Enabling Education: A Model For Developing A Collaborative Pedagogical Culture That Impacts On Student Teacher Learning And Practice
Author(s):
Anna Logan (presenting / submitting) Fiona King (presenting) Ann Marie Farrell
Conference:
ECER 2016
Network:
10. Teacher Education Research
Format:
Paper

Session Information

10 SES 08 D, Research and Collaboration in Teaching Practice

Paper Session

Time:
2016-08-25
09:00-10:30
Room:
NM-Theatre P
Chair:
Stefan Müller-Mathis

Contribution

Rationale

The increasing national and international culture of neo-liberalism and its subcultures of performativity and managerialism place more demands on the higher education (HE) sector (Ball, 2012). While these might look different in various contexts, key features of managerialism persist across many countries, for example, the attempts to make HE into an international marketable commodity (Lynch, 2014). This coupled with more recent calls for collaborative cultures in HE, for impact on student teacher practices (Winn & Blanton, 2005), has resulted in a gap between rhetoric and practice (Nevin et al., 2009) as teacher educators struggle to reconcile these dilemmas. Given these competing demands, the time required for collaborative practices, and the lack of a model to assess the impact of such practices on student outcomes (Nevin et al., 2009), it is perhaps unsurprising that such a gap exists.

This is further reflected across Europe where there is an increasing policy focus on teacher competence to enhance student learning. Recent reviews distinguish between teaching and teacher competences, the former focused on classroom practice  and the latter implying a broader understanding of competence at multiple levels and contexts including school, community and professional networks (European Commission, 2013; OECD, 2009). Reflecting this wider focus, criteria for initial teacher education  in ROI emphasise the building of professional relationships, requiring that programmes prepare student teachers to engage collaboratively with colleagues, parents and other professionals (Teaching Council, 2011). Furthermore, providers  are asked to “model the active teaching methodologies they wish student teachers to emulate” ( p.22) placing  an imperative  to create opportunities for students to observe, experience, reflect on, and critique collaboration and collaborative practice.

Background

The authors were involved individually and collectively in three separate research projects investigating collaborative pedagogical approaches within a new four-year BEd programme in the ROI. Heretofore the BEd was a three year programme with one discrete introductory module of special and inclusive education (SIE). The new programme retains this module and includes an additional module in 4th year along with integration and permeation of SIE across the four years. The first research project focused on co-teaching in large classes (400); the second on collaborative self-study focused on the design, implementation and evaluation of new modules for students taking a major specialism in SIE (24 students),  and the third on the integration and permeation of SIE within the programme.  Each project had collaboration as both  focus and outcome.

Method

• Elmore’s (1979-1980) framework of backward mapping was used to review the outcomes of three studies (a) which had collaborative practice as a basis and (b) where there was evidence of student learning. • Synthesis of findings from the three empirical research projects below producing a pattern which forms the basis for the theory being proposed. Theory in this context “refers to mechanisms postulated as being capable of producing the events observed… highly tentative initially… more firmly established with successive cycles” (Robson, 2011, p. 37). -Evaluating the use of co-teaching in a large class (October 2102-May 2016) - The purpose was to (a) find if student teachers (800) found co-taught workshops helped them to learn and (b) ascertain what they had learned about co-teaching. From the perspective of the co-teachers, key purposes were to (a) examine the impact of co-teaching on teaching and learning and (b) identify the opportunities and challenges arising. Data were sourced from student evaluations, peer observations and examination responses. -Collaborative self study in HE: Understanding self and practice (June 2014-December 2015) - The focus was to examine (a) in what ways has collaborative self-study contributed to our designing, implementing and evaluating new SIE modules? (b) what factors contributed/hindered this approach? (c) how were our beliefs and values realized through module development? (d) to what extent did the collaborative self-study contribute to the participants’ professional learning and awareness of self as teachers and researchers? (e) can self-study be a form of professional development that supports teacher educators to teach about teaching? Data were sourced from blog reflections, notes from meetings, telephone calls and emails, lecturer planning and reflection template for each teaching session, student evaluations, focus groups, tweets and blog postings. Two lecturers and 24 students participated in this study. -Formative evaluation of the permeation of SIE across a BEd programme (September 2014 to date) - SIE is addressed in the programme using a framework of discrete, permeated and specialist inputs. The purpose of this study is to formatively evaluate the effectiveness of the permeated approach. Key questions are (a) what are the perceptions of students and staff of the model of permeation of SIE across the programme and (b) how can this model be developed to increase effectiveness? Data were collected from a survey of students and staff. • Abductive reasoning – to explain the data from the three studies to infer a theory of collaborative pedagogical culture

