Collective Teacher Efficacy: Optimising Your Team's Activity

Increasing the 'amount' and 'quality' of time teachers spend in teams is the number one priority for building collective teacher efficacy.

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The Holy Grail of School Improvement

Building Collective Teacher Efficacy (CTE) is quite rightly the 'holy grail' of school improvement. When teams of teachers share a collective belief in their ability to positively impact each and every student they teach we are as close to a 'guarantee' (effect size 1.57) as we can get of 'every student succeeding'.

This is not just because a) these teachers have a high level of trust and feel deeply supported when sharing with their colleagues. Nor simply because b) they have higher levels of job satisfaction and c) lower levels of stress. Nor simply because d) they are open to observation, feedback and have a desire to continuously improve. Rather it is the sum total of each of these 4 factors that creates this incredible advantage in making such a positive impact in the students they teach.

Higher CTE Leads To Higher Student Achievement & Engagement

The evidence showing the impact of higher collective teacher efficacy (CTE) on student achievement and engagement seems pretty clear. Regarding student achievement, the table below shows the impact of CTE levels across primary school teaching teams over two semesters and the corresponding growth in A-C data (students achieving a C grade or higher) in English and Maths. As you can see student achievement in English and Maths is higher (and in most cases grows) in teaching teams that have above average CTE levels throughout the year, or who grow their CTE to a level above the average. However the students of teaching teams with below average CTE across the year, have lower English and Maths results and more troublingly their achievement goes backwards!

Regarding student engagement, a year x year comparison of CTE, student attendance and incidents of short disciplinary absences (SDAs) shows that attendance goes up and behaviour problems go down when there are higher levels of CTE.

CTE & Quality Time In Teams  

Having worked with hundreds of schools building High Performance Teaching Teams, we know that in order to create higher levels of CTE school leaders must increase the both the 'quality' and 'amount' of time teachers spend in teams. 

Getting enough time in teams is of course a tricky problem with different school types (primary, secondary, special education) and systems (public/ independent/ catholic etc.) having different rules and norms around teaching team meetings and non-contact time. However their are some cross system consistencies that make creating enough time for teaching teams possible (click here).Even more important than the 'amount' of time is the 'quality' of time. If the quality of teaching team activities such as meetings is low than teachers will avoid such activities which creating a self fulfilling cycle of avoidance, stress and ultimately lowered student achievement. 

The Teaching Team Activity Cycle

As you can see in the example HPT teaching team activity cycle, teaching team activities are more than just the teaching team meetings they attend (however this is arguably one of the most important team activities they engage in) and include a number of other important team activities.

Some of these team activities are purely information/ data focused (ie., completing short team pulse surveys and updating the team data wall), whilst other team activities are primarily communication focused (ie., team meetings, buddy check ins, team huddles and professional development). The example 'Team Schedule' described above is typical of a High Performance Public Primary School (with a number of schools going above and beyond this where time and resources allow). Let’s unpack each of the communication focused team activities now and discuss what 'quality' and 'time' may look like for each one:

Teaching Team Meetings 

Teaching team meetings are the single most important (and arguably the most complex) team activity to optimise in both time and quality. Starting with quality, we’ve written extensively about the difference between low and high quality teaching team meetings in previous blogs and have developed a simple Quickstart guide used widely across High Performance Schools (click here).

Time is vital, as a general rule of thumb teams need an hour per week or more to meet in order to maintain cadence of relationships and momentum on goals. By structuring your school wide meeting and communication cycle (click here) effectively (even with highly restricted mandatory meeting allowances) you can create at least 7 or 8 weekly teaching team meetings within a 10 week term. 

Teaching Team Huddles 

Teaching teams also need to regularly huddle together in short stand up meetings to a) collaboratively solve problems as they emerge in real time and b) maintain the collective focus on their strategic goals. Huddles are not usually mandated but rather organised so all can generally attend and start at the agreed time or as soon thereafter as two or more team members are in attendance.

Quality - high quality huddles are located in a place where the team data wall is visible and have a simple routine of round the room input followed by short discussion. The input cycle per person is simply PART A: each person doing their one word barometer followed by current individual success and challenge and stating their priority goals in focus from the team data wall (max 1-2 min). Once the person has completed their input we move to PART B which is a quick 'needs and leads' idea sharing process where other team members quickly identify how they can help or be helped by the nominated team member (with any longer conversations expanded upon once the team huddle has finished) (max 1-2 min). Total Time - 15-30 min (based on 2-3 min per person) on a weekly cycle is ideal scheduled on a different day (typically opposite end of the week) to the teaching team meeting.

Buddy Check-Ins

Buddy check-ins are quick status updates to connect with and support fellow team members. They are very brief 1:1 conversations. The process of a quick buddy check in is similar to the start of the huddle conversation where you share you barometer, successes and challenges and identify any needs for support or opportunities to support others.

Quality - This is about sticking to the check in recipe before any more elaborate conversations begin and the important rule that whoever initiated ‘goes first’ to set the right tone for vulnerability and support. Time - This is about setting a baseline of frequency in terms of the minimum amount of check ins among all team members with each other. Teams co-located or with naturally occurring friendships will be higher than baseline (for obvious reasons) but agreeing to the baseline frequency (ie., weekly) ensures that team members who are more remote and or less sociable still give and get and consistent level of support from the wider team. 

Professional Development 

There is an ocean of information and opinion about what constitutes quality professional development (PD) in teaching teams. The three major things we focus on from a High Performance Teams perspective are: (1.) PD is explicitly linked to the teams purpose and goals; (2.) Just like classroom teaching, the PD has a clear learning intent established and success criteria are operationalised and internalised (ensuring a growth mindset is established) by team members before the activities begin; (3.) At the end of the PD activity learning outcomes are explicitly stated by each participant drawing upon Hattie's 5 Questions (What did you learn? How well did you do? How do you know? How can you improve? Where do you go for help?) albeit within an adult leaning context.

Optimising Your Teaching Team Activity Cycle

High Performance Schools are places where both students and staff can flourish. When staff are flourishing they are members of high performance teaching teams who have optimised their team activity cycle in terms of both time and quality. These elevated levels of quality team time create higher collective teacher efficacy which in turn maximises student growth and achievement. 

So as we conclude let me leave you with this question: Is the activity cycle of your teaching team optimised or is it time for a tune up?

Dr Pete Stebbins PhD

Dr Pete Stebbins, PhD, is a workplace psychologist, executive coach & author of the recently released book: "The Five Disciplines of Extraordinary School Leaders". Pete has many years of research and professional practice behind him working extensively in education and health. Pete is the director of the High Performance Schools Program working with a large number of schools to maximise staff and student outcomes.