Collective Efficacy

In 1977, Stanford psychologist Albert Bandura observed that a group's confidence in its abilities seemed to be associated with greater success (ASCD Educational Leadership). There has been much research in the area of collective teacher efficacy. In an effort to take advantage of this phenomena, the teachers and teaching assistants at the Orchard Campus and the secondary teachers at the Bukit Timah campus are taking the online Jo Boaler course to become even stronger mathematics teachers.

There has not been much research in collective efficacy where parents are part of the collective efficacy group. We are changing that as there are a number of parents also taking the Jo Boaler course. On March 6, those parents who are enrolled, and those who would like to take the course, will be invited to attend a session with the teachers to learn more about mathematics at Chatsworth. More information will be coming soon about this event.

At the end of the day, we want to make a systemic change in how mathematics is taught at our school. Change is hard. There is evidence that suggests that in organizations 70% of change initiatives are not successful. Furthermore, a sustained change is even more elusive.

In order to make and sustain change, it is important to surround yourself with like minded individuals. Some would say that you would want those with alternative viewpoints as group members to represent other perspectives (Collins book Good to Great goes into this in great detail). That is true to a certain extent. However, if you are considering changing how your school teaches mathematics from procedure based to conceptual, when you have those who are like minded, the conversation becomes "how do we become better at teaching conceptually?" instead of "why are we teaching conceptually?". Change is much easier to implement and, more importantly, sustain.

Having the parents and teachers working together will enable us to make our school better as we all have the same vision as to what quality mathematics teaching and learning looks, feels, and sounds like. I am excited for us to meet on March 6 to learn together.


Dr. Michael Berry
Head of Primary