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In anticipation of our summer Learning Forward Texas conference, we’re excited to share a series of posts that highlight what makes this event special. Over the next few months, we’ll feature insights from pre-conference speakers, testimonials from past attendees, and strategies for making the most of your conference learning experience. To kick things off, we’re sharing this conversation with Dr. Thomas Van Soelen.
I recently had the opportunity to visit with Dr. Thomas Van Soelen, a longtime educator, leader, and presenter for Learning Forward and Learning Forward Texas. Our conversation explored a few of the eight essential skills that make collaboration truly effective and why educators need explicit instruction in how to work together—not just the assumption that they already know how.
Here are a few key takeaways from our discussion.
Kathryn: I have to start with a question about your session, 8 Top Skills Needed for High-Quality and Low-Drama Collaboration. The session description is very click-baity for me because I consider myself a good collaborator – but what if I’ve been doing it wrong? What are some common misconceptions we have about collaboration?
Thomas: I can't think of many K-12 educators - well, maybe one - who got into education because they wanted to work with adults. They wanted to work with kids. But when we think about the biggest challenges in schools, the problem isn’t usually the students. The bigger piece of the pie is the adults.
And I think that we often operate in reactive mode instead of proactive mode when it comes to collaboration. We assume that just because someone is a professional educator, they naturally know how to collaborate. I think that's erroneous.
Most professions with a four-year degree include at least one course on workplace dynamics—how to manage conflict, how to work through an impasse with a colleague, and with assessments about yourself and how to understand your own work style. But we don’t do that in education. There’s so much focus on content and pedagogy that collaboration skills get overlooked.
So in a way, we expect all teachers to collaborate at a high level without ever providing explicit instruction in how to do so. It’s not about assuming a deficit—it’s about acknowledging that collaboration is a skill we haven’t been systematically teaching educators.
KL: Your session title mentions eight essential skills for collaboration. You just touched on self-assessments and the tendency to be reactive instead of proactive. Are those ideas connected to the skills you’ll cover? Can you give us a sneak peek at one of them?
TVS: The one I would love to talk about is called paying attention to yourself and others.
The reality is, in some ways, we’re all still seventh graders at heart - as if the world revolves around “Planet Me.” Even in collaborative settings, we often get so caught up in our own emotions, opinions, or tasks – whether it’s diving into the content, revising the assessment, or responding to district policy – that we don’t stop to fully notice the people around us
This is where the concept of facilitation comes in. Years ago, we shifted our language to say that teachers don’t just teach; they facilitate learning. But how often do we facilitate the learning of our colleagues in professional meetings? How often do we actively make the work easier—which is the root of the word facilitate (from the Latin facilis, meaning “to make easy”)?
That’s why I want to explicitly teach this in the session. We’ll take assessments—like a listening assessment—to see how well people think they listen. And they might discover, “Oh wow, maybe I’m not as good at this as I thought.”
Then we’ll ask: Now that we know this, what can we do about it?
We’ll build shared understanding and a common language around these skills. That way, we can hold ourselves accountable and hold others accountable. It’s just like shared knowledge of standards. Let's unpack a standard, and then we'll have shared knowledge.
I recently worked with a small cohort of educators, and every single person told me, I’ve never been taught these things before.
Some of them said, I didn’t know this about myself, and I didn’t know I should be doing this with others. That’s what makes this work powerful.
The key is turning broad outcomes into actionable skills.
For example, if my wife tells our 15-year-old, “Listen to your teacher today,” that’s not a replicable strategy - it’s an outcome.
Instead, she says, “Track your teacher with your eyes.” That’s a skill. Listening is the outcome, but tracking with your eyes is an action you can take.
Similarly, I would never write “to collaborate” on an agenda. That’s an outcome. If we truly want people to collaborate, we need to define what that looks like and what skills lead to that result.
KL: You’re right. I’ve never been explicitly taught these skills—so I need the full six hours with you!
Shifting gears just a bit – What changes in education or school, or collaboration have you seen since 2020?
TVS: Some teams, like teacher teams or PLCs, were operating well before COVID, but that doesn’t mean they reemerged in the same place on the other side.
At one point during the pandemic, I tweeted: “If your team had meaningful norms but hasn’t revisited them during this time period, they’re no longer meaningful.”
