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A Learning Space: Student Teachers’ Experience of Coteaching Science

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Coteaching in International Contexts

Part of the book series: Cultural Studies of Science Education ((CSSE,volume 1))

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Abstract

Teaching practice placements are recognised as central components in all teacher education programmes by both student teachers and teacher educators (Zeichner 1990; McIntyre et al. 1996). Yet, pre-service teachers approach these placements with considerable anxiety related to performance, supervision, pupil cooperation and communication with their class teacher which negatively impacts on their performance and diminishes the learning experience (Martinez 1998; Beck and Kosnik 2000). Cooperating class teachers are often overlooked as a source of advice and mentoring for these students. This chapter outlines how a primary science coteaching project was developed to provide additional non-assessed science teaching experience for final year pre-service teachers. While the reciprocal benefit of coteaching guided the project, this chapter focuses on the benefits accruing to the pre-service teachers. It is suggested that beginning teachers who have developed professional competence promoted by teacher education programmes are well placed to fully exploit the learning-to-teach opportunities, which is offered by subject-specific coteaching. The participants in this study were nine final semester student teachers in a 3-year B.Ed. programme in the Republic of Ireland and nine cooperating teachers. Together, they formed 10-week coteaching partnerships focused on science.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Each seeks to elaborate on professional competences which should be evident in a beginning teacher’s work. For example, the TTA Circular 4/98 Requirements for Courses of Initial teacher Training (DfEE, 1998); in Australia the Report of the National Standards and Guidelines for Initial Teacher Education Project (Preparing a Profession) NCATE; in Northern Ireland the General Teaching Council’s Reviews of Teacher Competences and Continuous Professional Development, in the Rep. of Ireland beginning teachers are advised of planning an professional competence in Guidelines for ProbationaryTeachers (DES 2005).

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  1. Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland

    Neil Ó Conaill

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  1. Neil Ó Conaill
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  1. Graduate School of Education, Queen's University of Belfast Graduate School of Education, Belfast, United Kingdom

    Colette Murphy

  2. Dept. Chemistry & Biochemistry, University of Delaware Dept. Chemistry & Biochemistry, Newark, USA

    Kathryn Scantlebury

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Conaill, N.Ó. (2010). A Learning Space: Student Teachers’ Experience of Coteaching Science. In: Murphy, C., Scantlebury, K. (eds) Coteaching in International Contexts. Cultural Studies of Science Education, vol 1. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-3707-7_9

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