Creative Co-Construction by Kim

I wonder why some teachers are so resistant to collaboration? I guess if you are forced into a situation with someone you just don’t “click” with it could be quite frustrating. In the qualitative study I read, researchers tried to develop a framework to evaluate the effectiveness of collaboration between ESL and classroom teachers. The findings were that more successful collaboration between teachers is shown by shared language and experiences; the more time the teachers spent collaborating and debriefing, the better their experience was. The researchers also outlined the five stages of collaboration. The five stages are:

1. Passive Resistance

2. Compliance

3. Accommodation

4. Convergence

6. Creative Co-construction

I think as a group we have reached creative co-construction. We have discussed every part of this project and there have been some things we’ve agreed on immediately and other things that have been debated. The end result however, is an in depth inquiry project that we can all take pride in. Working with five other people on a group project could have been super difficult, but after all is said and done, I’m really proud of my group.

Davison, C. (2006). Collaboration between ESL and content teachers: How do we know when we are doing it right? International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 9 (4), 454 – 475.