Collaboration activities in pedagogical development programmes in higher education: what do teachers learn from this?

Previous studies showed the importance of collaboration among teachers within Pedagogical Development Programmes (PDP). However, due to the varied use of the term collaboration in the literature, it is often unclear how different types of collaboration (from independent to interdependent) are related to various learning outcomes. In this survey study among PDP participants, we distinguished three types of collaboration activities: information exchange, discussion, and co-creation. We explored the relationships between these collaboration activities, teacher learning outcomes, and their perceived changes in student learning. Parallel multiple mediator model analyses showed that engagement in information exchange activities was indirectly related to perceived changes in student learning through changes in teachers’ attitudes and teaching behaviour. This finding suggests that it is important to organise information exchange activities within the design of PDP. No indirect relation was found between the collaboration activities discussion, co-creation, and student learning. Surprisingly, co-creation activities seemed to directly relate to students' learning. More research is needed to explain this unexpected finding.