Norms for Professional Learning

Have you ever been in a meeting or a workshop and felt frustrated by not being able to get a word in? Have you noticed colleagues hanging back from participating and made assumptions about why? Have you ever felt attacked by criticism instead of supported by constructive feedback? What are norms and how can they avoid these pitfalls?

This brief article draws on research-based resources and shares a few examples of specific norms and how they build capacity for productive collaboration.

• Research Brief

This activity provides a step-by-step guide for co-constructing a set of norms with your team that will help build trust and encourage productive participation!

• Norms Activity

These tips for supporting norms during short or longer-term collaboration will help you make the most of any "social contract" you choose for, or co-create with, your team.

• Tips

It’s not always necessary to create your own norms from scratch! This curated collection of existing sets of norms is in no way meant to be comprehensive, but the examples included have been created for a variety of  professional learning settings and situations. Choose norms directly from one or more of these resources, or use them as inspiration for you or your team.

• Library