‘It Certainly Taught Us How to Change Our Minds on Teaching Science’: Coteaching in Continuing Professional Development

Abstract

This chapter examines a model of coteaching in which student teachers and classroom teachers learn together first, for example, on a continuing professional development (CPD) programme and then implement that learning together as coteachers in the classroom. Teachers from 25 primary schools (covering all areas of Northern Ireland) and the student teachers, with whom they would be placed, attended a CPD course aimed at enhancing creativity, thinking and enquiry in primary science learning and teaching. The focus was on expanding teacher and student teacher agency by empowering them to involve children more in their own learning. Research shows that primary teachers who are not qualified in science tend to keep control of the knowledge and to discourage children from asking questions because of a lack of confidence in their own subject knowledge. Many of the activities in the CPD workshops were of the ‘black box’ type with no ‘correct’ answers. Data collection incorporated focus groups, individual interviews and confidence/attitudinal audits with teachers, student teacher and children. A sample of coteaching lessons was video recorded and examined together with the reflection and presentation workshops. The findings showed that the combination of relevant and exciting workshop activities designed to empower teachers to enable children to ‘lead’ their science learning, and the coteaching of science in the classroom, changed the way these teachers approached their science teaching. The success of this work was a result of the solidarity built up by group members learning together, expansion of teacher and student teacher agency through coteaching, which helped them increase children’s interest and engagement with science. A specific strength of this approach lies in its sustainability. One of the main issues with CPD is sustainability. Very often teachers find it difficult to implement new ideas and approaches and highlight lack of time, existing curricular pressures and lack of support as problems. In the current programme, we address the issue of sustainability by incorporating science student teachers in the CPD. The student teachers provided specific support in terms of science expertise in coteaching, coplanning (which helped address issues around lack of time) and co-reflection. Both teachers and student teachers developed professionally as they made sustainable changes to their teaching approaches and how they think about teaching science.