Visible teacher thinking and group learning

Abstract

This study concerns MLTV, a research project conducted by INDIRE in partnership with Project Zero, Harvard Graduate School of Education, and with three upper secondary schools in Italy, within the Educational Avant-Garde Movement, a network of more than thousand schools aimed at didactic and organizational innovation. The project was meant to experiment, localize, and adapt to the Italian school system the combination of two theoretical frameworks by Project Zero: Making Learning Visible (MLV) and Visible Thinking (VT) whose main features are Thinking Routines, group learning, and documentation. For the purpose of the present study, the research question deals with the use of the Thinking Routines and protocols as metacognitive tools that foster group learning for teachers from a life-long learning perspective. Particular observations of teachers in the staff room, involved in protocol-guided discussions with their colleagues, suggest that the use of TRs and protocols can really generate transformative learning, based on group learning and metacognitive reflections, and consequently a change in their professional practices.