![]() ![]() ![]() Our TrueSchool team is willing to do many “little things” for our children and their families to help them become an exceptional community of learners.” These dynamic opportunities inspire educators and remind them why they love teaching.Ĭonnie Cochnar, a TrueSchool Fellow from Chapman Public School in Chapman, Nebraska, reflects on the small shifts that make big change possible: “I realized that it is the little things you do that can create the most success. Through our TrueSchool Fellowship, educators are given time and resources-including day-long studios, personalized coaching, and micro-investments -to learn from each other and to think big. We want educators to be the ones dreaming up and implementing initiatives in their schools. This may sound simple, but we’ve found that many teachers don’t have the time or capacity to collaborate and put their creativity to its best use. It’s the feeling that our goals as a community are within reach if we all work together. Collective efficacy is the confidence that educators have in their team’s ability to impact student achievement. Here’s where “collective efficacy” comes in. However, this is a difficult goal to measure, especially after only months of work with our Fellows. In our Fellowship, educators work as a team to come up with ideas to improve student learning. With our TrueSchool Fellowship -a year-long experience for teachers and principals-our main goal is to improve student learning and address inequities that deny some students of color and students from low-income families access to a high-quality education. But what is “collective efficacy”?Īt TrueSchool, it’s a term we use often, and it has greatly informed our ideas about how to support teachers in transforming student outcomes. While this study's results are limited, the findings are significant and worthy of review and should ignite future studies.“We’re actually getting excited about the work that we’re doing-and that is what is going to make the difference.”Īccording to education researcher John Hattie, collective efficacy is more predictive of student achievement than homework, socio-economic status, student motivation, and home environment. This study's findings illustrated a correlation between collective teacher efficacy and continuous cycles of collective inquiry in closing the ELL achievement gap. Success, at times, is defined by compliance rather than intrinsic and extrinsic motivation to ensure all students achieve success. In the context of the modern educational system, plagued by high stakes testing and unprecedented challenges resulting from the worldwide pandemic, education can feel like never-ending checklists of mundane activities and mandates. The strength of the results of this study lies in the practical application of educators' daily work. However, minimal research exists examing the relationship between collective efficacy and diminishing the achievement gap (Goddard et al., 2017). Undoubtedly, much research reveals a positive correlation between collective efficacy and student achievement. Social cognitive theory and adult learning theory provided the theoretical foundation for this study, understanding how adults learn, including motivation factors and guiding principles for instituting effective andragogy practices (Bandura, 2001a Knowles, 1968). How and to what extent will a professional learning community's collective efficacy impact student achievement on the 8th-grade social studies state assessment for English language learners? How and to what extent will collective inquiry impact collective efficacy among teachers? 2. The research questions guiding this research: 1. The purpose of this two-phased, mixed-method action research study was to investigate the impact of a professional learning community’s collective teacher efficacy and their practice of collective inquiry in closing the achievement gap of eighth-grade social studies English language learners. ![]()
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