Challenges in collaboration

 Expand on my knowledge of multidisciplinary team approaches by identifying key challenges in collaboration using a range of perspectives from my community of learning (COL).

Recently Sharon and I discussed the challenges of collaboration. Last year one of us was on leave for a term after an accident and this year the other had extended leave for family reasons. This made us think about how a team approach is affected when part of the team is not there, with limited time to prepare for their absence. This made us realise the need to reflect on other challenges within the day, week or programme that are a reflection of a group of people working together in collaboration of multidisciplinary approaches. 

I created a Jam board with my COL group to share 5 key ingredients to successful collaboration and then also for everyone to name a key challenge. In our school setting we also work as a multidisciplinary team with Occupational therapists, Speech and Language Therapists and Physiotherapists. I also made a Jamboard with the specialists we work with and completed the same exercise. There was a common theme among the message of challenges. 

For collaboration in the classroom to be successful there needs to be synergy, trust, communication and shared accountability. There is also a reliance on each other for support in planning, teaching, managing the classroom and family contact. When one part of the team is absent it can dramatically affect the flow and stress of the other. Even if there is someone covering that is familiar and knows the running of the class the remaining teacher still feels more responsible for the extended group and is required in more places at once that they would be otherwise.Successful collaboration should see increased independence in student learning and the staff members should be extensions of each other giving children the opportunity to learn in different settings maximising the space and adult ratio. When a staff member is away for extended periods of time the expectations of this may need to be altered to suit the new teacher and to suit how they work with the planning and the learners. There is extra time required for the teacher remaining to contact and be available for whānau communication of all learners. As like any new partnership in cooperative teaching there can also be differences in expectations when new members arrive and this can lead to a change in programme design. 

Working collaboratively with other teachers requires time to be reflective as a team. Benade, G.,(2017) states that collaboration “requires participants to meet regularly and to take the time to develop professional collective responsibility”. Time came up as a challenge across both Jam boards and through literature. A research article studying SCERTS as a multidisciplinary framework reported 50% of the people in the study found that collaboration takes time and demands a lot of energy (Paola Molteni, Karen Guldberg and Nick Logan, 2013). Time is needed to reflect on the issues involved in the teaching and learning and also time to discuss how the collaboration design is being implemented and how it worked in each session. Our specialist Jam board suggested that time is a challenge in both arranging times to meet with teachers and students and also time within the week for the programme they supply to be implemented. For implementation to be successful they reported that trust and rapport needs to be established and developed and this also is affected with lack of time. When there is trust and support, collaboration is more successful as the team begins to understand how each other works and can begin to compromise and acknowledge each other's ideas and valuing everyone's opinion. 

It is important to discuss the challenges of collaboration as it becomes more common practice among Modern Learning Environments. “Being aware of the possible difficulties of implementing multidisciplinary teamwork can strengthen not only the team of professionals,  but the management department, as it can support the planning of meetings and quality evaluations following the real educational needs of the child and of the team.” (Paola Molteni, Karen Guldberg and Nick Logan, 2013). Multidisciplinary interventions and support in my school setting in particular is vital for it allows for a wider focus with different expertise available. Working together we can address a range of teaching techniques, targeting different skills across different contexts. This is fundamental to creating an effective educational approach”(Paola Molteni, Karen Guldberg and Nick Logan, 2013).

Reference List:

Achinstein, B (2002). Conflict Amid Community: The Micropolitics of Teacher Collaboration. Teacher College Record Volume 104 Number 3.

Benade, G (2017) What is professional collaboration and how can its practice be enriched and led to support student learning within and across schools? Sabbatical Report. Sancta Maria Catholic Primary School, Flat Bush, Auckland.

Bradbeer. C, Martin S, (2016), Creating Collaborative Effectiveness One Schools Approach. Teachers as Communities of Learning Professionals, Set 2. 

Education Council New Zealand–Matatū Aotearoa. (2017). Our code our standards: Code of professional responsibility and standards for the teaching profession: Ngā tikanga matatika ngā paerewa: Ngā tikanga matatika mō te haepapa ngaiotanga me ngā paerewa mō te umanga whakaakoranga

Molteni. P, Guldberg. K and Logan.N (2013) Autism and multidisciplinary teamwork through

the SCERTS Model. British Journal of Special Education. NASEN DOI: 10.1111/1467-8578.12030