Teachers as learners – with a little help from a critical friend

Abstract

Professional learning is intended to improve teaching, benefit student learning and in the longer term improve achievement of targets in schools. When teachers take responsibility not only for their own learning but also for their colleagues’, it can lead to a shift in attitudes towards collaborative learning. This study presents an example of a professional learning community (PLC) based on teachers’ engagement in systematic inquiries. The aim of the study was to explore crucial factors during the process of critical friendship that could be related to a PLC. The research context was a series of shadowing sessions where teachers were expected to document teaching and provide feedback. The analyses are mainly based on documentation, in the form of shadowing logs produced when teachers study each other in action. Findings indicate that the role of critical friend was hard to internalise and that most of the teachers did not use it to its full potential for learning, according to the Vygotskian concept of the zone of proximal development. Three crucial factors for learning in a PLC are addressed: active choices related to teachers’ and students’ learning during different phases in the inquiry; the complexity of mastering several skills in action research at the same time; and the teachers’ attitudes to professional learning.

Keywords:

• collaborative learning
• critical friend
• professional learning community
• risk-taking
• shadowing
• zone of proximal development

Acknowledgements

Many thanks are due to the teachers and school leaders in the project presented. It would not have been possible to perform without their documentation.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. The national score highlights how many students reached the level of grade A–E, which is the level that is accepted for studies in upper secondary school in the Swedish school system. Whether such positive results are sustainable or not will be followed up in future studies.

2. Some teachers described the certification of skills and knowledge assessed within the university as an important impact factor for the future.

Additional information

Funding

This paper is one of several interlinked studies in a research project with financial support from the Swedish Research Council [grant number 2012-5953].