Collegial
is an adjective describing a work environment where responsibility and
authority is shared equally by colleagues. You know you work in a collegial environment
when your co-workers smile at you, and you don’t have to hide from your supervisor.
Collaboration is a wonderful teaching tool. Teachers have the opportunity to
assess and differentiate instruction for students more readily and they can learn new
instructional techniques from one another to expand their teaching repertoire.
Cooperative teaching experiences also provide mutual support and assistance for
planning and implementing lessons, assessing students’ progress, sharing professional
concerns, and addressing students’ learning needs. Most importantly, teaming allows
more opportunities for students to understand and connect with content thereby
maximizing individual learning potential. Considering the number of ways that team
teaching can be used effectively in the classroom, it is no wonder that it remains a
popular instructional model. Collaborative teaching allows teachers to impart information
to a broader range of learners using approaches that spark students’ imaginations while
supporting individual learning differences.