The Benefits of Collective Learning

For teachers in the Content-area Reading Initiative, weekly work in disciplinary teams — which developed into communities of practice — was the key component that supported shared learning over the course of the initiative. For them, this is where the nitty-gritty, as some put it, of their learning and improvement took place.

For instance, the science team came together to figure out how to help students gain more facility reading and interpreting diagrams in science texts. Similarly, the math team worked collectively to find and frame readings that could be integrated into mathematics lessons. The success of these development processes was clearly dependent on the group as a whole.

Across different disciplinary teams, teachers spoke of the “wisdom” gained from colleagues and about how “the sum of everybody is greater than its parts.” In reflecting on the growth and learning that emerged from the disciplinary communities of practice, one teacher captured the benefits of this collective learning process: “Wise colleagues focused consistently on literacy. It shouldn’t be rare, but it is!”