Collaborating is not easy. However, it is possible to learn to collaborate better, and research shows positive effects among education professionals and teachers who do so effectively. Meeting with Audrey Raynault, Ph.D. postdoctoral researcher for the Périscope Network at Laval University.
Audrey Raynault, Ph.D.'s research project is intersectoral and focuses on inter-professional collaborative practices with families that promote student agency in their intervention plan in the digital age.
In an interview, she explains that current research shows positive effects of collaboration among teachers, both at the personal level and for professional development, but also in the quality of interventions with children. In fact, teachers who collaborate effectively in trying to find solutions together to problems concerning students would be more patient and less at risk of dropping out.
Audrey Raynault explains that it is important to define what is meant by “collaborate”. Briefly, as a team, it is a matter of communicating, synchronizing and coordinating to co-create or even find together different avenues of solutions to common problems in order to then arrive at a consensus on the actions to be taken.
The example of the health sector
As part of her work, she is particularly interested in the field of health. Indeed, we have developed a competence framework for collaborative practice in partnership with the patient. The latter has a role to play in his intervention plan and in the choice of his care. She is therefore based on this frame of reference and tries to see how certain elements could be adapted, then transferred to education., especially for the student intervention plan process.
In closing, she recalls that collaboration is a skill that can be learned, and that training to collaborate is beneficial for everyone: oneself, students, colleagues and parents.
See the full interview to find out more!
text by Audrey Miller
