Collaboration & Group Learning

Documenting Individual and Group Learning (Ch. 13)

Tools included in this section of Visible Learners:  

- Documentation: When Does it Make Learning Visible? 

- Beginning to Document through Intentional Inquiry

- Beginning to Document by Stepping Back

- Considerations for Selecing a Documentation Tool

- Guidelines for Shooting Video and Photographs

- Making Learners' Words Visible: Speech Bubbles

Learning that matters: A review of the research on the qualities of school leadership...

From the introduction: What does it mean to lead learning that matters in schools? This whitepaper aims to spark discussion about this question by examining the research-based qualities of school leadership that support student learning. It reviews concepts of school leadership in which leadership for learning is defined as the social behaviors of envisioning and influencing learning that matters in schools. Although leaders in positions of power can display leadership behaviors, others involved in the school – including parents, teachers, and students – also play pivotal leadership roles. The whitepaper reviews two kinds of research-based school leadership models that differ in the nature of learning that is required in order to reach the goals of school change: technical leadership models and adaptive leadership models. Though the specific leadership behaviors in each model are qualitatively different, research suggests that there are three types of key leadership behaviors in each: setting direction, developing people, and creating culture. The paper illustrates how these behaviors are manifested in the adaptive challenges faced by the Big Picture Schools.

Engaging Families in Supporting Student Learning (Ch. 14)

Tools included in this section of Visible Learners:  

- Introducing Families to Making Learning Visible

- Refrigerator Reminder: Five Ways to Make Learning Visible at Home

- Involing Families in the Learning Process

- Documenting Learning at Home

Visible Learners: Promoting Reggio-Inspired Approaches in All Schools

Inspired by the innovative educational philosophy that originated in Reggio Emilia, a small city in Italy, Visible Learners offers research-based practices for fostering learning in groups through documentation. In this approach, first developed during a long-term collaboration between researchers at Harvard's Project Zero and Reggio educators, learning becomes a visible activity that develops students' intellectual capacities as well as their individual and group identities as learners. Visible classrooms can be identified by five key principles—that learning is purposeful, social, representational, empowering, and emotional. The authors define each principle using illustrative learning portraits, quotes from students and teachers, pictures, reflections, and examples of student work. Additionally, the authors offer teachers and administrators practical ways to enhance learning by increasing collaboration and critical thinking across grade levels and subject matter. Also included is a section containing dozens of tools for making learners and learning visible, incorporating guidelines for the classroom and the staffroom as well as ideas for engaging students' families. Visible Learners shows how observing and documenting learning can change the nature of that learning, and asks teachers to look beyond surface to understand who their students are, what they come to know, and how they come to know it.  ISBN: 978-1118345696

Making Learning Visible Beyond the Classroom (Ch. 15)

Tools included in this section of Visible Learners:  

- Bulletin Boards That Make Learning and Learners Visible

- Creating Exhibitions of Teaching and Learning

- Anatomy of an Exhibit Panel

- Zoom Guidelines and Template