The Collaborative Learning Initiative is based in the Counties of West and North-West Ireland. These were the slides used at launch events in Westport and Roscommon. More details at https://plcproject.wordpress.com/

1. COLLABORATIVE LEARNING INITIATIVE
IRELAND NORTH WEST
Launch Event
January 2013
Howard Stevenson

2. Collaborative Learning Initiative
Our aims . . .
Positive change by teachers . . .
. . . positive change for students

3. Collaborative Learning Initiative
Our values . . .
• Teachers at the heart of change
• Collaborative working and collective responsibility
• Research-informed and research-engaged
• Partnerships – teachers, advisers and students

4. Collaborative Learning Initiative
Made simple . . .
Improvement occurs when people are not put on the defensive.
It starts with questions in your mind about what you are doing
and accelerates when you share them with others engaged in
the same enterprise.
Brighouse, T. and Woods, D. (1999)
Research ‘the triumph of evidence over anecdote’
Mortimore. P. (1999)

5. The CLI-cycle . . .
Identify a
problem
Investigate it . .
.
Do something
about it . . .
See if it worked
. . .
Share what you
learned . . .

6. Identify a problem and investigate it. . .
The problem
(my fuzzy question)
Evidence (data source)
Evidence (data source)
Evidence (data source)
Research
Question
Research
Question
Research
Question

7. What? When?
Identify the problem Now
Investigate it Up to Easter
Do something about it Weeks after Easter
See if it worked April/May
Share the learning May 22nd
The CLI timetable . . .

8. • Teacher-driven
• Collaborative working (and against isolation)
• Clarity of group roles
• Clear objectives (with deadlines!)
• Appropriate scale – manageability
• Institutional support (the Principal)
• Leadership within
• External support (PDST, project consultant)
CLI – making it work . . .

9. • http://plcproject.wordpress.com/
CLI – working together (virtually) . . .

10. • Surveys
• Journals and diaries
• Blogs
• Notes
• Interviews
• Observation
• Other?????
CLI – how will we know it’s working . . . ?
CLI – modeling the change we want to see . . .
What happened?
When?
How?
Why?

11. The relationship between teacher and pupil is active
and reciprocal so that every teacher is always a pupil
and every pupil a teacher.
Antonio Gramsci The Prison Notebooks (1971:350)
www.howardstevenson.org