Developing the group/college

The college is often a good resource and environment for pedagogical development. Through the college, we can exchange thoughts and experiences, seek help and support, but also challenge each other and develop further together. It can be especially important to have a supportive college when, for example, you are new to a field. All recommendations below are based on the theory of "Communities of Practice", see references below. In Swedish, these are usually called "praxisgemenskaper" and are found in all professions.

Why work with collegial development?

Working and supporting each other is often both fun and educational. We can continuously share experiences and innovations, both good and less good, and thereby learn from each other. The college is especially important for those who are not so experienced: Here they can continuously seek help and support. But even for very experienced colleagues, the college can serve as a place to challenge themselves and their practice.

Some advantages of colleges for teachers in higher education:
(according to Wilson et al, 2020)
- Can open up new ways of learning
- A source of both self-confidence and motivation
- Provide opportunities to think new and different ways about their own teaching
- Provide opportunities to apply new ideas to their teaching

Thinking together gives us the opportunity to think even bigger.

What characterizes a college?

A community of practice is a collection of people who have similar types of practice/activity and who therefore also share challenges and solutions. It is based on common interest and does not really have a hierarchy, although supporting roles may be needed, see below. A community of practice can exist within all professions and interest groups. To emphasize that this is about teachers' and supervisors' communities of practice, we have chosen to call these "pedagogical colleges".

Learning within a community of practice is often informal, but can of course be supplemented with formal courses and training. Different people can participate in a community of practice to different degrees of activity. This is completely natural.

Wher is your pedagogical college?

A collegium can be formal groupings or more informal groups. It can be subject groups, course groups, unit or pedagogical forum or council. It can be cross-functional teams that deal with an area such as "AI" or "examination". It can also be colleagues who meet simply because they see the benefit of collaborating. Do you already have such a grouping that you belong to? Maybe you even belong to several? Or would you need such a collegium?

Three pillars according to Wenger

Wenger (1998) describes Communities of Practice and its pillars:
Joint Enterprise: What unites the group – a common task, issue or challenge.
Mutual Engagement: Relationships, communication and collaboration between members.
Shared Repertoire: Shared resources – concepts, tools, stories, routines etc.

Are you looking for a pedagogical college?

Please contact the Unit for teaching and learning.

How can the college be strengthened?

Regardless of the form of the college, it can be good to both gain security within the group and a structure for the development work that is being done. By having a common cyclical process, one can also link it to other things that are being done during the academic year:

If your college concerns a program or course, the process can be linked to the ongoing evaluations that are made.
If your college concerns a department/organizational unit, the work can be linked to both workplace meetings and employee interviews.

Within all courses, programs and units, it is important that responsibility for pedagogical quality and development is clear.

Suggestions for developmental activities

Roles within a group

It may be useful to designate roles for the following:

Agenda manager: Calls meetings and sets the agenda.
Social manager: Ensures that everyone is heard, that there is a balance between contributions, etc.
Critical friends: Who can, for example, be invited to auscultate or give their opinion on something
Communicator: Who documents and summarizes what the group does, and highlights this in communication, for example, with other groups
Technical supporter: Who reviews how technology is best used to support the community

There are often both peripheral participants and core members:
Core members: Hold the community together, drive it forward.
Peripheral participants: Participate more passively but learn by observing and participating to a lesser extent.

Degrees of security

From the moment a group is formed, the security within the group can develop:

Create a meeting place. Step 1 is to create the opportunity to meet. This can be physical meetings, digital online meetings or digital conversation in other ways, e.g. email or Teams.
Share experiences. This step is often quite easy to take once the meeting place has been formed. Sharing positive experiences and successful examples requires the least security. Sharing less successful examples can also give a lot, but requires more security.
Raise challenges. What do I find challenging in my teaching? Do I dare to discuss this with my colleagues? This often feels very important for a teacher/supervisor. But it also requires a high level of psychological security.

More about psychological security in teaching: Fostering psycological safelt in the educational setting

Developing the group/college

Why work with collegial development?

What characterizes a college?

Wher is your pedagogical college?

Three pillars according to Wenger

Are you looking for a pedagogical college?

How can the college be strengthened?

Roles within a group

Degrees of security

Förslag på utvecklande aktiviteter

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