Introduction
Collaboration refers to the act of working and cooperating with one another to accomplish a certain job, task, or goal. Teams working together have many benefits to accrue in their organizations. Collaboration is considered the most effective way of empowering communities or organizations. Collaboration also refers to an equal involvement of parties concerned in a coordinated effort to come up with a solution to a problem at hand together. It has its own characteristics, which enable the group members to join hands to realize a common objective. This paper will discuss how collaborative characteristics among teachers and supervisors influence a school environment. Besides, the study will also show how collaborative characteristics affect students. Lastly, the paper will discuss how these characteristics affect the community at large.
The impact of collaborative characteristics among teachers and supervisors on the school atmosphere
Joint characters ranging from mutual reverence, forbearance, approval, dedication, bravery, and giving out between head teachers affect the school atmosphere. Collaborative characteristics were established to encourage people, communities, and organizations to perform tasks together to attain the goals that they could not have obtained as individuals or individual organizations. Collaboration elements enable schools to achieve quality and effective decisions. It also brings together the efforts of teachers and supervisors to share their insights, opinions, and aspirations to form an elaborated vision of the problem at hand (Egodawatte, McDougall, & Stoilescu, 2011, p. 190: Instructional Leadership for School Improvement, n.d, p. 118). Tolerance is one of the collaborative characteristics. This characteristic ensures that teachers have a fair and objective attitude towards one another’s opinions, practices, race, religion, and even nationality (Supervision and Instructional Leadership, n.d, p. 436). People are different in many aspects such as personalities, race, ideas, aspirations and even beliefs. Tolerance makes teachers and supervisors in a school operate together despite their differences. As Egodawatte, McDougall, and Stoilescu (2011, p. 191) point out, it enables teachers and supervisors to put up with one another’s weaknesses in an attempt to work together as a family to achieve a common goal of improving the school in terms of prosperity. Tolerance also creates an environment that is conducive for teachers and supervisors. This established environment motivates them to work tirelessly for the success of the school. Acceptance is another collaborative characteristic that refers to a person’s ability to recognize and appreciate a person or a situation the way he or she is, or the way a situation is without any attempts to alter it. When a person accepts another regardless of the prevailing circumstances, it becomes easier for him or her to know how to work and interact with this person. In fact, Jurik, Groschner, and Seidel posit, “Interactions (of students) lead to cognitive restructuring resulting in elaborated knowledge” (n.d, p. 34). This strategy is also applicable with situations. In fact, once a person accepts the situation as it is, he or she comes up with ideas on how to handle it. This claim means that, in a school setting, it is very important for teachers and supervisors to interact and accept each other together with the environment they are working in. This aspect gives them the morale to work together as a team without considering their shortcomings as people but maximizing in each one’s strengths (Jurik, Groschner, Seidel, n. d). Acceptance also helps to reduce inter conflicts between the teachers hence enabling them to work together to pursue a common interest. This aspect improves performance of the school because peaceful and conducive working environment promotes working hard for the workers and hence good performance. Sharing is also a collaborative characteristic, which refers to togetherness in the use of resources, ideas, or space. Sharing yields rich ideas and a clear division of labor. This element is very important in a school for it helps all teachers to feel as if they are part of the school. Sharing makes all teachers own the school in an attempt to bring about motivation among themselves. It also provokes teachers to work hard and interact well with students because they understand that they have a responsibility and that they know that, for the school to have a positive progress, they should all participate in bringing about the progress (Egodawatte, McDougall, & Stoilescu, 2011, p. 194). Respect enables group parties to encourage their ideas without hurting other teachers. This strategy draws teachers close to each other because they feel respected. Commitment is also important for teachers for it encourages teachers to remain dedicated to their duties and to one another.
