This study set out to establish and record headteachers’ and teachers’ perceptions of the
role of collegial teams in enhancing continuous instructional improvement. The concept
collegial teams is based on the collegial model. The model advocates that for
instructional improvement, teachers ought to work together as colleagues. The study
began by investigating whether the participants had the basic understanding of collegial
teams in the first place. It then established whether the teams exist in the selected
schools. It proceeded to find out how these teams operate and whether they play any role
in enhancing continuous instructional improvement. Furthermore, the study solicited
respondents’ perceptions of the obstacles that hinder the operation of the teams. Lastly,
the study made effort to obtain respondents’ recommendations on how best to improve
the operation of the teams.
This study has found that headteachers and teachers perceive collegial teams as playing a
very significant role in enhancing continuous instructional improvement. The degree of
the role was found to hinge on the headteacher’s attitude and support of the teams. These
two elements in turn determined the degree of the teachers’ empowerment by the
headteacher. Empowerment in this study is synonymous with treating teachers as
professionals. Where empowerment prevailed, professional interaction arid collaboration
tended to prevail also. The latter seem to result in the deepening of subject content and
increasing diversification of teaching strategies as teachers work together zmd share ideas.
The ultimate result of teachers’ working as colleagues was noticeable improvement in
students’ performance. However, contextual factors tended to affect some teams
negatively more than others apparently depending on each team’s ‘mastery’ of group
dynamics.
Finally, among others, two key recommendations were made; in school A, working on
the master time- table in order to accommodate peer evaluation was recommended. In
school B, it was recommended that teamwork be built on the good elements of the
teacher assessment form over which teachers have no control.
Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:wits/oai:wiredspace.wits.ac.za:10539/14691 |
Date | 21 May 2014 |
Creators | Mamba, Noah M |
Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
Language | English |
Detected Language | English |
Type | Thesis |
Format | application/pdf |
Page generated in 0.007 seconds