• Introduction
  Why work together with colleagues? Different types of collaborative practices Identifying levels of collaboration Barriers to collaborative work
• Good practices
• Portraits
• Reflection and exercices
• Advice
• Library
• The 'NAM-tinder'

Several types or ‘degrees’ of collaboration can be distinguished.

Bell and Beacher have developed a theoretical model of collaboration called Collaboration Continuum (2011), based on 2 dimensions: the frequency and the formality of the collaboration.
When a collaborative arrangement is established over time, then collaboration is frequent, with regular meetings, long-term planning and daily interactions. Collaboration can be formalized : places are set aside for meetings, time is set aside in the teachers’ timetable for such meetings, and time is set aside for exchanges with the head teacher.
On the other hand, informal collaboration is initiated by the teachers, with or without the support of the principal, and is generally set up to meet an immediate and specific communication need. In any case, both formal and informal collaboration is necessary for effective collaboration (Baecher & Bell, 2011; Honisfeld & Dove, 2010).

“Through collaboration, teachers can provide continued cooperative professional development, including sharing additional strategies and scaffolding techniques, in an ongoing, meaningful, and contextualized manner. For collaboration to function optimally, however, the teachers involved require common meeting times for planning, professional development on how to successfully collaborate, equal status, clearly defined common instructional goals, and compatible working and personality styles.” (Bell & Baecher, 2012 : 490)

It is also important to remember that there are many different pedagogical practices based on collaboration and that it is not necessarily necessary to set up a very ambitious scheme at the beginning. It is important to have realistic expectations but also to identify existing pedagogical practices and communication tools in the school.
Honigsfeld and Dove (2014, 2019) developed a theoretical model of collaboration between EFL and non-language teachers, which includes 6 pedagogical practices:

1) Joint lesson planning (or co-planning)
2) Pupil curriculum mapping and a curriculum approach
3) Parallel teaching
4) Co-development of resources
5) Collaborative assessment
6) Co-teaching
As well as 2 non-pedagogical practices: in-service training and collaborative research.