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Research

How to build a successful teaching team

Ingrid Henning Loeb

Research Summary

This is a detailed study of a large, successful team in a Swedish upper secondary school, working with young people on alternative pathways who have not met eligibility requirements for other programmes. It asks: what kinds of co-operation make this team successful? It identifies and reports on three kinds of co-operation, between staff, between staff and students and between staff and local workplaces or institutions. In addition, it identifies the actions on which the co-operative practice of the team are based, and their character. The importance of recognition is emphasised. The findings should be of interest and use to RE or other teachers building or working in teams, e.g. departments, cross-departmental groups or local subject associations.

Researchers

Ingrid Henning Loeb

Research Institution

University of Gothenberg, Sweden

What is this about?

  • How do you build a successful, effective teaching team?
  • What kinds of co-operation are needed? E.g. between staff, between staff and students and between staff and outside agencies, families or community groups?
  • What kinds of actions help a teaching team to be successful?
  • What kinds of character should these actions have – in particular, what is the significance of recognition (of members’ or partners’ work, or contribution to the team)?
  • A large, succcessful team in a Swedish upper secondary school is studied at length and in detail.

What was done?

Field studies were conducted over a five-year period, and involved participating in and observing various team activities, observing lessons, shadowing and interviewing team members, following emails around the team, etc.

Main findings and outputs

  • There are 60 students on the team’s courses. The team numbers 16: teachers (one with the role of head), a counsellor, a coach, two youth leaders. The team has evolved since 2000 to meet the students’ needs.
  • Staff co-operate in a wide range of ways: formal (very focused) and informal meetings, social events, co-teaching (e.g. one teacher on whole class teaching whilst another gives individual support), annual 1-2 day evaluation sessions, distributed leadership (individuals assuming different team responsibilities).
  • Students report strong staff care and commitment. Recruitment to the courses is very careful – care is taken to ensure suitability. All students have an individual supervisor with who he or she meets for 15-20 minutes each week. Students are encouraged to focus on their strengths and goals. There are a variety of extra, non-academic activities, and a social gathering for the last half-hour of every Friday.
  • The coach organises a full programme of workplace experience with local employers. There are active partnerships with parents, other local schools and community organisations and schools in other countries.
  • Very positive routine actions have been embedded into the team’s work over time. High levels of trust have been built in all directions by continuously expressing recognition of the value of the contributions made by team members and out-of-school partners. People feel that their work earns them respect and the chance to help to direct the team’s work. All of this makes the team’s success sustainable.

Relevance to RE

This is relevant to teacher development, which always takes place in teams of one kind or another, even if the teacher is a one-person RE department. The team researched were successful because they had identified the values of care, collaboration and community partnership as the ideal bases of their work and had developed routine actions to enact those values. Roles and responsibilities were well defined and – most importantly – confidence and self-esteem were high because contributions were recognised as valuable. Highlighting community partnership: the team connected their practice to students’ future ‘real worlds’ – they did so in relation to employment, but RE departments can do so in relation to community awareness and citizenship; an annual programme of visits and visitors is made more manageable through routine repetition (and partnerships are strengthened through routine contact).

Generalisability and potential limitations

This is a very detailed study of one department, and whilst it can be pointed out that different departments can be successful in different ways and base their success on different things, it should nevertheless invite reflection by teachers responsible for or working in teams, e.g. on the crucial importance of recognising colleagues’ work and contributions, or community partnerships.

Find out more

Zooming in on the partnership of a successful teaching team: examining cooperation, action and recognition, Educational Action Research 24.3 pages 387-403, 10.1080/09650792.2016.1185377

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09650792.2016.1185377

 

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