Collaborative Teaching of an Integrated Methods Course

International Electronic Journal of Elementary Education. T&K Akademic Rosendalsvein 45, Oslo 1166, Norway. e-mail: [email protected]; Web site: http://www.iejee.com

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16

Methods Courses; Integrated Curriculum; Team Teaching; Cooperative Learning; Qualitative Research; Teaching Methods; Teaching Models; Teaching Experience; Student Experience; Student Teacher Attitudes; Teacher Educators; Teacher Attitudes; Participant Satisfaction; Meetings; Student Journals; Content Analysis; Transcripts (Written Records); Educational Practices

1307-9298

With an increasing diversity in American schools, teachers need to be able to collaborate in teaching. University courses are widely considered as a stage to demonstrate or model the ways of collaboration. To respond to this call, three authors team taught an integrated methods course at an urban public university in the city of New York. Following a qualitative research design, this study explored both instructors? and pre-service teachers? experiences with this course. Study findings indicate that collaborative teaching of an integrated methods course is feasible and beneficial to both instructors and pre-service teachers. For instructors, this collaborative teaching was a reciprocal learning process where they were engaged in thinking about teaching in a broader and innovative way. For pre-service teachers, this collaborative course not only helped them understand how three different subjects could be related to each other, but also provided opportunities for them to actually see how collaboration could take place in teaching. Their understanding of collaborative teaching was enhanced after the course.

As Provided

38

2015

EJ1052395