Characteristics of effective learning teams
Whether we are talking about teacher teams or student teams, our purpose is always to learn. So what are the characteristics of an effective learning team? How do we nurture and sustain our team? How can we reach the results we want?
I have talked about building trust and the importance of it many times in my blog, on the Facebook page and in my webinars. But that is not all. To start, you’ll need to build the basis or the foundation for the team. Weather you are a member of the team, a teacher of student teams or an educational coach, these same principles apply.
For the foundation you’ll need a growth-oriented climate, you’ll need the team to share knowledge and skills and you’ll need to build the teams resilience. These will provide the structure and purpose for the teams to succeed. You’ll also need to help the team to determine priorities and create solutions and excellence.
After all this has been taken care of, a successful team will now share norms, values and strategies. A teacher team will share the best practices for student learning and students’ success. They’ll also have continuous dialogues about learning and teaching. And what is most important, they feel responsible for the success of all students.
A student team will share the same attributes, but their goal is to learn together and focus on their learning. Remember, team learning is not group work nor co-operative work.
Ultimately, the purpose of a teacher team is to support effective teachers in every classroom. Teachers who can reach and teach all of our students. A team of teachers at its best is a professional learning community which will sustain growth and renewal for the benefit of the students.
I will be giving you some tools and strategies for these characteristics later on this spring. I’ll also write about the online possibilities for team building and student engagement, so stay tuned. If you have a colleague who would like to read about this topic or a professional learning community which would benefit from the strategies, don’t hesitate to share this post with them. Stay safe <3
