Abstract
To deal with recent reforms and the accompanying complexity of work in secondary education, ongoing collaboration between teachers has become more important. A community is seen as a promising learning environment to support and embed collaboration into the culture of the school. However, community theory for the design of teacher communities seems underdeveloped. Therefore, this study aims to formulate a set of design principles to foster the development of teacher communities in secondary education. The set of design principles is based on a review of literature, as well as on a best-practice case. The case study was used to validate design principles from the literature in the target context. The resulting design principles were based on context-intervention-mechanism-outcome logic that takes into account the context-dependency of interventions as well as the mechanisms that help with understanding of how interventions produce certain outcomes. Implications for practice relate to ownership and co-design of the arrangement. The set of design principles provides a practical basis for teachers and administrators aiming to facilitate community building in their school. Future research is recommended on testing the effectiveness of the arrangement in the target context by means of a multiple case study.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
(1) ((design and principle*)) and ((communit* and building) or communit* or group or team or collaborat* or learning)), (2) (designing) and ((communit* and building) or communit* or group or team or collaborat* or learning)), (3) (design) and ((professional and communit*) or cscl), (4) (moderat* and communit*), (5) (facilitating and communit* and building), (6) (professional and communit* and workplace), (7) (effective* and work) and (group or team*), (8) (effective* and group and dynamics).
References
Andrews, D., & Lewis, M. (2002). The experience of a professional community: Teachers developing a new image of themselves and their workplace. Educational Research, 44, 237–253.
Andriessen, D. (2007). Designing and testing an OD intervention: Reporting intellectual capital to develop organizations. Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 43, 89–107.
Barab, S. A., MaKinster, J. G., Moore, J. A., & Cunningham, D. J. (2001). Designing and building an on-line community: The struggle to support sociability in the inquiry learning forum. Educational Technology Research and Development, 49(4), 71–96.
Benson, G., Noesgaard, C., & Drummond-Young, C. (2001). Facilitating small group learning: Transforming nursing education through problem-based-learning. Sudbury: Jones & Bartlett.
Bolam, R., McMahon, A., Stoll, L., Thomas, S., & Wallace, M. (2005). Creating and sustaining effective professional learning communities (research report RR637). Bristol: University of Bristol.
Brettschneider, A., & Mather, M. A. (2005). Improving online collaborative learning for teachers: How changes to design features of the adolescent literacy collaboratory influenced participant retention, overall satisfaction, and engagement?. Providence, RI: The Education Alliance.
Collis, B., & Margaryan, A. (2005). Design criteria for work-based learning: Merrill’s first principles of instruction expanded. British Journal of Educational Technology, 36, 725–738.
Conley, S., Fauske, J., & Pounder, D. G. (2004). Teacher work group effectiveness. Educational Administration Quarterly, 40, 663–703.
Darling-Hammond, L., & McLaughlin, M. W. (1995). Policies that support professional development in an era of reform. Phi Delta Kappan, 76, 597–604.
de Laat, M. (2006). Networked learning. Apeldoorn: Politieacademie.
Denyer, D., Tranfield, D., & van Aken, J. E. (2008). Developing design propositions through research synthesis. Organizational Studies, 29, 393–413.
Eisenhardt, K. M. (1989). Building theories from case study research. Academy of Management Review, 14, 532–550.
Gros, B. (2001). Instructional design for computer-supported collaborative learning in primary and secondary school. Computers in Human Behavior, 17, 339–351.
Hamalainen, R. (2008). Designing and evaluating collaboration in a virtual game environment for vocational learning. Computers & Education, 50, 98–109.
Hamalainen, R., Manninen, T., Jarvela, S., & Hakkinen, P. (2006). Learning to collaborate: Designing collaboration in a 3-D game environment. Internet and Higher Education, 9, 47–61.
Hanraets, I., Potters, H., & Jansen, D. (2006). Communities in het onderwijs. Adviezen en tips, een handreiking voor moderatoren. Heerlen: Ruud de Moor Centrum.
Hargreaves, A., & Dawe, R. (1990). Paths of professional development: Contrived collegiality, collaborative culture, and the case of peer coaching. Teaching and Teacher Education, 6, 227–241.
