Learning Deeply Together: An Action Research Inquiry Into the Functioning of Teacher Teams

• In Event: Professional Learning Communities: Advances in Teacher Learning

Abstract

This project represents an action research investigation into the mechanisms involved in a theory of action holding that formal small-group collaboration among teachers is a powerful lever for improving teaching and learning. It takes as a given that such collaboration can produce meaningful changes in instruction. It does not assume, however, that these conditions are separable from the contexts associated with the work. To the contrary, the researcher set out to understand how one high-functioning group of teachers engages in collaborative inquiry: to document the nature of the team’s work, to understand the processes that undergird it, and to leverage this information in service of improvement as well as to contribute to the existing literature on school-embedded professional learning.

Author

• Sarah Melanie Fine, Harvard University