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

Reflections on reading......

Reflections and thoughts after reading:

Creating collaborative effectiveness One school’s approach:

by Sarah Martin and Chris Bradbeer

I have picked out some phrases from the reading which I found significant, powerful and really relevant to our inquiry:

• collaboration can be an opportunity, but also be challenging at times

This is so true. Collaboration brings together a difference of opinions, true collaboration may mean you need to see the bigger picture and you may be heard, but it might not be the answer.

•  growing teacher capacity to have sensemaking conversations, a disposition seen as especially relevant when teachers are working together

These have also been known as hard to have conversations. But should they truly be hard to have?? Sensemaking needs different thoughts and ideas, being able to explain and express your own thoughts is a good thing, even if others may not agree, they may still want to understand.

•  Keeping in mind that a prime reason for creating a culture of collaborative relationships and responsibility is, as DuFour and Mattos (2013) note, to impact positively on student outcomes,

The aim for this inquiry is to enhance your collaborative skills in order to improve the experiences the children have at school and that they benefit from the experiences we are able to give them through effective collaboration. The child is always the centre.

• working so closely with colleagues comes with its benefits and challenges.

When you use people’s strengths, the learning can be amazing,

teacher’s can learn and grow and share. The challenges provide

exacting the same opportunities.

•  It became obvious that these teams (operating highly effectively) had mechanisms and systems in place to surface and talk about the non-discussables.

What can you put in place to make it easy for all to be on the same page and make collaboration work.This can be school wide and the different Pathway unique. Always be open minded.

• How much time do you spend meeting as a team? • How do you work to your team strengths? • How do you organise what you do together?

All questions that we need to ask ourselves and our teams. Time has been identified as a barrier, so we need to focus on this to enhance and improve our use of time.

• —the management of conflict in the team.   Gaye Greenwood - Sensemaking

Conflict or sensemaking isn’t necessarily a bad thing, that people worry about. Could it become the norm??? All communities have conflict to be able to grow, develop and move forward. Recognising the importance of conflict can allow us to see it in a different light and appreciate the positives that can come from sensemaking conversations.

• Table of Collaborative Teacher dispositions

Ask yourself where do you think you are on the table. Then build your knowledge and reflect.

• Collaborative Framework: Growth Mindset, Learner, Self aware

We all need to look within before we look out and develop our ability to collaborate.

• As Hansen (2009) notes, disciplined collaboration is the “practice of properly assessing when to collaborate (and when not to) and instilling in people both the willingness and the ability to collaborate when required” (p. 15).

Collaboration may not look the same in every area of the school. There are in fact different ways to collaborate, so when and how are questions to be asked, to best suit the situation at the time and the children.

• There has to be a reason to collaborate.

You don’t just do it just because you are told to.

• We have watched the most synergetic teams provide time and forums to have conversations about how individuals like to be supported, how they like to be communicated with

This is important. Collaboration within teams, bring different personalities. You need to be open and honest, otherwise how are you going to be heard. The confidence in the team needs to be there so you are happy to speak openly.

•  John Hattie at the recent 2016 global chat said that “The essence of teachers’ professionalism is the ability to collaborate with others to maximise impact”.

With the child being in the centre and gaining positive learning and experiences, it is key for teachers to continue to learn and grow and gain more tools/resources in their kete.

Learning to Collaborate online

To increase our knowledge and awareness of our new COL role all of the Sommerville COL staff have been meeting online each week. This is a great chance for us to learn with, from and about each other, brainstorming ideas. We have created our own community of practice within the COL. This is a great opportunity for us to give each other feedback on our learning goals and blogs and a chance to feed forward.

These group catch ups are invaluable and having the time while at home to make these regular has been a positive of working from home. We are already looking at how we will continue these sessions when we reduce down to level 1.

This allows us to share resources, learning links and presentations. We have created a Google Drive folder where we can keep track of notes and also share new information so everyone has access.

Through Tash’s university study she has created a Collaboration presentation which was shared with his group of teachers which has links to reading references and will be used to share information back with our school colleagues.

Through these group discussions we created with Devs the collaboration survey which generated our baseline data of our colleagues' understanding and connection with collaboration in their current practice.

Having Devs in this learning group is excellent, as she comes with knowledge from being in this role last year. Having a more knowledgeable learning partner is very important when co operating and growing as teachers. We all have a passion for play based learning and collaboration and all bring with us different strengths. This environment creates endless opportunities for inter professional learning.

