Teacher collaboration: A systematic review

Abstract

A B S T R A C T This paper presents a systematic review on teacher collaboration. In total, 82 studies were selected based on predefined selection criteria and reviewed by means of a narrative review method to thematically gather information across the studies. The first aim of this review was to provide an overview of the terminological framework to describe teacher collaboration used in previous research. Collaboration was perceived here as a continuum ranging from mere aggregates of individuals to strong team collaboration. This continuum was conceptualised as the degree of team entitativity. Second, the review investigated the focus and depth of collaboration. These appeared to be important issues and provide different opportunities for (collaborative) learning. Third, although realising teacher collaboration proves to be challenging, this review listed benefits for students, teachers, and the school. Fourth and fifth, various facilitating and hindering factors were explored that may serve as valuable points of action to realise effective collaboration. The latter has vital importance for the future as it is needed to build schools into learning organisations, to anticipate the growing importance of collaboration in society and to use education as a role model for students to properly prepare them for the future.

Leadership for team learning: the case of university teacher teams

“…Roxå and Mårtensson (2015) argue that collaboration between university teachers takes place in various forms and that collaborative forms of innovation are mainly characterized by a shared responsibility for educational development. However, Vangrieken et al (2015) question the extent to which collaborating university teachers in fact share and follow up on this responsibility. Cox (2004) observed that university teacher's work tradition is largely solitary, with high levels of individual autonomy.…”

“…Such research also predominately focuses on team performance as an outcome and not on team learning (Burke et al 2006;Nicolaides et al 2014). Moreover, research on the influence of team leadership on teacher team learning is lacking, because empirical studies on stimulating collaborative teacher learning are limited (Little 2006;Vescio et al 2008) and mostly do not concern teams but collaboration forms with lower levels of task interdependence and shared responsibility (Brouwer et al 2012;Vangrieken et al 2015). In addition, these studies have mainly been conducted in primary and secondary education, and rarely in higher education (Kezar 2011;Vangrieken et al 2015).…”

“…A team approach is in line with that reasoning, because in such an approach, teachers formally share responsibility and task interdependency exists. Third, studies on teacher collaboration are hardly ever conducted in higher education (Kezar 2014;Vangrieken et al 2015), while overall, there are few studies on effective conditions and outcomes of teacher collaboration for educational innovation (Little 2006;Vescio et al 2008). Therefore, this study builds on studies performed in organizational and educational contexts (e.g., Crow and Pounder 2000).…”

“…Moreover, research on the influence of team leadership on teacher team learning is lacking, because empirical studies on stimulating collaborative teacher learning are limited (Little 2006;Vescio et al 2008) and mostly do not concern teams but collaboration forms with lower levels of task interdependence and shared responsibility (Brouwer et al 2012;Vangrieken et al 2015). In addition, these studies have mainly been conducted in primary and secondary education, and rarely in higher education (Kezar 2011;Vangrieken et al 2015). For these reasons, this study aims to understand how university teacher teams established by the organization learn to deal with their task together.…”

Professionalization Through Collaboration in Teacher Education – Identifying the Status Quo

“…Since the 1970s the topic is being transferred to the schooling sector and educational research. In fact, most of the research in this field accredits collaboration to support many positive outcomes such as a better school quality (Goddard, Goddard, & TschannenMoran, 2007;Ronfeld, Matthew, Owens Farmer, McQueen, & Grissom, 2015), healthier teachers (Schaarschmidt, 2005) and -for this study the most important finding -a profound, positive impact on teacher professionalization (Avalos, 2011;Vangrieken, Dochy, Raes, & Kyndt, 2015).…”