TIME
One of the first things that we learned about doing a collaborative buddy inquiry project is you need TIME. It needs to begin with teachers taking time to discuss what the visions are for the project. Teachers need to decide on common goals and hold similar values for the project to be a success. With busy schedules and workloads, time for teacher collaboration needs to be built in systemically. It is not practical to add another time taking component to teachers’ days, and discussing the project on a Saturday night via Edmodo may not appeal to some teachers. We also learned that it is helpful for teachers to have a similar investment in the project. In their study of teacher inquiry in professional development, Butler and Schellert (2012) found “time, resources, and structured opportunities for collaboration,” as well as “like-minded colleagues with common goals or values” were key to successful collaborative inquiry (1216). Teachers need to agree on how much time will be committed to students working on the project and if time will be given to students outside of the initial plan for a once a week meeting. Teachers also need to decide on how the meeting times will be best suited for scaffolding student learning.
**Excerpts and research taken from Bonny Kelly's Masters thesis.
Additional Findings:
Also check out the references we used to support our findings.