The training and consultation process to help teachers and schools to teach team learning consists of a set of activities aimed at regulating and guiding teachers when planning, developing and evaluating the progressive incorporation of the CL / LC Program (Cooperating to Learn / Learning to Cooperate) in the classrooms and in the center.
The activities and tools of this process are the result of two R – D – D projects carried out by the Research Group on Attention to Diversity (GRAD) of the University of Vic – Central University of Catalonia (UVic-UCC) : “PAC Project (1): Inclusive Didactic Program to attention at students with diverse educational needs in the classroom. An evaluative investigation “(Reference: SEJ2006-01495 / EDUC) and the PAC Project (2): “Case study on the development and counseling process of the PAC Project’s inclusive educational support program (Reference: EDU-2010-19140).”
One part of the first of these projects (planned from the GRAD research line on Cooperative Structuring of Learning) consisted of evaluating the program itself, and the other part (planned from the GRAD research line on Advice for the Improvement of Learning). the Educational Practice) was dedicated to identifying which elements of the counseling process had contributed in a special way to the incorporation of the CA / AC Program to the centers that applied it experimentally.
The analysis of the data obtained in the training and counseling processes carried out in different educational contexts by the members of the Group of Trainers on “Inclusive education, cooperation between students and collaboration between teachers” of the Center for Innovation and Educational Training (CIFE) of the University of Vic-Central University of Catalonia (UVic-UCC), has made it possible to develop the set of guidelines and instruments of what we call the Training / Consultation Process to “Help Teach to Learn as a Team”.
This process is structured in three stages, each of which is developed, in general lines, in one or two school years: the Introduction Stage, the Generalization Stage and the Consolidation Stage.
In each stage, a set of activities is proposed to know and test the proposals of the CA / AC Program: planning activities for their incorporation in the classroom, individual self-evaluation activities and in the team of participating teachers of the incidence of this incorporation, and evaluation and planning activities for the generalization and progressive consolidation of the CA / AC Program.
In the introductory stage, the teachers participating in the process make a first approach to some proposals in each of the three areas of the program and plan some activities related to their interests and objectives to improve their teaching practice. In this way, it verifies its impact on the classroom climate, on the learning of some contents and on learning how to work in cooperative teams. Based on their evaluations, the planning of a more systematic and progressive application of these proposals begins in the next stage.
In the Generalization Stage, the group of teachers from each centre who have carried out the introductory stage plan the generalized implementation of what they have learned and tested in the previous stage in two ways. At an individual level, the participating teachers apply cooperative learning in a systematic way both in the areas or groups included in the first stage and in new areas or groups. At the school level, on the other hand, the more experienced group helps a new group of teachers to start the program and presents the proposals of the three areas of the program, sharing the planning of these proposals, their implementation in the classroom and their evaluation. This generalization process can be repeated in successive phases, progressively expanding the number of participating teaching staff until enough is reached to consolidate it as a centre-wide project.
In the Consolidation Stage, at the individual level, a significant number of the school's teaching staff will have introduced the organization of teaching activity through cooperative learning as a regular and central way of working in the classrooms. At the centre level, cooperative learning is incorporated into the educational project at all stages and is considered as forming part of the identity of the centre, which makes use of instruments such as the Commission for the Coordination of Cooperative Learning, which ensures ongoing monitoring and a permanent system of reflection on practice with the aim of the continual improvement of cooperative learning in the centre, taking as a reference the cooperation between students and teachers. Furthermore, at this stage a significant part of the members of the educational community consider it an element of identity of the centre.