Development of Collaborative Work

This line is responsible for researching and developing methods to improve collaborative work in the Euskadi VET system, both for educator teams that most work in coordinated fashion and act as a model for students, and for students themselves, thereby boosting their learning.

The main objective is to offer resources and accompaniment for the coherent and systematic implementation of collaborative work in high-performance learning, thereby contributing to talent development.

This line is important because:

• One of the axioms of the ETHAZI model states that, by working in collaboration with others, we go farther: students learn more and better, and educator teams can conduct their activity more effectively.

• The use of collaborative work as an essential tool for student learning encourages integration into increasingly complex social and professional contexts where inter-disciplinarity and collaboration are key factors.
• We believe that teachers must work in organised fashion with self-managed educator teams to deploy high-performance learning scenarios. This method of working helps to enrich teaching skills themselves.

We contemplate collaborative work in three dimensions that must be applied simultaneously and coherently because they are interrelated. At iTlent, we research and transfer knowledge to educator teams for them to roll it out at the centres.

Firstly, we boost work team cohesion to learn who and how we are on the team. Developing mutual knowledge and fostering inter-personal interactions helps to assume differences on the team, facilitating inclusion, and to develop solidarity between people on the team. We research relationship modes that facilitate cohesion and trust. We put the ones that provide value into action in our training proposals.

On the other hand, we encourage the use of collaborative work as a fabulous tool to enrich people's learning in learning communities. Developing the responsible participation of each team member helps to internalise interdependence as a key factor in teamwork and to strengthen trust in decisions put into action as a team.

Lastly, in order to achieve shared objectives, the team must have a clear vision of how to walk toward them. We propose creating team plans that show how they wish to organise and how they will analyse sustainability in their processes. This method of working helps to develop individual and team self-regulation and to tackle conflict management as an inherent aspect of collaborative work.