Near East South Asia - Council of Overseas Schools

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NESA Forum Protocols

SEVEN NORMS OF COLLABORATION

To develop shared meaning and promote constructive collaboration, NESA asks that forum participants follow the ‘7 norms of collaboration’ put forward by Garmston and Wellman.

1. Pausing: Pausing before responding or asking a question allows time for thinking and enhances dialogue, discussion, and decision-making.

2. Paraphrasing: Using a paraphrase starter that is comfortable for you – “So…” or “As you are…” or “You’re thinking…” – and following the starter with an efficient paraphrase assists members of the group in hearing and understanding one another as they converse and make decisions.

3. Posing Questions: Two intentions of posing questions are to explore and to specify thinking. Questions may be posed to explore perceptions, assumptions, and interpretations, and to invite others to inquire into their thinking. For example, “What might be some conjectures you are exploring?” Use focusing questions such as, “Which students, specifically?” or “What might be an example of that?” to increase the clarity and precision of group members’ thinking. Inquire into others’ ideas before advocating one’s own.

4. Putting Ideas on the Table: Ideas are the heart of meaningful dialogue and discussion. Label the intention of your comments. For example: “Here is one idea…” or “One thought I have is…” or “Here is a possible approach…” or “Another consideration might be…”.

5. Providing Data: Providing data, both qualitative and quantitative, in a variety of forms supports group members in constructing shared understanding from their work. Data have no meaning beyond that which we make of them; shared meaning develops from collaboratively exploring, analyzing, and interpreting data.

6. Paying Attention to Self and Others: Meaningful dialogue and discussion are facilitated when each group member is conscious of self and of others, and is aware of what (s)he is saying and how it is said as well as how others are responding. This includes paying attention to learning styles when planning, facilitating, and participating in group meetings and conversations.

7. Presuming Positive Intentions: Assuming that others’ intentions are positive promotes and facilitates meaningful dialogue and discussion, and prevents unintentional put-downs. Using positive intentions in speech is one manifestation of this norm.



HOW TO PARTICIPATE IN THE LIVE ZOOM MEETINGS

      • To join the Live Forum meetings for your group, please use the link you received in the confirmation email after registering for the Zoom.
      • Your video will be disabled by default upon entry into the session. You may turn it on at any time if you wish to be visible.
      • You will be muted by default upon entry to the session. Please remain muted until called on to speak by the facilitator. After you have finished speaking, please mute your microphone again.
      • If you wish to speak, indicate to the facilitator by virtually ‘raising your hand’ in Zoom or physically raising your hand if your video is active (per session facilitator preference).
      • One person at a time will be invited to speak. To minimize disruptions while speaking, please put device notifications on silent.
      • Please use the Zoom chat for questions/insights/links. If sharing resources in the chat, please also remember to add them to your Forum Shared Drive space/Links sheet following the call.
      • If you need to leave the meeting early, you may use the ‘Leave meeting’ option at the bottom of the screen. There is not need to notify the facilitators.


HOW TO USE THE NESA MEMBER HUB DISCUSSION FORUMS

The NESA Live Forum Spaces have moved to the NESA Member Hub! Here's how to join the conversation.

      • Log In: Log in to the NESA Member Hub and navigate to the Forum tab.
      • Enter Forum: At right, under NESA Communities of Practice, is a list of the forums you belong to according to your role*. Click a forum name to view topics for that forum.
      • Start a Topic: To post a new topic, click the Add New Topic button. Enter a title, content, and file attachments. Please use decriptive language in your title; e.g., if sharing resources, use the word "Resources".
      • Publish a Topic: To publish your topic immediately, check the Publish box and click Done.
      • Save a Draft: To save a draft, do NOT check the Publish box before clicking Done. Drafts will appear under My Drafts at right. To edit a draft, click the draft title, then click the pencil icon. Publish when ready as in above.
      • Comment: To comment on a topic, click the topic title, then click Add a Comment.
      • Search: You may search and filter topics using the search bar / dropdown at top.
      • Notifications: You may save a topic to your Watching list (at right) by clicking the eye icon. Depending on your forum notification settings, you may receive email notifications when a watched topic is updated. To change your notification settings, click the cog icon at top right and select Communication Preferences.

If you are a NESA Member School Head, Principal, HR Director, Business Manager, or Wider Circle Representative and do NOT see your corresponding forum, please contact ranya@nesacenter.org.