Moving from Teacher Isolation to Collaboration

Enhancing Professionalism and School Quality

By (author) Sharon Conley, Bruce S. Cooper PhD, emeritus professor a

Publication date:

28 August 2013

Length of book:

194 pages

Publisher

R&L Education

Dimensions:

229x152mm
6x9"

ISBN-13: 9781475802696

Teaching embodies many roles -- in the classroom through teacher-student interactions, and beyond the classroom through teacher-adult interactions. This book explains and demonstrates how collaboration and teamwork can help enhance professionalism and school quality by overcoming teachers' isolation in the classroom, in the school, and in their work. The contributing authors address: historic patterns of isolation; why collaboration is crucial for vibrant and sustained professionalism; principles of successful team collaboration in schools and other sectors; school districts' structure and support for collaborative teams; forces that motivate or restrain teachers' ability to collaborate; how teachers in grade-level teams perceive the quality of their training and support; team members' perceptions of their work in departments; teachers' use of evidence of student learning to improve teacher and organizational learning; and teacher-principal collaboration from the perspectives of exemplary teachers. These chapters provide insight into the complexity of teachers' roles, and indicate the necessity to build collaboration within the school and beyond.

Table of Contents
PREFACE
Bruce S. Cooper & Sharon Conley
Chapter 1: Teaching as a Profession - and More: Why? and How?
Bruce S. Cooper & Carolyn Brown
Chapter 2: What has Prevented Teachers From Being Full Professionals? Mary Antony Bair
Chapter 3: Rejuvenating Teacher Teams: Back to Basics
Terrence E. Deal & Donna Redman
Chapter 4: Organizational Design in Support of Professional Learning Communities in One District
Scott C. Bauer, S. David Brazer, Michelle Van Lare, & Robert L. Smith
Chapter 5: Influences on Teacher Sharing and Collaboration
Tanya F. Cook & Vivienne Collinson
Chapter 6: Teaming to Break the Walls of Isolation: Collaboration in Elementary Grade Level Teams
J. John Dewey & Sharon Conley
Chapter 7: Collaboration in Middle School Departments: A Work Group Effectiveness Perspective
Sharon Conley & Frank C. Guerrero
Chapter 8: Professional Learning Communities Using Evidence: Examining Teacher Learning and Organizational Learning
Michelle D. Van Lare, S. David Brazer, Scott C. Bauer, & Robert L. Smith
Chapter 9: Principal-Teacher Collaboration
Vivienne Collinson
EPILOGUE: Collaboration, Professionalism, and School Quality for the Future
Bruce S. Cooper

ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS

In the face of unrelenting and often irrational challenges to public education, the teaching profession risks becoming less and less desirable to many. Conley and Cooper offer ways to strengthen both the professionalism and desirability of teaching. Their emphasis on collaboration and professionalism promises to enrich teachers' work and to strengthen schools as well.