From Autonomy to Impact: The Case for Teacher Collaboration

My fellow educators, Happy Summer! While I know that most of you will still keep yourself busy with various teacher tasks, I hope you are enjoying the change of pace.  

Summer is a fantastic time for professional reflection, which is why I saved the final blog post in this “Shifts in Education” series for a topic that is near and dear to me.  And it all started when I was asked an important reflective question while attending a breakout session at my first PLC at Work conference in San Antonio, TX.

If every teacher in your school is doing their best work alone, is your school really doing its best work?

After attending that workshop, I realized the answer is an emphatic “NO!”

The concept of working “alone” has a number of synonyms: working autonomously, working in isolation, working in silos, etc.  And for decades this was the image of a teacher…working behind a closed door with very little insight or input from others. In fact, this type of professional solitude is often viewed as a badge of honor.

But schools across the country are changing…because the challenges are increasing: post-Covid academic gaps, increased student learning needs, and the demand for deeper learning. These changes require an important mindset shift: from autonomy to collaboration.

And a slew of educational research supports this mindset shift.

Three Key Problems With Closed Door Classrooms:

1. Inconsistent Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment. This creates challenges for both students and their learning, as well as the students’ future teachers who look to build on students’ prior knowledge (Marzano, 2001).

2. Weak Intervention Systems. MacIntosh and Goodman (2016) uncovered that when teachers work independently, the likelihood of struggling students receiving consistent support decreases. Instead, educational support systems function best when “teachers share student data and strategize interventions together.”

3. Teacher Burnout. According to the National Education Association, “approximately 50% of teachers will leave the profession within the first five years of teaching.” 50%! One of the key reasons for this low retention rate is the feeling of isolation and loneliness. All teachers, especially new teachers need support and a feeling of belonging. 

The Power of Opening the Door for Collaboration:

1. Increased Student Achievement. I know that many of you reading this are familiar with John Hattie’s research about collective teacher efficacy as the number one factor of influencing student achievement. But there are plenty of other educational studies that connect teacher collaboration to increased student achievement. 

1. Goddard et al. (2007) studied reading and math scores of over 2,500 fourth grade students and found a consistent “positive relationship between teacher collaboration and high student achievement scores.” 

2. Ronfeldt et al. (2015) used student data from over 9,000 different teachers in over 300 different schools to show how effective teacher collaboration positively impacted students in reading and math scores. 

3. In fact, in Learning by Doing, DuFour et al. (2024) emphasize that the body of research regarding teacher collaboration contains ZERO evidence (not a single study) that shows it to be ineffective or detrimental to student learning.

2. More Targeted Professional Growth. While attending workshops and conferences can serve some benefits, they often fall short of significant classroom impact. According to Darling-Hammond et al. (2009), “Professional learning seminars may help teachers learn the theory behind new concepts and skills, but they usually don’t help teachers apply new practices to the classroom.” These same researchers found that the most effective PD happens when it is job-embedded professional development that focuses on “teacher collaboration and actionable feedback.”

3. More Effective Innovation and Responsiveness. Collaborative teams are able to respond more effectively to student learning needs, to share new strategies, and to test ideas with the support of peers. Blanchard (2007) emphasized this idea: “A team can make better decisions, solve more complex problems, and do more to enhance creativity and build skills than individuals working alone.” In reading about various schools who experienced reform success, a common theme is often increased teacher collaboration.

Now, I realize that was quite a bit of research you just digested, but I hope you see that the research connected to collaboration’s effectiveness is not only vast, it’s also not new. We’ve known about this idea for a long time, so why isn’t collaboration and having a collaborative mindset more common in schools?

I think it stems from this idea: Some teachers think that collaboration means they will lose their creativity, freedom, and/or their voice in the classroom. This is simply not true. Collaboration doesn’t mean uniformity; it means alignment. It’s about harmonizing teachers’ strengths, not flattening them. Working in a collaborative environment actually elevates teachers’ voices and allows ideas to be shared, sharpened, challenged, and celebrated. 

I remember reading a quote (I think it was in an Educational Leadership article) that said, “Autonomy gives teachers freedom. Collaboration gives teachers purpose.” 

And isn’t that what every teacher wants? To teach in a school where they feel supported and empowered, where every challenge is met by the collective wisdom of a team, where the term “our students” is the norm, and where every student increases their ability to learn!

This is not a pie-in-the-sky dream; it’s what research shows is possible for any school that is willing to embrace teacher collaboration.

And it doesn’t happen by chance. Leaders must prioritize it. Here are some ways you can build a collaborative culture at your school:

• Schedule protected time for teachers to meet weekly.

• Set clear goals and structures for teacher collaboration (focusing on analyzing student work and using protocols)

• Model the mindset. Treat collaboration as non-negotiable, not optional. 

For far too long, teachers have been working in a silo, behind a closed classroom door. But the schools where students and educators thrive are not built on isolation; they are built on connection. 

Hopefully this article has changed the narrative of your questions about teacher collaboration from “Does it really work?” to “What can we do to get started?” It’s time to open your classroom door, welcome colleagues, and ask the question that should be the educational foundation in every school: What can we do to help our students? 

Is your school looking for ways to build a culture of collaboration? We’re here to help you do it! Schedule a free consultation on our website to learn more.