Learning by Doing (Together): Collaboration and Teacher Skill Formation

• In Event: Staffing for Special Education Service Delivery and Impacts of SPED Service Delivery Models

Abstract

How do workplace collaborations affect individual worker productivity once the partnership ends? I study co-teaching in schools to measure whether teachers genuinely learn from collaboration or simply benefit from immediate assistance. Using administrative data on all teachers in a state from 2012-2019, I exploit plausibly exogenous variation in co-teaching assignment driven by special education enrollment and scheduling constraints rather than teacher quality. Teachers experience persistent improvement in student achievement after returning to solo teaching, with gains averaging 0.04 SD and reaching 0.10 SD when paired with highly experienced partners (16+ years). These lasting productivity gains demonstrate that strategic workplace collaboration can accelerate skill development, with important implications for team formation and mentorship design across industries.

Author

• John Fallon, Boston University
  Presenting Author