Conference Contribution Details
Mandatory Fields
Farrell, A.M. and Logan, A.
International Symposium in New Issues in Teacher Education (ISNITE)
International conference on initial teacher education.
Gdansk, Poland
Invited Oral Presentation
2017
()
Optional Fields
29-AUG-17
31-AUG-17
Teacher Educators Co-Teaching in the Large Class Setting: Learning from Practice Ann Marie Farrell and Anna Logan Intention: This study focused on the collaborative practice of two teacher educators who co-taught a large class of first-year student teachers (400) as one of a range of approaches within a module on special and inclusive education. The intention of this study was three-fold: 1. To use co-teaching to create a platform for workshop based activities in order to increase student learning, voice, participation and engagement. 2. To model the practice of co-teaching for student teachers. 3. To systematically document and evaluate our practice in this endeavour and add to the scholarship of teaching and learning. Method: This study was carried out over a two-year period with two cohorts of first-year students on a Bachelor of Education (Primary Teaching) programme. Student teachers were provided with samples of a pupil’s work and were required to work in pairs or groups of three in order to come to conclusions about his current level of performance. Data were collected in the following ways: • Survey of both cohorts of students • Oral and written feedback from two peer observers • Analysis of video-recordings of two co-taught sessions Results The student cohort was very positive in terms the effectiveness of the co-teaching approach in helping them to understand the concepts and allowing more active engagement and learning about the co-teaching approach itself. The results of the peer observations moderated and illuminated the perceptions and beliefs of the co-teachers, particularly in relation to being very explicit regarding the nature of the co-teaching models used e.g. teaming, one lead / one assist and so on. Analysis of the video recordings highlighted factors that were not obvious in the immediacy of the teaching and learning context. Conclusions: The use of co-teaching as one of a range of approaches within a module, was very useful in terms of increasing student participation and replicating somewhat a learning context that might be more usual with much smaller groups. Further, it allowed for provision of formative feedback both during and following the co-taught sessions that would not otherwise have been feasible. Finally, it allowed the student voice to be heard within the large class context. Five key words: Co-teaching, collaborative practice, initial teacher education, student engagement, large class