Teachers´ cooperation: Study teams in Öldutúnsskóli 2010–2012

Abstract

This article discusses a group of compulsory school teachers who developed their teaching to implement cooperative learning. The group was created for the authors’ masters theses, both being collaborative action research studies undertaken in the school year 2010–2011. A component of both studies was the development of collaboration with colleagues to increase cooperative learning in classrooms. The first is a class teacher’s study, whose main purpose was to explore whether her teaching was in accord with her values, and to incorporate cooperative learning in it. Her aim was to create a more varied learning environment to respond better to the diverse needs of her students. The second is a school manager´s study, the aim of which was to follow the teachers’ attempts to implement cooperative learning and examine how they managed to share their experience with each other and how the author could enable them to develop their teaching methods. The teachers continued their work in the group in the school year 2011–2012. The experience of these two years indicates that the teachers´ cooperation made a progress in school improvements.