The effects of collaborative characteristics on the student’s success
Collaboration characteristics can have positive powerful effects on students’ learning especially the low-performing students. These effects can be realized through the collaborative characteristics, for instance introducing students to collaborative learning where they are advised to make use of each other in a class setting as advised by Walthar-Thomas, Korinek, and McLaughlin (1999, p. 2). Collaborative learning is whereby two or more students learn or attempt to jointly learn new concepts. Walthar-Thomas, Korinek, and McLaughlin (1999, p. 2) recognize the fact that each student has something unique that can be of help to another. In fact, the “Ultimately, the unique, dynamic, and sometimes problematic differences between team members are what are likely to make collaborative undertakings more effective than efforts of individuals working alone” (Walthar-Thomas, Korinek, and McLaughlin, 1999, p. 2: MacDonald, et al. n.d, p. 239). Some of the collaborative learning methods are group discussions, departmental groups, and debates amongst others. Collaborative learning activities enable students to avail elaborations of their understanding. These activities help students to expound and reorganize their knowledge.
Sharing as a collaborative characteristic allows social interaction. Students interact with one another especially in their group discussions where they share their ideas and understanding of certain class concepts. Social interaction provokes elaboration of conceptual knowledge as group members try to make themselves understood (MacDonald, et al. n.d, p. 239). This conceptual knowledge enables students understand better than the way they could have understood in a class. Tolerance is also a collaborative characteristic, which promotes fair and objective attitude towards other students’ opinions and ideas. Acceptance also stimulates recognition and acceptance of the other students despite their weaknesses. Tolerance and acceptance ensure that all students’ views and opinions are considered in a collaborative learning. This strategy promotes self-confidence and right attitudes among students. Many students fail because they lack self-confidence. Collaboration among students gives students a chance to exercise self-confidence as they bring out their points and elaborations on their understanding. Students also build their self-confidence through the assurance that the other students recognize and appreciate their ideas and opinions. Self-confidence greatly improves the performance of the students. Respect being collaborative characteristic works towards improving the performance of a student. Every student’s ideas and opinions should be respected. This outcome is possible through self-discipline, control, and genuine respect for the other students’ concepts. This strategy provokes creative thinking among students because they are put in a competitive mood, which triggers them to work to bring in new ideas to the group. It also motivates them to work hard and or read more so that they can get materials and new concepts to the group. Through collaboration, students are able to evaluate themselves. They are able to identify their areas of weakness hence getting an opportunity to work on them or look for assistance from other students to improve on their performance.
How collaborative characteristics affect relationships in the community
Collaboration is very important and crucial in a community. In a community, there are many projects, which are aimed at the development of the community. These projects can only be successfully managed through collaboration that entails the various aspects, as put forth by (McMahom and Bhamra (n.d, p. 89). Collaborative characteristics have many positive effects to the community. Collaboration promotes respect. Respect is very crucial of a community. Everyone in the community needs to be respected for whom he or she is hence making the community work together as a family because there is a genuine respect for every member’s opinions and ideas. Tolerance and acceptance also bring the community together. It makes community members recognize and appreciate each other regardless of their weaknesses. When community members accept and understand each other’s weaknesses, they come up with better ways of interacting with each other. They live with harmony and peace. These collaborative characteristics also reduce chances of conflict in the community because they make the community members remain dedicated to one another and to their common goal of developing the community. Collaborative characteristics promote empowerment of the members of the community because they advocate for respect for everyone in the community as a team or partner in the collaboration. It also calls for courage, which refers to the ability and potential to confront fear, intimidation, and uncertainties. For a community to be empowered, it should have the courage to face its fears and uncertainties. Sharing as a collaborative characteristic promotes division of labor in a community, which in turn enhances diversification of talent and capabilities. This aspect makes every community member committed to the activities and operations of the community because everyone feels like he or she belongs to that community and that he or she has a responsibility to ensure that the community is well and developing as expected by the society.
Conclusion
In conclusion, collaboration is very essential in organizations, communities, and for individuals. This paper has discussed the importance of collaborative characteristics to teachers and supervisors in improving the school atmosphere. It has outlined that collaboration is an important tool to the motivation of the teachers and supervisors in schools. It also stimulates smooth learning of the school. The paper has also discussed the effects of collaborative characteristics on students’ success whereby these characteristics improve the students’ performance through instilling self-confidence and the right attitude to the student. Lastly, the paper has discussed the impact of collaborative characteristics on relationships in the community.
Reference
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