Relationships between primary school teachers' perceived learning outcomes of collaboration, foci and learning activities

The importance of teacher collaborative learning is generally accepted. Nevertheless, little is known about what such collaborative learning looks like or what teachers learn from their collaborations during their everyday work. By comparing teacher learning within different contexts of collaboration across a large variety of schools, the present study hopes to show how collaborative learning varies in form and effect in different contexts of collaboration. The present study examined primary school teachers' perceived learning outcomes in relation to the frequency with which teachers perceived learning activities to occur in their collaboration with colleagues, as well as in relation to different foci of their collaboration. Three different foci as context of teacher collaboration were distinguished: (1) implementing new lesson materials, (2) implementing a new teaching approach, and (3) teaching a particular grade level group. A questionnaire was administered to 411 teachers from 49 schools, asking for their perceptions of the frequency of collaborative learning activities within three different foci as context of collaboration, and their perceived learning outcomes in these contexts. Findings show that engaging in collaborative activities related positively to learning outcomes in all foci. The least learning outcomes were perceived within the collaboration focussing on teaching a particular grade level group. Learning activities and foci of collaboration had both a unique as well as a joint effect on learning outcomes. (C) 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.