Team working/ project working

Working collaboratively, in teams, is an important skills for learners to live successful lives in 21st century. We are developing activities and frameworks which will facilitate the development of skills for working together, including many different strategies for debriefing the process.

Last year in Learning to Learn, staff and pupils developed a framework (with the help of ICA) for working collaboratively on projects. We called this 'Steps to Success':

•Leader – someone to keep as eye on how the process is going and direct it.
•Brain storm – all ideas and thoughts at this stage are useful and recorded (Brain drops is also used as a term)
•Outcomes – what do they want the end result to be – projects can only end well if everyone agrees what it is they are aiming for.
•Key actions – what do they need to do to reach the outcomes. How they will space out their time – a time/action plan.
•Who will do what – everyone in the group should have role.
•Time keeper – someone who ensures the task does not run behind
•Evaluation and reflection – we only get better at doing anything if we stop and think about how we did this time, what are the lessons to be learnt?

At the moment we are looking at ways to develop this further.

TASC (Thinking Actively in a Social Context), a process developed by Belle Wallace. Like the Futurelab Enquiring Minds Model, learners are encouraged to develop a cyclical approach to their enquiry. This begins with gathering and organising information, proceeds to idea generation and implementation and culminates in sharing, review and debrief. Central to the ethos of TASC is the acknowledment of multiple forms of intelligence and knowledge which in turn will foster increased engagement and improved self esteem.

There is also a Project Management tool - called Busy Lizzie is a good way of creating a timeline for projects.