A Case Study on the Use of Coteaching in Science Instruction for Science-Gifted Elementary Students

Abstract

As a case study on the use of coteaching in science instruction for science-gifted elementary students, this paper analyzed the characteristics of coteaching science instruction for science-gifted elementary students by plan, performance, and reflection-evaluation stages of the classes. To do this, we observed two teachers' coteaching science instruction for science-gifted elementary students during twelve classes and analyzed the taped videos, their journals, and the transcripts for in-depth interviews with them. The results indicated that the characteristics of the coteaching science instruction, in the planning stage of the classes, showed improvement in the quality of the sciencegifted education programs, the reduction of the psychological burdens of developing the programs, and some efficiency loss due to the joint preparation of the classes. The characteristics in the performance stage of the classes include the seamless progression of the classes through the division of roles, the increase of the students' opportunity to explore, the supplement of the teachers' inadequate descriptions and the overlooked contents, the increase of the interaction between teachers and students and/or the interaction among students, the reduction of the risk of accidents in experiments, and the reduction of the responsibility for teaching. Finally, the characteristics in the reflectionevaluation stage of the classes could be attributed to the diversity of the evaluation viewpoints, the increase of the learning opportunities to develop the teaching professionalism, and the increase of the fear for assessing my own classes.