Building cultures of collaboration can be a challenging process.

Building cultures of collaboration can be a challenging process. However, the benefits outweigh the challenges. Strong collaborative teams contribute to higher levels of student learning throughout the school and produce desired and measurable results. Teachers also feel a sense of accomplishment and together believe that they are making a difference. As you learned in the “From Group to Team” article, promoting trust and understanding begins at the earliest phases of team development.

This week, you will analyze how various theories of effective team development can be applied to your learning team. You will then share with your school-based team your insights and recommendations for how to continue to build your team and promote professional collaboration at your school.

Compose a written assignment in a Word document that addresses each of the points below.

A list of Group-Member Capabilities from the “Developing Collaborative Norms” chapter in your The Adaptive School course text.

Share one of the capabilities that you would like to improve upon as a team member and explain why.

Feedback: Ask your team members to select a capability on which to focus and provide an explanation for their choice.

The Personal Seven-Norms Assessment from Appendix D, The Adaptive School.

Feedback: Request that team members take the assessment and share their interpretation of the results.

A brief description of Tuckman’s 4 Stages of Team Development as presented in the “Facilitating Collaborative Learning Teams” chapter of Becoming a Learning School. Explain the benefits of team members understanding these stages.

The seven stages of the Team Performance Model as provided in the “From Group to Team” article. To support your group in the early stages of development, address the following:

Stage 1: Orientation

Explain the purpose of the learning team and why each member was selected.

Feedback: Ask team members to share the knowledge and skills that they bring to the team that will support the team’s purpose.

Stage 2: Trust Building

Share your hopes and concerns about building this team.

Invite team members to share thoughts they have that might diverge from those that you have presented and/or ideas that might suggest a different perspective on the ideas that you have shared.

Feedback: Ask team members to evaluate strengths and areas of growth for your learning team.You will reflect on the feedback in the Week 7 Reflection.