Abstract:
The importance of working in teaching teams to raise student achievement is often debated. There is increasing international acceptance that, in this knowledge driven age, those teachers working in isolation will struggle to synthesise the vast amounts of information required to ensure their students are successful. This mixed methods study seeks to identify the features of a group working within Technology Education who, when judged against the curriculum, have been successful in raising student outcomes. This research explores knowledge within groups in terms of Knowledge Management, how tacit knowledge, the knowledge of experience, becomes explicit knowledge, knowledge that can be used by others. It considers the types of communities people work in, with an emphasis on Communities of Practice and the Social Capital that needs to be built to encourage knowledge sharing. It asserts that Shared Activities lead the community to develop Shared Artifacts that carry the knowledge of the community within them. The group of teachers involved in the study work as a team, and have formed a highly developed community. The community is inclusive, supportive, reflective and driven by the need to create, use, and manage knowledge that they can pass on to their students.