Session Information
10 SES 08 D, Research and Collaboration in Teaching Practice
Paper Session
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
Expected Outcomes
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
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