Collaborative planning…the pros and cons?

[olivo]

I’m interested to know, if you do collaborative planning at your school, what are the pros and cons? I’m not at all fond of being given a planned/ resourced lesson deliver, but I see that some school are moving in this direction, so maybe I need to change my perception? I have been teaching for over 25 years but love trying new ideas and new resources (in my own way!)

any thoughts and experiences would be very welcome.

How would you define collaborative planning?

Im in a 2 form entry primary - I plan the week with the other teacher in my year, likewise we do the long term planning together and plan the next term week by week together.

Our topic based schemes and literacy / maths schemes for each term already exist (we have two years worth, sometimes done on a cycle but sometimes we mix it up) so generally we are tweaking and adding new ideas / changing out old. Each week we have a planning meeting to specifically plan the week ahead. Each class needs to do the same thing but we can interpret / deliver in our own way. So there is space for unique and individual delivery. However the bonus is we can prep for each other, as in one of us will sort the maths for both classes and one of us will sort the literacy. One of us will gather resources for the topic work while the other gets some phonics work for both classes. Same objective, but can deliver our own way.

So pros:

• 2 people sharing ideas, it’s amazing what other people can think of that makes so much sense that you never considered.
• work load shared. Once lessons are planned, you can split the prep down the middle, taking certain subjects each.
• One class can identify potential problems. We quite often won’t be doing the same lesson at the same time (generally same day) due to things like PE time slots so if part of the lesson becomes a monumental disaster, this info can be passed on for adaption.
• It allows for potential class mixing so that you can target different abilities and learning styles. For example we were doing a lesson recently on recycling - different materials, sorting, environmental issues etc - same lesson so we split our classes and had one of us with a group where we could do more writing and push the writing harder along with the practical, which really suits some of the children, and the other teacher took the group where writing is weaker but they could then present their work in different ways, for example we made iPad videos of them presenting their finding etc.

Cons:

• if you like to just do things your own way then yes I can see it being tricky. I think it depends on your colleagues, it requires team work and give and take. It won’t work if a team member slacks (or will sort their own class but no one else’s)
• It can cause you to stop getting creative in the moment for fear of having to stick to the collaborative plan.
• If you and your colleagues can’t agree how to meet the objective it’s not going to work

Thanks Lovequinn. I’m not really sure how I define it, I just keep seeing/hearing that it is done. I work in secondary, and just the thought of being told to teach a certain thing in a certain way makes me 😬. Currently, I like the fact that we follow a SoW reaching the same objectives but going about it in our own way. I guess you have to be 100% confident in your colleagues. Some of mine love tech more than me, others are more traditional, no idea what they think of my way of doing things!

I teach science, so maybe it's a bit different, but it's the norm in most schools I've worked in. I guess this is because everyone is expected to teach out of specialism a bit- so it's appreciated to have a starting point in e.g. biology when you're a physics specialist, and vis versa.

That said, it's not expected that you use what's there necessarily, and it is expected that you adapt it to your own classes and so on. We do also share feedback in departments e.g. if a practical takes too long, or a lesson is inappropriately pitched and so on.

I have been in some departments who want all the resources laid out in a certain way and all lessons to follow X structure, which I definitely think is overkill.

I've also been in a school where we were told to plan everything "so a non-specialist can deliver it"- which I very much wasn't keen on. There's a lot more to what I do than reading from a powerpoint!

As others said, it depends on the interpretation. My best years in teaching have been ones where I worked with a partner the way LoveQuinn suggested.

Positives:
It reduces workload.
Generally speaking, the shared planning approach lowers the weekly workload as it becomes rare that you prepare every aspect of a lesson entirely by yourself. Doing everything yourself can result in a very heavy and, sometimes, unsustainable workload.

It allows for the use of expertise that others might lack.
If you, or one of the other teachers in the shared planning team, have a particular set of skills or specialist knowledge, it can be built into the planning process and benefits all classes rather than just one.

It allows for direct comparisons
You can do a lot more moderation between classes because the children are working on the same things in the same way. That may make assessment easier and quicker.

It increases the perception of balance between classes.
For some parents, this is important. They don't want to feel that they got the raw deal because their child is in X's class rather than Y's class. The use of shared planning (with parents knowing about it) decreases the likelihood of that.

Negatives:
You are constantly drawing on someone else's work
This can have a lot of implications. You may find yourself waiting for resources because the person hasn't made them yet. You may find yourself constantly having to make up for the lower skills/knowledge of others in the team.

Things often need overpreparing
Anything you need for the lesson (plans, resources, slides, examples, etc.) need to be prepared in enough detail that someone who hasn't been involved in creating it can just go teach it. Sometimes, this actually makes the planning take longer.

Limited scope to tailor things to your style or class
There could be significant differences between the classes involved, in terms of levels of need, academic ability, behaviour, etc. If that's the case, the prepared lessons may not work for you. You'd either have to adapt them heavily (if you are allowed to) or, if not, ignore some of the specific differences in your class.

