Combined Professional Development: Fostering Collaboration During Student Teaching

1. Combined Professional Development: Fostering Collaboration During Student Teaching Tina J. Cartwright tina.cartwright@marshall.edu Carrie Adams adams176@marshall.edu

2. Approach to Science Education • A way of achieving quality science instruction • Changing values, beliefs, and understandings (Crawford, 2007) • Interaction among teachers is primary in facilitating the change process (Briscoe, 1991a; Briscoe & Peters, 1996; Connelly & Clandinin,1988; Day, 1987; Hargreaves & Dawes, 1989; Miller, 1990; Tripp, 1987).

3. Challenges of Collaboration • Power struggles between pre-service and in- service teachers (Anderson, 2007) • Pre-service teacher lack of confidence • Lack of support from mentors and supervisors (John, 2001)

4. Prior Research • Communities of practice allow knowledge and experience to be shared (Wegner, 1998) • Collaboration helps teachers better analyze and improve their classroom practice (Briscoe & Peters, 1997) • Effective collaboration can increase job satisfaction (Briscoe & Peters, 1997) • Pre-service teachers need positive interaction with in-service teachers in order to become more effective teachers (Ediger, 2002)

5. Methodology • Study Design • Summer workshop • Guided-inquiry curriculum • Participants • 3 pre-service teachers • 3 in-service teachers • Data collection method • 11 observations with fieldnotes • 5 memos • 5 individual interviews • 1 group interview

6. Findings • Through analytic induction (when some specific problem, question, or issues becomes focus of research) (Bogdan & Biklen, 2007, p. 70) • Question: How do teachers work together to implement a new guided-inquiry science unit? • Three emergent themes revolving around collaboration • Resolving power struggle • Gaining confidence • Feeling like a “real” teacher

7. The Power Struggle • The Struggle: • “I’m not going to allow my own teaching style to really, really shine through when I’m in somebody else’s classroom… It’s not my room to take over.” -Pre-service teacher L • Overcoming: • “She was so willing to let me be the kind of teacher that I wanted to be; she didn’t put me in a box. She let me just be outside of the box and share my ideas with her, and she would help me mold it to the curriculum.” -Pre-service teacher A

8. Confidence on the Rise • “To be able to meet somebody outside of this setting and develop your own personal relationship…professionally like that, you come to a mutual respect with each other… And I feel like I can say that I’m confident in myself now. I don’t feel like I have to question my abilities anymore.” – Preservice Teacher A

9. Becoming a “Real” Teacher • “We both really love science, and I think meeting her through the seminar allowed her to view me as a co-worker as opposed to a subordinate… I felt like it gave my opinions more value because she could see that I did have something to offer to the table. And we could collaborate and work together to see what we could come up with as opposed to her telling me what to do.”-Pre-service teacher L • “I felt like an equal; I felt like we could really discuss it. When we talked about the FOSS stuff, she would ask my opinion, what I thought we should do.” -Pre-service teacher J

10. Conclusion/Significance • Pre-service teachers reinforce their elementary science methods instruction • In-service teachers receive a partner with knowledge of a new program • Collaboration creates a more welcoming, encouraging learning environment • Encourages a needed change in elementary science education

11. References • Anderson, D. (2007). The role of cooperating teachers’ power in student teaching. Education, 128(2), 307-323. • Briscoe, C., and Peters, J. (1997) Teacher collaboration across and within schools: Supporting individual change in elementary science teaching. Science education, 81 (1), 51-65 • Crawford, B.A. (2007). Learning to teach science as inquiry in the rough and tumble of practice. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 44(4), 613-642. • Ediger, M. (2002). Assessing teacher attitudes in teaching science. Journal of Instructional Psychology, 29(1), 25-28. • John, P.D. (2001). Winning and losing: A case study of university tutor-student teacher interaction during a school-based practicum. Mentoring and tutoring, 9 (2), 153-168. • Wegner, E. (1998) Communities of practice: learning, meaning, and identity. (Cambridge, Cambridge, University Press).