This course is for teachers, head teachers and counsellors from primary and secondary education who are in the process of implementing, developing or improving the team work of teachers or collaborative teaching practice. We strongly encourage more teachers from the same school to participate together to facilitate the learning transfer after the course.

Collaborative teaching involves two or more teachers working together to lead, instruct and mentor groups of students, often working cross-disciplinary and focusing on the 21st century key competences (such as collaboration and creative and innovative thinking). Collaborative teaching and professional learning communities among teachers can enhance students’ performance and well-being. Through collaboration teachers develop themselves, their own teaching practice and their common approaches to go beyond traditional subjects and to deal better with classes or students in difficulties. Professional learning communities is about building a reflective and innovative practice, where teachers constantly inquire into the aims of their work, their success criteria, and whether the effects of their actions are in accordance with their intentions.

All teachers have an idea about what good education is, and when someone doesn't fit in nor profits, the teacher might feel powerless and frustrated. This often leads to the development of ideas about why this student doesn't fit in… ideas about what is wrong with the student. In many cases these ideas might be comforting but they do not give much concrete advice on how to deal with the situation. The course will give the participants tools to work collaborative with colleagues to support students in difficulties. The course is based on the assumption that a lot of knowledge already exists about how to deal with students and classes in difficulties, but that this knowledge might be pushed in the background when frustration goes up.