Digging Deep into Initial Data Part 3

From the data everyone agrees 100% that collaboration is beneficial but does this information represent practice and is this actually true? Collaboration has to fit the situation and has to be purposeful. One of the responses states that for it to be beneficial people need to understand it so that it is used effectively. This is something Sharon and Tash  believe is very important and is a message we will be elaborating on through this blog. We need to better understand the meaning of collaboration so that we can see when and how to use this in the classroom. Life and learning can happen without collaboration but two heads are better than one when used effectively. 
The main barrier portrayed in the data is time. This is a word all teachers can empathise with. We need to use our blog opportunity to investigate how this can be overcome. How can we use time to support collaboration i.e sharing work to reduce workload. Tools was also a common factor, we need to research appropriate tools that people can choose to interact with that best suits their environment. Trust was the third factor of concern which is very vital in collaboration. We need to spend time looking at how we can develop trust, build trust and work alongside different people. In order for collaboration to be effective you need a level of professional trust, how can we develop this?

Digging Deep into Initial Data Part 2

• Over a third of the satellite classes feel as though they do not collaborate with the host school.
• Is the purpose of a satellite class not to just be a stand alone but to try and find ways of integrating some of the children’s learning alongside the mainstream. Using them as role models and vice versa.
• It is an excellent resource right on their doorstep.
• What are the barriers here???

In reflection: Satellite classes create an opportunity for better understanding among the community to then build stronger relationships. This is not just for students but benefits everyone in the school community. Are satellites offering opportunity for PD to host school?

This is a very important aspect of a special school: the relationship between teacher and teacher aides. We are wanting to better understand how teacher aids are involved and playing to their strengths. According to the data currently over 75% of staff feel they are working alongside their teacher aides. Due to our high teacher aid ratio this is very important. In reflection: This graph was also depicted from information only from the teacher point of view, we are also wanting to ask teacher aids the same question. For collaboration to work well in the classroom there needs to be opportunities for group learning and break out space that in a special school is supported by teacher aid resources. Do teacher aides feel they understand the learning and activities? How can we best support this relationship to ensure successful and meaningful collaboration is in place?

Digging deep into initial Data Part 1

A survey went out to the staff at school re their understanding and use of collaboration. We have used this data to highlight key questions for our blog and learning going forward. Please find our data analysis below:

• Most people think that collaboration is about working together,  team teaching. This is true but does it stop there?
• If you work together: how do you know if it is working effectively?
• Others have mentioned: sharing, use of resources: practical and intellectual, utilising strengths: what does this look like?
• Working towards a common goal: When you get to the goal is collaboration over?

In reflection we have used this data to understand people's current thoughts and perspectives but have extended this with further questioning to investigate in our blog.




From the above questions we wanted to find out if people believe they are involved in a collaborative planning partnership and if so, who is involved in their collaboration. The data shows us that over half of the staff feel they plan collaboratively; this is a great statistic for us to work with as we can find out what enables the 54% of staff and we can spend time learning about the barriers for those who plan individually. When looking at the bar graph we can see that most people collaborate with their pathway.

In reflection this is a great start and as group sizes are upwards of 5 can lead to great diversity in ideas. We then need to see how this translates to the classroom and if this collaboration continues throughout the term or if it is just at the beginning for new learning and ideas. Does this collaboration lead to ongoing planning support? Should we be meeting during the term to reflect on our long term planning?

• Graph shows that half of staff feel they sometimes collaborate when teaching.
• Almost half collaborate always: what does this look like?
• Need to break this down further, if they do ,  how can we see this if we walk into the classroom.
• This may relate to planning and the use or rotations, the learning spaces and break out rooms and other areas available to the teacher. 
• If you don’t collaborate why not? What are the barriers?
• How have they interpreted this question. 
• Different areas of the school may interpret this question in different ways depending on the needs of their children

In reflection we need to dig deeper and ask specific areas of school if they do collaborate in teaching what does this look? Do we invite others to come and observe us and see if they feel we collaborate. How could this be used and altered to fit for their learners. It is a case of reflective teaching observing, giving feedback and feed-forward to each other.


This question needs more depth to get a better understanding of staff's interpretation. When we asked this question we wanted to know if teachers collaborate in learning with their students. Are children actively involved in collaborative practice amongst their peers?

In reflection: We are wanting to find out how students respond to collaborative practice and what their barriers and enablers are. We need to see what ways we can ensure active participation among teachers and students we are all learners together it is a two way street.

Introduction to 2020 Teaching as Inquiry - Collaboration

Hi, we are in our 3rd year of working together at the Sommerville Satellite at Stonefields School.

Stonefields school is purpose built for collaboration with open learning areas, different types of breakout spaces and different learning equipment, beanbags, stools, chairs, different shaped tables and computer areas.

For this to be a successful environment for teaching and learning to take place there needs to be a positive staff relationship with collaboration amoung staff, learners and whanāu. We feel we are working towards creating this successful space and hope to use this COL opportunity to trial different collaborative practice, learn from Stonefields, an exemplar collaborative school and share our new knowledge back with Sommerville School and other schools within the COL.

We also want to use this as an opportunity to see how group learning in collaborative spaces supports ākonga engagement specifically within our Hub. We will look at how we can ensure all learners are benefiting and learning with, from and about each other in different group activities.