Collegial Practice – A New Initiative in the Senior School

At the Senior School Parent Information Evening held on 7 February, I spoke about some of the initiatives we are implementing at St Catherine’s this year. Our girls have already noticed one of the most important of these. Quite a number of our teachers will be sharing their classrooms with a colleague. We have called this initiative, Collegial Practice.

Teachers working together and sharing practice is an essential part of school life if teachers are to be the best they can be. Creating the time and opportunity for teachers to visit each other and work together is a challenge for schools. However, with some lateral and creative thinking, we have managed to create opportunities for some staff to do this in 2019.

Developing strong collegial relationships is a cornerstone of a healthy, vibrant and thriving teaching faculty. Teachers who work together and share their practices, plans, ideas and thinking about teaching and learning, inevitably become better and more effective teachers.

There is an extensive and consistent body of research highlighting the importance of teachers working together.

“Collective teacher efficacy is the collective belief of teachers in their ability to positively affect students. Collective teacher efficacy is strongly correlated with student achievement.”John Hattie, Academic, Melbourne Graduate School of Education. 

The collegial practice allocation will be utilised in a number of ways to support the teaching and learning program. Examples might be:

  • Team teaching
  • Classroom observations
  • Support for a new teacher
  • Mentoring and coaching
  • Classroom analysis
  • Research investigation into a colleague’s teaching.

The purpose of collegial practice is to create time and opportunity for teachers to be in a colleague’s classroom. Ultimately, it is intended to improve the quality of the teaching within the classroom which in turn supports the students. It provides a mechanism where teachers will be able to evaluate with greater clarity, their impact on student learning. The single most important aspect in supporting student learning is ensuring there is a quality teacher in the classroom.

Our teachers have embraced this opportunity to work more closely with each other. Initial feedback so far is that the teachers and the girls are enjoying this opportunity a great deal. We will be closely monitoring this initiative during the first semester this year. If, as we expect, it proves to be of benefit to the students and the teachers, we will be looking at ways to consolidate and expand the program.

Mr Robert Marshall, Deputy Principal, Teaching and Learning