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
"It is clear that Sharratt and Planche have themselves done everything that is in the book. What is even clearer is that they have helped scores of others engage in these actions suited to their own situations. This is a book that has crystal clear concepts, co-learning galore, guided by research, grounded in practice—all devoted to deep learning by students and adults alike."
“The credibility of Sharratt and Planche, two of Ontario’s most respected curriculum leaders comes from the fact that they do not only write about what works, they have done the work! Their call for deeper learning as a result of collaboration or co-labouring takes this idea to a new level of much-needed inquiry. Their discussion of the research-informed elements for authentic learning and the related competencies further validate their assertions. I appreciate the holistic nature of their work with the focus on cognitive, interpersonal and intra-personal skills. The deconstruction of ideas related to innovation, creativity and growth mindsets and the identification of the specific behaviours of classroom teachers that build strong learning cultures will contribute significantly to our knowledge base.”
"If we are to move forward with making learning the central focus of schools, then we need to understand how to get past adult issues and politics, and concentrate more on authentic collaboration, which when done well can improve learning among adults and students. In Leading Collaborative Learning, Lyn Sharratt and Beate Planche show us how to do that."
"This valuable resource explains clearly and persuasively why collaborative learning really is a good idea. It challenges you to reflect deeply on your current collaborations, and offers helpful definitions, examples and tools, whatever your role in the system. A great read!"
"Leading Collaborative Learning: Empowering Excellence is a timely, important and compelling call to collective action and professional agency. It reminds us that teachers working together on real issues of learning and teaching can be a powerful catalyst for change. This is a must read book for anyone interested in securing and sustaining authentic school and system improvement."
"Good collaboration, collaborative skills and behaviors increasingly are critical to our success in teaching and learning, and in the organization of education. Leading Collaborative Learning provides analysis and roadmaps for understanding, building and developing collaboration in the work of schools and setting the stage for deeper learning. It builds on evidence from the field and points to actions we can take to strengthen collaboration. It is an important contribution, a good read with intriguing ideas for us each to reflect upon."
"Lyn Sharratt and Beate Planche not only highlight the power of collaboration they go further to identify the key narratives to which this collective needs to attend. Their notion of collaborative learning involves systems and school leaders building collective capacity, energizing knowledge together, and moving schools from being places of “plans and good intentions” to centers of “purposeful practice” on the part of all teachers who then empower students to do the same. Who does not want to part of such a school?"
"The major strength of the text addresses two points: the opportunity to really connect the need to engage in collaborative processes as a way to improve schools, and the way in which that same learning assists teachers in developing similar processes in their classrooms with students."