Over time, it can deskill teachers
Overly drawing on things created by others can have the same effect as heavily using schemes. Over time, it erodes the confidence and skills of teachers in the areas they haven't specifically planned/resources. This can be particularly true if the same people on the team always prepare the same subjects/topics.

Personally:
I've worked in a range of settings from a single form with nothing to share to a 3 class all shared planning system. For me, the negatives outweigh the positives and I'd much rather be in a single form, and responsible for it all, over having to operate a shared planning system again. But it does depend on the school too. My previous setting was insane with the headteacher saying she expected to be able to walk out of one classroom, into the next, and experience the same lesson being taught in the same way and it even be roughly at the same point. That approach helped no one, least of all the kids.

Thank you, these are really good things to think about and will give me plenty to discuss should we/I ever move in this direction. My overall feeling is that I would find it difficult, I like to be organised and self reliant but with ever changing specifications etc, maybe collaboration is the way forward.

I'm a secondary science HoD and we plan collaboratively. That doesn't mean, say, I plan a unit of work, put it on the system and people just go with it. I may write it but then we will discuss the lessons, approaches to explaining certain concepts etc. Teachers then tweak slightly for the needs of their class e.g. they may provide more or less scaffolding depending on need etc.

My previous department had a complete hotchpotch of resources online, they often weren't quality assured and rarely did discussions around delivery take place. This wasn't how I would have done things but it was an extremely difficult team to manage and there just wasn't the buy in.

So, for me, the pros are;

Reduces team workload - you don't have 10 teachers interpreting the SoW differently and doing different things which they all spend hours planning from scratch or hastily downloading from TES because they are short of time.

Allows for more consistency- I teach science so it's important that practical skills are consistently developed, certain concepts such as energy are delivered in a consistent way.

Can draw on different teachers expertise.

Supports less experienced staff and those who may have other responsibilities such as HoY and therefore are sometimes pushed for time.

Cons;

You can't do it successfully if the whole team aren't on board. So, it needs to be properly collaborative so that the consistency is there.

It is labour intensive to set up, but worth it in the long term, in my opinion.

I'm secondary humanities. In my school it means ensuring that there are resources in place for the whole dept to use. One person planning the lesson and creating resources and then the individual teacher adapting the resources to use in there own way.

Positive - there is always a basic lesson for people to use if lacking time etc.

Negatives -

1. As HOD I've spent hours creating resources and my dept are now complaining that there isn't enough scaffolding in the lessons. I've had to point out that they should be planning their own lessons so should be adding their own scaffolding to support their own students.

1. Newer teachers (both of my teachers) feel that they don't ever have to plan lessons from scratch. In fact I don't think they could if they needed to. If I set them a lesson to plan from scratch they download a lesson from elsewhere and very rarely adapt it.

1. I find my teaching style is very different to other people and I struggle to teach straight from others resources. If I download anything I use images, some tasks etc but remake the entire lesson for myself.

1. Having spoken with teachers in other schools it appears that shared resources and planning are preventing trainee teachers from knowing how to plan a scheme of work and individual lessons. They are coming through too used to having everything done for them. When I was very unwell with Covid, my 2nd year ECT was constantly sending requests for resources. I ignored her initially as I was too unwell then when better told her to do it for herself.

I do agree with the deskilling points - I was very much taught how to plan on my pgce, and it was the norm that we would plan from scratch.

When I suggested this to a SCITT student recently, she was horrified at the idea of making her own resources completely from scratch, even occasionally.

You do need a department where everyone can plan for it to work, otherwise some teachers end up carrying more of the burden.

I also think it's really good to be able to teach a lesson without the use of PowerPoint, at least at ks3.

I am sort of amazed by ITT courses which don't have much of a focus on planning.

I am sort of amazed by ITT courses which don't have much of a focus on planning.

Been teaching/mentoring/coaching a long time and in my humble opinion the BEd route seemed to produce the most 'rounded' of teachers. Even if the course content did not cover every eventuality, staff from that background seem to have more in reserve.

Positive
Shares the workload

Not so positive
You rely on your partner observing deadlines and being able to produce planning of calibre.
You need a contingency plan for absence/resignation/unfilled post

I work in a massive school (6 or 7 form entry) and we have everything planned for us. I hate it. The head of each department makes the LTP and MTP and 2 teachers make the lesson plans, slides and resources for each subject and everyone delivers exactly the same lessons without any deviation. The school is a very pleased with itself for reducing workload but it’s also reducing creativity and a sense of ownership over the class. I was in a 1 form entry before and I preferred it.

I can imagine it does- it's a shame there aren't more BEd. routes for secondary, really. Cramming all your training into one year leaves limited space for theory/getting your head round curriculum sequencing etc!

Agree with all the above and preening as I did a B.Ed yonks ago. I’m part-time and linked with one other teacher for my year 9/10/11 lessons. We are meant to share the planning but it just doesn’t work for me.

i work ahead and she is last minute. I want detail and answers worked out but she doesn’t. I’ve resigned myself to preparing my lessons for the department but also the ones she is meant to do for my own sanity.