Expected Outcomes

Expected Outcomes Propose a model of collaborative pedagogical culture within HE that can support student learning outcomes in relation to collaboration and collaborative practice. ●Identify the benefits and challenges of using this model to support student learning related to collaboration and collaborative practice. ●Evaluate the potential of the model to contribute to the development of a research-based international language of collaborative pedagogy in teacher education. ●Suggest that this model might be evaluated in other HE contexts. ●A recent conceptual analysis of developments in teacher education research proposes a model of “teacher preparation research as historically situated social practice” driven chiefly by researchers’ experiences and theoretical perspectives (Cochran-Smith et al. 2015) and recommends that future research address questions linking teacher learning with student learning and teacher candidates’ beliefs and practices” (Cochran-Smith & Villegas, 2015, p. 379). Arguably, by investigating the emergence and development of collaborative pedagogical culture which supports student teacher learning and dispositions this paper makes a contribution to this agenda. ●An analysis of developments in educational research in Scotland identifies tension between the requirements of teacher education and the university research output agenda which may emerge when colleges of education are assimilated into universities. This can cause “many staff [to] have genuine concerns about the effect this is having on teaching, assessment and student support, as pressures to reduce the amount of time spent on these activities are applied” (Humes, 2007, p. 83). This is particularly germane to the current research as the college of education in which the researchers work is in the process of being incorporated into a university faculty of education. Arguably, the close alignment of teacher education practice and research demonstrated in this study may have potential to address in part these kinds of dilemmas and concerns which exist in a pervasive climate of neo-liberalism.

References

Ball, S. J. (2012). Performativity, commodification and commitment: An I-spy guide to the neoliberal university. British Journal of Educational Studies 60, 17−28, Cochran-Smith, M., Villegas, A., Abrams, L., Chavez-Moreno, Mills, T. & Stern, R. (2015). Critiquing Teacher Preparation Research: An Overview of the Field, Part II Journal of Teacher Education, 66(2) 109–121. Cochran-Smith, M. & Villegas, A. (2015). Studying teacher preparation: The questions that drive research. European Educational Research Journal 14(5), 379-394, Elmore, R. F. (1979-1980). Backward mapping: Implementation research and policy decisions. Political Science Quarterly, 94(4), 601-618. European Agency for Development in Special Needs Education. (2010). Teacher Education for Inclusion – International Literature Review. Odense: Author. European Agency for Development in Special Needs Education. (2013). Organisation of provision to support inclusive education- literature review. Odense: Author. European Commission (2013). Supporting teacher competence development for better learning outcomes. Author. Retrieved January 9, 2016 from http://ec.europa.eu/education/policy/school/doc/teachercomp_en.pdf Garcia, L.M. & Roblin, N.P. (2008) Innovation, research and professional development in higher education: Learning from our own experience. Teaching and Teacher Education , 24(1), 104-116. Humes, W. (2007). The infrastructure of educational research in Scotland. European Educational Research Journal, 6(1), 71-86. Kezar, A. (2005) Redesigning for collaboration within higher education institutions: An exploration into the developmental process. Research in Higher Education, 46(7), 831-860 Lynch, K. (2014) New managerialism: The impact on education. Concept, 5(3) (Retrieved 11 January 2016 from http://concept.lib.ed.ac.uk/ Nevin, A., Thousand, J. and Villa, R. (2009) Collaborative teaching for teacher educators – What does the research say? Teaching and Teacher Education, 25(40), 569-574. OECD (2009). Creating Effective Teaching and Learning Environments. First Results from TALIS. Paris: OECD Publications Retrieved January 9, 2016 from http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/17/51/43023606.pdf Robson, C. (2011) Real World Research. 3rd edition. Oxford: Blackwell. Wang, M. & Fitch, P. (2010) Preparing pre-service teachers for effective co-teaching in inclusive classrooms. In Forlin, C. (ed.) (2010) Teacher Education for Inclusion. Changing Paradigms and Innovative Approaches. London: Routledge cited in EADSNE 2010, p. 23 Winn, J & Blanton L. (2005) The call for collaboration in teacher education. Focus on Exceptional Children, 38(2), 1-10

Author Information

Anna Logan (presenting / submitting)
St. Patrick's College, Drumcondra, a College of Dublin City University
Special Education
Dublin
Fiona King (presenting)
St. Patrick's College, Drumcondra, a College of Dublin City University, Ireland
Ann Marie Farrell
St. Patrick's College, Drumcondra, a College of Dublin City University, Ireland

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