Building Collective Teacher Efficacy to Improve Student Learning

In his influential book, Visible Learning, John Hattie shook the world of education by revealing the effect various instructional practices and factors had on student learning. He found that the average effect size of all the different interventions he studied was 0.4, and so he considered this his hinge point. If you’re like me, my curiosity is naturally piqued to know, “What is on the top of the list?”

At the top of the list, with an effect size of 1.44, three times the desired amount, is “Collective Teacher Efficacy.” What does this even mean though? Furthermore, how can I foster this in the school setting I am in? I am going to attempt to answer both of these questions in this blog post.

So what is “Collective Teacher Efficacy” anyway? It really boils down to this: As a team, we believe in each other and that what we’re doing is going to have a positive effect on students. This could relate to grade level teams, content area teams, and even entire schools across a span of grade levels. For this particular blog post, I am going to focus in on grade level, content area teams. For example, if you teach 6th grade ELA, it would mean the other teachers in your school who also teach 6th grade ELA. I’m going to continue with five specific ways teams of teachers can intentionally build collective teacher efficacy.

ONE: SHARED TEACHER COLLABORATION TO DEVELOP COMMON LESSONS AND ASSESSMENTS

Grade level content teams need consistent collaboration time each week, preferably multiple times a week, to develop common lessons and assessments together. This is a non-negotiable. It should be to the point where you feel like you need your team to develop shared lessons because you know that what is developed together is better than what you could develop on your own. If you’re using consistent curriculum materials that have already been purchased, there is still great value in going through the materials together to make changes and talk about how you will use these curriculum materials in front of students. So often we assume that because we’re using the same curriculum materials that we’re on the same page. This could not be further from the truth.

Every teacher brings unique ideas and instructional techniques to the same curriculum materials. There is so much value in hearing and discussing these different ideas as a team. Please don’t hear me wrong with what I am saying here. I don’t think every classroom should be exactly the same. That would take away from the art of teaching. I am simply saying that it’s important to discuss intentions and understandings of curriculum materials as a team so that everyone is on the same page and has the benefit of gaining new ideas and perspectives from one another.

TWO: OPPORTUNITIES TO SEE EACH OTHER TEACH

Opening up your classroom so another teacher can come and observe you and your students can be scary and intimidating, but pushing past these initial feelings of discomfort opens up possibly the easiest and most efficient way to build collective teacher efficacy. So often we think we’re on the same page or know what the other person is talking about in collaboration meetings, but when we are able to see another colleague teaching in action it gives up the opportunity to say, “Oh, that’s what you meant by that!” Additionally, you are able to pick up so many ideas simply from classroom management procedures and routines.

While observing in another teacher’s classroom, you’re also able to focus in on how their students are responding to the same or similar content and curriculum as your students. If your school has an instructional coach, ask them to cover your class so you can see a colleague teach. If an instructional coach is not available at your school, consider asking a colleague who has prep at the time you want to observe, with the promise of returning the favor if they want to watch a colleague during your prep.

One idea that’s been swirling in my head with teacher-to-teacher classroom observation is using a domino effect across a single class period with a lesson that a team of teachers has planned together. For example, if there are three 6th grade ELA teachers, I would go in as the literacy coach during a time I am not teaching to teach for Teacher A, who would go and observe Teacher B for 20 minutes. Next, Teacher A would come back, and I would move to take over for Teacher B, so Teacher B could go observe Teacher C. I would then repeat and take over for Teacher C so Teacher C could observe Teacher A. During a collaboration time in the next few days, we could debrief as a team on what we noticed. It would be powerful to all see a piece of the same lesson that we collaboratively planned together.

THREE: LOOK AT STUDENT WORK TOGETHER

If you are taking the time as a collaborative team to develop common formative and summative assessments with one another, then you should take the time as a team to look at students’ assessments together. That proficiency rubric that you toiled over together, analyzing every word and intricacy between levels? Don’t just take that rubric into your own classroom with your own students and your own interpretations and let it stop there.

We spend so much time in collaborative teams developing lessons and assessments, but we rarely take the time to talk about how the lessons went or look at students’ work together to visually see how the lesson actually went. Take the first 10-15 minutes of a collaboration meeting and each bring 4-5 pieces of student work from the same common assessment that represent a variety of ability levels. This practice has several benefits:

1. Teachers from your team will calibrate scoring and grade more consistently with one another. It will allow your team to have tough conversations with each other about how you interpret student work and why.
2. Natural conversations will come up about instruction. “I noticed that your students are doing a great job of explaining the textual evidence they used in their reading response. What did you do in your teaching that may have created this result?”
3. I’ve done this activity before where teachers are afraid to bring students who didn’t do well on an assessment because they feel it reflects poorly on them. If we are truly working toward Collective Teacher Efficacy though, we will bring the student’s work sample who absolutely stumps us, knowing that looking at his or her work together will generate more ideas and strategies for how to move this student forward as a reader and writer.
4. You will find places where your proficiency rubric fails you. This could mean that a part of the rubric has to be written more specifically or something needs to be added or even taken away.

FOUR: PROFESSIONAL STAFF RELATIONSHIPS

Think about a friendship or a romantic relationship. What happens when two people co-exist without any communication or feedback with one another about expectations for the relationship or about how the relationship is going? It generally doesn’t end well. So why do we skirt around having communication about our expectations or how our team dynamics are going with our teaching teams? In order to improve Collective Teacher Efficacy, we need to normalize checking-in with each other about how our teaching relationship is going.

I created a free printable PDF that gives conversation questions to help foster healthy teaching team relationships. You can download it for free by clicking here or on the image below. The PDF is separated into discussion questions to ask before, during, and at the end of the school year.

FIVE: HAVE A PROCESS FOR IDEA SHARING

Selecting a new set of books for your next literature study? Deciding on a new reading lesson sequence for your next reading unit? Brainstorming how to tackle persuasive writing in a new and creative way? How does your grade level content teams share ideas for the scenarios listed? That answer will tell a lot about the health of the Collective Teacher Efficacy of your team.

In order to have Collective Teacher Efficacy, every teacher sitting around the table must feel like their voice is valued and heard, even if their idea isn’t the one their team moves forward with. Here is a simple way to allow this to happen.

1. Recognize as a team when a decision has to be made about something relating to students, curriculum, or instruction.
2. Take the time to allow each person on the team to share their idea for what should be done. This may feel awkward, but set a timer. Give each person 30 seconds to a minute to share their idea of what should be done. Refrain from giving your opinion about others’ ideas. Allow each person to share their idea first.
3. Once everyone has shared their idea, go around the table one more time and let each person share a final thoughts. Some people’s opinions may change after listening to others and reflecting on what others had to say. Some people may not have a strong opinion or thoughts to share, and it is totally fine if they choose to pass as long as they had the opportunity to share.
4. Have a final collaborative conversation and come together as a group to come together with a shared idea.

Teams may have more dominant and submissive members. The more dominant members may just assume that everyone shares the same ideas and opinions as them, while the more submissive members have different ideas and just don’t feel comfortable speaking up. This can lead to resentment and unhealthy team dynamics.

Hopefully at least one of the five strategies above spoke to you and gave you an actionable step to take today in order to improve Collective Teacher Efficacy in your school!

Until next time,

Kasey