expert. To work together, it is not easy. It is necessary, a correct attitude, to share responsibility. But it is also necessary to create the conditions in the school so that it can collaborate

Natasa Vrapcevic

2016-11-27 17:57:06 UTC

It is hard in my kindergarten to achieve bigger level of collaboration. There is one group of teachers who collaborate and another group are against all our ideas

Cristina Parente, Portugal

CrisParente — 2016-11-27 18:31:04 UTC

I completely agree with this teacher trainer. I work with sceptical and non-sceptical teachers. I've been trying to make them see the advantages but it's not always easy. However, I believe we'll get there; it's just a matter of time and a matter of resilience as well. I also think that some conditions must be created so that teachers canhave more time to work together and then see the advantages of this way of working.

Paula Gonçalves, Portugal

paulaalexandra_goncalves — 2016-11-27 20:14:49 UTC

Like I said before collaborative work is all about advantages for both teachers and students.

I believe that collaborative learning is a must nowadays and every teacher implementing it is valuable - it takes one match to ignite the fire.

paulina_rozmus — 2016-11-27 21:47:47 UTC

Virgínia Esteves, Portugal

virginiaesteves — 2016-11-30 21:34:19 UTC

Collaboration is a great value that teachers must start learning. We need to work together, to plan together, to be together if teachers collaborate it will be easier to motivate students to collaborate too. Leadership skills and share responsibility are highlights to be succeded in collaborative work.

Rovena Hoxha

rovena_hoxha — 2017-10-16 12:32:11 UTC

Yes.I totally agree.