Domain III 1

Domain III: Adapting A Group Mindset and Learning the Community

Nathan L. Tamborello

The University of Houston

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Domains II, III & IV of the Teacher Leader Model Standards are all a subset of one

particular end-goal: promoting not only individual research and continuing education, but also

utilizing and sharing that knowledge in a collaborative culture made up of fellow educators. The

purpose of these domains and of the Standards in general is always for the benefit of the student;

how can we better ourselves in order to better our classroom? These 3 domains are a particular

strength of mine, as I always do copious amounts of research on new techniques, standards,

practices and ways of doing things in order to better myself. However, in reading through these

domains and finding my weaknesses, I realized that I struggle in Domain III. Not for any

research based reason, but in the fact that collaboration and group learning have never been my

strong suit. I always tend to favour an individualistic mentality when learning, often getting

frustrated when group projects or collaboration arise. By acknowledging this weakness and

researching ways to cope with it, I can better myself for the benefit of my fellow teachers and for

all of our students.

“The goal of a collaborative learning culture is to build communities of teachers who

continuously engage in the study of their craft; develop the shared language and common

understandings necessary to pursue collegial study of new knowledge and skills; and provide

structure for follow-up and follow-through.” (Showers, 1985). Throughout this semester in my

classes, I have been introduced to more non-teachers such as myself and a majority of current

teachers who work every day in the classroom setting. These teachers always have different

relationships with the district, school, and other faculty members, and in hearing their stories I

can digest ways to do things that work and don’t work, and understand things that frustrate them

about their schools. One girl I talked to said that their faculty is extremely close, and every few

weeks they sit in on each other’s lessons and provide critiques on them. I remember in high
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school our school administrators would have scheduled days they would sit in on the class,

taking notes at the back and terrifying everyone in the process, especially the teacher. I consider

this type of assessment to be paramount to a functional classroom; however, I also feel that every

teacher has good days and bad days, and basing their assessment on one solitary day in the room

is nonsense. Therefore, I was taken aback by this girl’s story about assessing other teachers from

time to time. It’s such a simple idea, and I will always take advise from a co-worker over that of

a boss much more readily.

Froelich & Puig discuss this type of collaboration, stating that “walkthroughs promote

these actions when they are paired with collaborative feedback, used in the context of

professional learning targets, and focused on both professional learning and student learning.

Good coaching that includes formative feedback can be instrumental in helping educators better

understand the need for evidence-based change and improvement in their practice.” This type of

feedback collaboration is one way in which I could work towards being better at Domain III,

working with my fellow teachers to promote the welfare of their own classroom. Providing

feedback in a risk-free environment not only prepares us for the daunting task of having to

perform in front of an administrator, but allows us to see how other teachers educate, provide

feedback to them, and collaborate based on how we thought their lessons went. This type of

teacher helping teacher feedback is such an obvious answer to collaboration, and frankly I can’t

believe it had never crossed my mind to do it before I heard my fellow student talking about it.

This collaboration allows teachers the ability to access newly acquired information from

watching our fellow teachers and provides opportunities for active participation in creative

brainstorming. Maybe the teacher you are watching during 4th period has a grey area in their

instruction that they never knew how to fix. After watching them work through the lesson and
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seeing it in action, you both can sit down and collaborate on ways that might work better. I’ve

always found that asking someone for help when I couldn’t find the answer for myself always

helps, as every person views scenarios and situations through a different lens.

While this type of collaboration is only one way in which I can better myself at Domain

III, it provides me with a great starting point for working on my collaboration. I foresee this type

of peer-review creating a snowball effect: it will allow me to be more open and creative with

other teachers, and in turn will open more avenues for creative discussion and continued

learning.
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REFERENCES

Froelich, K. S. & Puig, E. A. (2006). The literacy coach: Guiding in the right direction. Boston:

Pearson Education Inc.

Showers, B. (1985). Teachers Coaching Teachers. Educational Leadership, 42(7), 43.

Teacher Leader Model Standards: Teacher Leadership Exploratory Consortium. (2012).