Post-pandemic, with changes like curriculum mandates, collaboration may look different. The work may now be more directed, so teachers aren’t necessarily co-designing lessons in the same way.
And then there’s the sheer proliferation of tools. Sometimes, PLC meetings become share-fests—focused on running reports, learning new software, or navigating platforms. But those meetings were supposed to be about learning. Instead, PLC time turns into tool training rather than analyzing the data it was meant to explore. People think they’re doing the “L” in PLC—learning—but in reality, it’s just show-and-tell with digital tools.
KL: That really resonates with me. As a former digital learning consultant, I had teachers come to me asking how they could incorporate a certain tech tool into their instruction. My pushback was always: Why do you want to use this tool? What outcome are you trying to achieve? Are you looking for asynchronous collaboration? Reflection? A way to document the learning process?
TVS: Exactly. A discussion protocol isn’t the thing—just like Canva isn’t the thing. Canva gets you to an outcome. A discussion protocol gets you to an outcome.
But if you’re simply “doing” the protocol—rather than using it as a means to an end—then it becomes all about the structure instead of the outcome.
Another thing I’ve been thinking about is AI in teacher development and growth. How might AI help us get feedback on our teaching or facilitation?
For example, what if we used ChatGPT to analyze a Zoom transcript from a coaching session? We could ask it to identify missed opportunities or to evaluate alignment with the ICF coaching markers. AI has the potential to provide valuable feedback—especially when formal observations aren’t always possible.
And that connects directly to one of those eight collaborative skills: paying attention to how you process feedback.
If people don’t understand how they process feedback, they can’t manage it effectively. And if someone can’t self-reflect on their own feedback process, how can they handle a colleague giving them feedback in a PLC meeting?
So what happens? We avoid giving feedback to each other entirely.
KL: Oh, that’s a good one! I don’t think I’ve been part of many teams that truly created a culture of feedback.
TVS: I think that culture and climate are much more intentional in the business world. Why? Circling back—because they’ve been taught how to operate in a workplace.
Work takes effort. Work requires skills. And businesses have figured that part out.
In schools, our focus is always on student learning—which is a good thing! But it’s all the adult learning—that bigger piece of the pie—that often gets overlooked. And when we don’t focus on developing educators as professionals, it gets in the way of everything else.
Advice for First-Time Learning Forward Texas Attendees
KL: You’ve been presenting and sharing in the DFW area for 10 years! Any advice for educators who are new to the Learning Forward Texas conference?
TVS: What I love about this conference—and what makes it different—is the depth of learning.
At some conferences, sessions are short. You show up, get dazzled, feel inspired… and then it’s over. And I really hope people do something with that learning!
But at Learning Forward Texas, the experience is different. The sessions are longer, and the audience consists of educators who are focused on developing others. That creates a unique learning space.
My new business cards say: “Develop yourself. Develop others.”
And I think that’s exactly what Learning Forward Texas is all about.
You’re there to grow yourself—but it’s also clear that your role is to help others grow, too.
In my pre-conference session, we have the time and space to slow down and ask: What does this learning mean for me? And what does this mean for others?
And because of the extended session format, we don’t just do this once—we move through this process eight times. That’s what makes the experience so impactful.
This conversation with Dr. Van Soelen was both thought-provoking and affirming. His insights on collaboration, feedback, and growth challenged me to think about how we support not just student learning, but adult learning as well. I know I’ll continue reflecting on whether something is a skill or strategy or an outcome.
I can’t wait to continue learning in his pre-conference session at this year’s Learning Forward Texas conference! If you’re attending, be prepared to work on developing yourself, and then use the new skills to develop others.
Developing adults has characterized the work of Thomas Van Soelen, Ph.D. for over a decade. His work in the areas of instructional strategies, learning communities, critical friendship, leadership development, and teacher evaluation are known throughout Georgia and in other states and countries. His collaborative practices, quick wit, and deep experience make him an ideal short- and long-term consultant choice for school districts and individual schools.
Kathryn Laster brings over 30 years of education expertise as a math teacher, instructional coach, and digital learning consultant. Now, as an independent consultant, Kathryn creates and facilitates transformative learning experiences through intentional, human-centered, tech-infused design. Connect with Kathryn at Refined Learning Design.
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