A Research Article Summary
Title : Collegial collaboration when planning and preparing lessons: A largescale study
exploring the conditions and infrastructure for teachers’ professional development
1. Research question/problem statement
How teachers perceive the working conditions for planning and preparing their lessons,
focusing on collegial collaboration and systematic and formative teaching. Evidently,
schools still continue to experience problems in identifying strategies to make professional
development and teacher efficacy a reality in their everyday work. To further investigate
whether the time allocated for organised collaboration affects teachers' perceptions based
support, working conditions and teaching, a composite measure was constructed. This
measure allowed for the examination of the relationship between the amount of collegial
work and the qualitative aspects of teachers’ working conditions. The overall patterns
regarding scheduled collegial work with respect to PaP revealed a consistent pattern: The
more scheduled collegial work the teachers had, the more satisfied they were with the
amount of time available for planning and preparing lessons. The general pattern observed
here implies that increasing scheduled time for collegial work also leads to a greater
likelihood of teachers experiencing “Very strong” or “Fairly strong” support. Regarding
principal organisational support, the pattern clearly indicated that more scheduled time for
collegial work is connected to perceptions of stronger organisational support. Thus,
teachers belonging to the “More time” category of the composite measure were
approximately four times as likely to perceive “Very strong” or “Fairly strong”
organisational support from their principals compared to those in the “Less time” category.
2. Motivation/relevance
This paper observed that planning and assessing activities were mainly
performed individually and often outside of the working day. Nonetheless, the time for
collegial work affects this pattern and seems to offset the teachers’ workloads to some
extent. This indicates that when teachers have the possibility to collaborate around PaP,
this also seems to have a broader effect on how they work were almost twice as likely
to be satisfied with the time available for PaP compared to those in the “Less time”
category. The corresponding odds ratio (OR) for the teachers located in the “More time”
, category was almost three (2.72) times as large as that of the “Less time” category.
Organised time for collaborative work depends on whether school leaders formalise
this time on a daily basis. Does this formalised approach affect teachers’ views on
leadership for school development in general? The results indicated that it did. Teachers
with more scheduled collaborative time generally reported stronger organisational as
well as pedagogical support from their principals and lead teachers. For instance, 55%
of the teachers in the “More time” category of the composite measure of scheduled
collegial work reported “Very strong” or “Fairly strong” organisational support, while
pedagogical support and support from lead teachers stood at 47% and 42%,
respectively. Decreasing scheduled time for collaborative work led to a reduction in the
number of teachers perceiving “Very strong” or “Fairly strong” support. Thus, given
the same response options, the following results were recorded for the “Less time”
category: organisational support (24%), pedagogical support (20%) and lead teacher
support (18%).
3. Theoretical framework
These patterns generally match those of the time allotted to reflect on and assess
lessons. Teachers with more time tended to be more satisfied. However, it is worth
noting that it is challenging to allocate time for assessments; among the teachers in the
“Less time” category of the trichotomised composite measure of scheduled collegial
work, a smaller proportion (18%) reported being satisfied with the time available for
reflection and assessments. These proportions were higher for those in the “Moderate
time” (25%) and “More time” (38%) categories. This paper presents the same variables
subjected to a binary logistic regression analysis along with adjustments for gender,
school level and school type. Teachers located in the “More time” category were more
than three times as likely to be satisfied with the amount of time available for reflection
and assessments compared to those in the “Less time” category. The same comparison
for teachers in the “Moderate time” category.
Regarding principal organisational support, the pattern clearly indicated that
more scheduled time for collegial work is connected to perceptions of stronger
organisational support. Thus, teachers belonging to the “More time” category of the
composite measure were approximately four times as likely to perceive “Very strong”
or “Fairly strong” organisational support from their principals compared to those in the
“Less time” category. The corresponding OR for the “Moderate time” category was
Title : Collegial collaboration when planning and preparing lessons: A largescale study
exploring the conditions and infrastructure for teachers’ professional development
1. Research question/problem statement
How teachers perceive the working conditions for planning and preparing their lessons,
focusing on collegial collaboration and systematic and formative teaching. Evidently,
schools still continue to experience problems in identifying strategies to make professional
development and teacher efficacy a reality in their everyday work. To further investigate
whether the time allocated for organised collaboration affects teachers' perceptions based
support, working conditions and teaching, a composite measure was constructed. This
measure allowed for the examination of the relationship between the amount of collegial
work and the qualitative aspects of teachers’ working conditions. The overall patterns
regarding scheduled collegial work with respect to PaP revealed a consistent pattern: The
more scheduled collegial work the teachers had, the more satisfied they were with the
amount of time available for planning and preparing lessons. The general pattern observed
here implies that increasing scheduled time for collegial work also leads to a greater
likelihood of teachers experiencing “Very strong” or “Fairly strong” support. Regarding
principal organisational support, the pattern clearly indicated that more scheduled time for
collegial work is connected to perceptions of stronger organisational support. Thus,
teachers belonging to the “More time” category of the composite measure were
approximately four times as likely to perceive “Very strong” or “Fairly strong”
organisational support from their principals compared to those in the “Less time” category.
2. Motivation/relevance
This paper observed that planning and assessing activities were mainly
performed individually and often outside of the working day. Nonetheless, the time for
collegial work affects this pattern and seems to offset the teachers’ workloads to some
extent. This indicates that when teachers have the possibility to collaborate around PaP,
this also seems to have a broader effect on how they work were almost twice as likely
to be satisfied with the time available for PaP compared to those in the “Less time”
category. The corresponding odds ratio (OR) for the teachers located in the “More time”
, category was almost three (2.72) times as large as that of the “Less time” category.
Organised time for collaborative work depends on whether school leaders formalise
this time on a daily basis. Does this formalised approach affect teachers’ views on
leadership for school development in general? The results indicated that it did. Teachers
with more scheduled collaborative time generally reported stronger organisational as
well as pedagogical support from their principals and lead teachers. For instance, 55%
of the teachers in the “More time” category of the composite measure of scheduled
collegial work reported “Very strong” or “Fairly strong” organisational support, while
pedagogical support and support from lead teachers stood at 47% and 42%,
respectively. Decreasing scheduled time for collaborative work led to a reduction in the
number of teachers perceiving “Very strong” or “Fairly strong” support. Thus, given
the same response options, the following results were recorded for the “Less time”
category: organisational support (24%), pedagogical support (20%) and lead teacher
support (18%).
3. Theoretical framework
These patterns generally match those of the time allotted to reflect on and assess
lessons. Teachers with more time tended to be more satisfied. However, it is worth
noting that it is challenging to allocate time for assessments; among the teachers in the
“Less time” category of the trichotomised composite measure of scheduled collegial
work, a smaller proportion (18%) reported being satisfied with the time available for
reflection and assessments. These proportions were higher for those in the “Moderate
time” (25%) and “More time” (38%) categories. This paper presents the same variables
subjected to a binary logistic regression analysis along with adjustments for gender,
school level and school type. Teachers located in the “More time” category were more
than three times as likely to be satisfied with the amount of time available for reflection
and assessments compared to those in the “Less time” category. The same comparison
for teachers in the “Moderate time” category.
Regarding principal organisational support, the pattern clearly indicated that
more scheduled time for collegial work is connected to perceptions of stronger
organisational support. Thus, teachers belonging to the “More time” category of the
composite measure were approximately four times as likely to perceive “Very strong”
or “Fairly strong” organisational support from their principals compared to those in the
“Less time” category. The corresponding OR for the “Moderate time” category was
