Exploring the Impact of Teacher Collaboration on Student Learning: A Focus on Writing

In this yearlong case study, six English teachers in an urban high school in Northern California engaged in sustained collaboration focused on developing and enacting strategies to improve the writing skills of their culturally and linguistically diverse freshmen. The study was conducted between August 2018 and June 2019, to determine the connections, if any, between teacher collaboration and student learning. Qualitative data were analyzed from teacher collaboration and observation of classroom practices, focus groups and teacher-created artifacts. Students’ on-demand writing assessments in fall and spring were compared with instructionally supported writing. Student surveys were analyzed in a mixed methods approach. Findings suggest that students’ writing skills improved and students reported increased confidence in writing and other literacy practices. The lessons developed in the collaboration meetings and observed in practice, in tandem with student and teacher self-reports suggest a positive relationship between teacher collaboration and student learning outcomes

Learning to Teach Writing in the Age of Standardization and Accountability; Toward an Equity Writing Pedagogy

Qualitative data from over three years of a lesson study project were analyzed through a situated learning theory lens in order to describe the connections between teacher learning and the variety of situations, or contexts that shaped the learning. The lesson study professional development model included planning, observation, and student data analysis protocols. The lesson study was situated in various middle school classroom settings, which provided multiple learning contexts. Additionally, teacher learning was shaped by the larger socio-political context often comprised of accountability rhetoric, standardization, and testing pressure. This study described how two teachers negotiated balance, or theoretical equilibrium, across a variety of competing interests and social pressures in order to define and operationalize equity in their writing pedagogy. Findings from this study suggest the design of practice-based teacher professional development models like lesson study, which afford opportunities for teachers to investigate and develop equity teaching in any grade or content area