Henderson, M. (2007). Sustaining online teacher professional development through community design. Campus-Wide Information Systems, 24(3), 162–173.
Hord, S. M. (1986). A synthesis of research on organizational collaboration. Educational Leadership, 43(5), 22–26.
Imants, J. (2003). Two basic mechanisms for organizational learning in schools. European Journal of Teacher Education, 26, 293–311.
Imants, J., Sleegers, P., & Witziers, B. (2001). The tension between organisational sub-structures in secondary schools and educational reform. School Leadership & Management, 21, 289–308.
Jackson, T. O. (2009). Towards collective work and responsibility: Sources of support within a freedom school teacher community. Teaching and Teacher Education, 25, 1141–1149.
Janssen, J., Erkens, G., Kanselaar, G., & Jaspers, J. (2007). Visualization of participation: Does it contribute to successful computer-supported collaborative learning? Computers & Education, 49, 1037–1065.
Kain, D. L. (1998). Camel-makers: Building effective teacher teams together. A modern fable for educators. Westerville, OH: National Middle School Association.
Kali, Y., Levin-Peled, R., & Dori, Y. J. (2009). The role of design-principles in designing courses that promote collaborative learning in higher education. Computers in Human Behavior, 25, 1067–1078.
Korhonen, V. (2001). Situated and socially shared cognition in practice: Designing a collaborative network learning experience for adult learners. Paper presented at the world conference on educational multimedia, hypermedia and telecommunications, Finland.
Kreijns, K., Kirschner, P. A., & Jochems, W. (2003). Identifying the pitfalls for social interaction in CSCL environments: A review of the research. Computers in Human Behavior, 19, 335–353.
Lee, Y. (2006). Design participation tactics: Redefining user participation design. Paper presented at the Design Research Society Conference, Lisbon.
Leinonen, T., Hakkarainen, K., Appelt, W., Dean, P., Gomez-Skarmetav, A., Ligorio, B., et al. (2001). ITCOLE project: Designing innovative technology for collaborative learning and knowledge building. Paper presented at the world conference on educational multimedia, hypermedia and telecommunications, Finland.
Levine, T. H., & Marcus, A. S. (2010). How the structure and focus of teachers’ collaborative activities facilitate and constrain teacher learning? Teaching and Teacher Education, 26, 389–398.
Little, J. W. (1990). The persistence of privacy: Autonomy and initiative in teachers’ professional relations. Teachers’ College Record, 91, 509–536.
Little, J. W. (2003). Inside teacher community: Representations of classroom practice. Teachers College Record, 105, 913–945.
MacDonald, R. J. (2008). Professional development for information communication technology integration: Identifying and supporting a community of practice through design-based research. Journal of Research on Technology in Education, 40, 429–445.
Mahoney, J. (2003, August). Tentative answers to questions about causal mechanisms. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association, Philadelphia, PA.
Main, K. M., & Bryer, F. K. (2005). What does a ‘good’ teaching team look like in a middle school classroom? Paper presented at the 3rd international conference on cognition, language, and special education, Gold Coast, CA.
Mathieu, J. E., Heffner, T. S., Goodwin, G. F., Salas, E., & Cannon-Bowers, J. A. (2000). The influence of shared mental models on team process and performance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 85, 273–283.
McKenney, S. (2001). Computer-based support for science education material developers in Africa: Exploring potentials. Doctoral dissertation, Enschede, Printpartners Ipskamp.
McKenney, S., & van den Akker, J. (2005). Computer-based support for curriculum designers: A case of developmental research. Educational Technology Research and Development, 53(2), 41–66.
Midgley, G. (2000). Systemic intervention: philosophy, methodology, and practice. New York: Kluwer.
Moller, L. (1998). Designing communities of learners for asynchronous distance education. Educational Technology Research and Development, 46(4), 115–122.
Murk, P. J. (1994). Effective group dynamics: theories and practices. Paper presented at the international adult education conference, Nashville, TN.
Pajunen, K. (2008). The nature of organizational mechanisms. Organization Studies, 29, 1449–1468.
Palincsar, A. S., Magnusson, S. J., Marano, N., Ford, D., & Brown, N. (1998). Designing a community of practice: Principles and practices of the GIsML community. Teaching and Teacher Education, 14, 5–19.
