Leading Collaborative Learning
Empowering Excellence
- Lyn Sharratt - University of Toronto, Canada
- Beate Planche - Collaborative Learning Services
Foreword by Jim Knight, Introduction by John Hattie, and Afterword by Michael Fullan
Leadership, collaborative learning, and student achievement – discover what works!
Today’s improving school systems require educators who intentionally collaborate and co-learn in service of students to get expected results. This resource-rich book from experts Sharratt and Planche is a straightforward, strategic path to achieving sustainable communities of deep learners. Research-proven inquiry techniques, vignettes, case studies and practical action-oriented protocols help you build strong learning relationships for high-impact student achievement.
System leaders, principals and teachers learn to:
- Integrate diverse views and perspectives
- Build trust and hear every voice
- Apply a replicable inquiry framework to leverage key resources and processes
- Build students’ cognitive, interpersonal, and intrapersonal skills
- Use “Assessment-in-Action” to improve, monitor and sustain student and staff progress
- Build a collaborative culture through learning together
Use this guide to transform your school from a place of ‘good intentions’ to a center of intentional practice today!
“Is your school ready to learn to meet student needs as a team? If so, Leading Collaborative Learning: Empowering Excellence is the book to help your staff learn together in order to improve student learning.”
Renee Peoples, Teaching and Learning Coach
West Elementary, NC
“This is more than just another book on school leadership or school improvement. Collaborative learning is essential for success, and educators working in any capacity can find information here about how their role contributes to the process. From system leaders to school leaders to teachers to students, this book clearly explains the necessity of everyone’s participation in collaborative learning processes. As the authors state, participation in collaboration “is a powerful way to deepen educator capacity, to increase the value of the professional capital in the school, and to harness the power of the collective.”
Melanie Mares Sainz, Instructional Coach
Lowndes Middle School, VA
“Leading Collaborative Learning: Empowering Excellence is the definitive source for your comprehensive step by step implementation of collaborative learning. This book belongs on every educator’s desk.”
“Is your school ready to learn to meet student needs as a team? If so, Leading Collaborative Learning: Empowering Excellence is the book to help your staff learn together in order to improve student learning.”
“I think the particular strength of this book is that it addresses something that is quite difficult to do, but easy to talk about—that is, establishing a collaborative culture of inquiry in a school. So many leaders talk about collaboration, but then lead by telling. This book helps leaders who may not have had the best leadership models themselves “see” what it looks like to “co-labor” (a turn of the phrase that is particularly welcome and illustrative, in my opinion) in a school setting for the good of teachers and kids.”
“This is more than just another book on school leadership or school improvement. Collaborative learning is essential for success, and educators working in any capacity can find information here about how their role contributes to the process. From system leaders to school leaders to teachers to students, this book clearly explains the necessity of everyone’s participation in collaborative learning processes. As the authors state, participation in collaboration “is a powerful way to deepen educator capacity, to increase the value of the professional capital in the school, and to harness the power of the collective.”
"This exceptional book is a rich and practical resource for leaders who realize the power of working together to improve schools. In a system where collaborative practices are the norm, student achievement and well-being becomes a shared responsibility. Deeper learning is maximized for everyone."
"Recent advances in digitised technology tend to isolate learners but isolating teachers in their Professional Learning is dangerous. While collaborative inquiry may lead to deep and meaningful insights, this kind of work is easier to describe than practice. In this important book the authors examine what it actually means to ‘work together’ for a common purpose. They understand the complexity and analyse its components. It is essential reading for leaders and teachers committed to improvement in students’ learning through authentic research in the classroom. Full of practical advice backed up by years of successful experience – the ultimate collaborative resource."
"Finally, Beate Planche and Lyn Sharratt have delivered a bold definition, provocative insights, and a clear framework for Collaborative Learning. They compel us in Leading Collaborative Learning to recognize that collaboration is a focused learning while outlining outcomes of a quality collaborative process. Sharratt and Planche have created a vital challenge for improving systems, schools and classroom practice. This book is a must read for all who wish to make a difference for the future now."
"Sharratt and Planche understand that effective collaborative learning means co-laboring at all levels throughout the system. In this book, they help readers be better at co-laboring, be it at the school or systems level, and they offer extensive processes and resources to make collaborative learning be growth-producing for all involved."
"Everyone knows that educators need to work better together—but the question of how to do so has rarely been addressed beyond the level of glittering generalities. In this breakthrough volume, Lyn Sharratt and Beate Planche provide busy professionals with precise action plans to build powerful and sustainable collaborative cultures in our schools. This is an indispensable contribution for all teachers, principals, and system-level leaders who are serious about uplifting learning for all students."
"Lyn Sharratt and Beate Planche have done us all a great favor by writing this book. This well-researched resource provides a useful vocabulary for talking about and understanding Collaborative Learning, describes an incredibly helpful set of tools so that anyone can use them to lead collaborative conversations, and clearly defines a theory of action to help us organize and ground our collaborative work."