Suggestions for providing and creating opportunities for collaborative early professional development (EPD) in school include:
- enabling early career teachers to work in a team or department alongside an experienced colleague who has the same or similar role
- sharing planning and development of materials and resources through planning, preparation and assessment time, and
- enabling teachers to engage in professional dialogue with peers through, for example, team or departmental meetings.
Suggestions for providing and creating opportunities for collaborative EPD through a local authority include:
- supporting early career teachers’ networks and other opportunities for sharing and developing practice such as teaching and learning forums
- providing or ‘signposting’ examples of relevant and recent research to inform teachers’ choices about where to focus their development and collaborative working
- monitoring or coaching teachers as they begin to work collaboratively
Benefits of collaborative EPD
Informal and formal networks can provide support from within and beyond school. Networks can often lead to other development opportunities such as exchanging visits between colleagues in other schools to observe and be observed and sharing resources.
Teaching and learning forums help to develop understanding and knowledge about aspects of teaching and learning that early career teachers may not otherwise have the opportunity of experiencing through their own everyday classroom practice.
Teaching and learning groups reinforce the benefits of collaboration about classroom learning and can support teachers to develop skills linked to the standards concerned with team working and collaboration.