Pawson, R., & Tilley, N. (1997). Realistic evaluation. London: Sage.
Ropes, D. C. (2010). Organizing professional communities of practice. Amsterdam: University of Amsterdam.
Rubens, W., Emans, B., Leinonen, T., Skarmeta, A. G., & Simons, P. R. J. (2005). Samenwerkend leren met behulp van ICT [Collaborative learning with the help of ICT]. Informatiekunde en Informatietechnologie, 15(1), 24–27.
Seashore, K. R., Anderson, A. R., & Riedel, E. (2003, July). Implementing arts for academic achievement: The impact of mental models, professional community and interdisciplinary teaming. Paper presented at the seventeenth conference of the international congress for school effectiveness and improvement, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
Skerrett, A. (2010). ‘There’s going to be community. There’s going to be knowledge’: Designs for learning in a standardised age. Teaching and Teacher Education, 26, 648–655.
Southern Regional Education Board. (1994). Creating an effective team structure for achieving ‘high schools that work’ goals. Atlanta, GA: SREB.
Stoll, L., Bolam, R., McMahon, A., Wallace, M., & Thomas, S. (2006). Professional learning communities: A review of the literature. Journal of Educational Change, 7, 221–258.
Strijbos, J. W., Martens, R. L., & Jochems, W. M. G. (2004). Designing for interaction: Six steps to designing computer-supported group-based learning. Computers & Education, 42, 403–424.
Tabak, I. (2004). Reconstructing context: Negotiating the tension between exogenous and endogenous educational design. Educational Psychologist, 39, 225–233.
van Aken, J. E. (2004). Management research based on the paradigm of the design sciences: The quest for field-tested and grounded technological rules. Journal of Management Studies, 41, 219–246.
van Aken, J. E. (2005). Management research as a design science: Articulating the research products of mode 2 knowledge production in management. British Journal of Management, 16, 19–36.
van Aken, J. E. (2007). Developing organization studies as an applied science using a triple learning approach. Paper presented at the third organization studies summer workshop, Greece.
van den Akker, J. (1999). Principles and methods of development research. In J. van den Akker, R. Branch, K. Gustafson, N. Nieveen, & T. Plomp (Eds.), Design approaches and tools in education and training (pp. 1–14). Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer.
van Woerkom, M. (2001). Critical reflection at work: Bridging individual and organisational learning. Enschede, The Netherlands: University of Twente.
Vescio, V., Ross, D., & Adams, A. (2008). A review of research on the impact of professional learning communities on teaching practice and student learning. Teaching and Teacher Education, 24, 80–91.
Wageman, R., Hackman, J. R., & Lehman, E. (2005). Team diagnostic survey: Development of an instrument. Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 41, 373–398.
Wang, C. Y., Resta, P. E., & Miller, P. (2001). The medium is the message—The design of an online collaborative learning community. Atlanta, GA: National Convention of the Association for Educational Communications and Technology.
Weick, K. (1976). Educational organizations as loosely coupled systems. Administrative Science Quarterly, 21, 1–19.
Wenger, E., McDermott, R., & Snyder, W. M. (2002). Seven principles for cultivating communities of practice. Cultivating communities of practice: A guide to managing knowledge. Harvard: Harvard Business School Press.
Wilson, B. G., Ludwig-Hardman, S., Thornam, C. L., & Dunlap, J. C. (2004). Bounded community: Designing and facilitating learning communities in formal courses. International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, 5(3). Retrieved March 15, 2010, from http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/204.
Zitter, I. (2010). Designing for learning: Studying learning environments in higher professional education from a design perspective. Utrecht, The Netherlands: Utrecht University.
Acknowledgments
This research was funded by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research, Dutch Programme Council for Educational Research: 411-05-351. We wish to acknowledge the work and contribution of colleagues from the research team: Researcher 1–10. The authors would like to thank the teachers in this project who gave generously of their time.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Brouwer, P., Brekelmans, M., Nieuwenhuis, L. et al. Fostering teacher community development: A review of design principles and a case study of an innovative interdisciplinary team. Learning Environ Res 15, 319–344 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10984-012-9119-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10984-012-9119-1