Careful Co-Planning for Effective Team Teaching in Mathematics

Bridget K Druken,Alison S Marzocchi,Michelle V Brye

doi:10.29333/iejme/11299

Bridget K Druken, Alison S Marzocchi + Show 1 more

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https://doi.org/10.29333/iejme/11299

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Abstract

This paper reports on a semester-long co-teaching investigation in which three mathematics teacher educators in the USA themselves enacted a co-plan/co-teach credentialing model in the context of a mathematics content course for future elementary teachers. The mathematics teacher educators sought to examine the co-planning practices for improving the team teaching co-teaching strategy. Data were collected from the mathematics teacher educators over fifteen weeks, including twice-weekly journal entries and classroom observation protocols. Utilizing a first-person research study design, the mathematics teacher educators found that a co-planning strategy could be used to maximize resources and improve lesson cohesion during team taught lessons. In particular, the mathematics teacher educators used co-planning meetings to divide lesson responsibilities by learning goal or by task. In this novel approach to mathematics teacher educator training, we describe the co-planning strategy along with its expansion, implementation, benefits, and limitations, and argue for its use in co-teachers’ co-planning repertoire.

Highlights

Credential programs in the USA are increasingly shifting from a model of observation and replication towards a model of gradual induction (Bacharach et al, 2010; Hartigan, 2014; Hiesh & Nguyen, 2015; Yopp et al, 2014)
A primary outcome of this study was the attention paid to careful co-planning for effective team teaching in the context of a university mathematics course for future teachers
Throughout the semester as we assumed the roles of teacher candidate (TC), mentor teacher (MT), and CC in our investigation, we found ourselves focusing on how to effectively co-plan for team teaching

Summary

Introduction

Credential programs in the USA are increasingly shifting from a model of observation and replication towards a model of gradual induction (Bacharach et al, 2010; Hartigan, 2014; Hiesh & Nguyen, 2015; Yopp et al, 2014). Gradual induction models allow teacher candidates to play instructional roles alongside mentor teachers from the start of the credential partnership, rather than beginning the credential program in an observation role. While different program formats may accomplish gradual induction, a co-plan/co-teach model provides a teacher candidate opportunities to design collaborative lessons, teach side-by-side, and reflect on instruction with an experienced mentor teacher (Yopp et al, 2014). Inspired by Kamen et al (2011) who seek to ‘walk the talk’ in their lesson study work with teacher educators, our work sought to address the lack of coplan/co-teach experience among teacher educators by designing and researching a semester-long investigation in which we replicated our university’s co-plan/co-teach credentialing model for ourselves

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