An investigation of collaboration and its effects on teachers and students /
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| Other Authors: | , , |
| Format: | Thesis Book |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
1990.
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | ProQuest, Abstract Link to OAKTrust copy |
| Abstract: | The need for collaborative research efforts in education between university researchers and classroom teachers has recently been in the forefront of educational literature. As a teacher becomes a researcher, another collaborative relationship may emerge: that of the teacher as researcher in collaboration with other teachers. This study examined a collaborative research effort between two teachers as well as the transactions that occurred between teachers and students as a result of that collaboration. During the 1988-89 school year the two teachers, a science teacher and a language arts teacher, worked together to improve the science achievement of thirty-nine remedial eighth-grade students. The focus of the collaboration was an identified characteristic of poor readers: the lack of strategies for reading content area textbooks. During the study, the science textbook was used as an instructional tool in the language arts classes. Activities designed to engage the student in active, participatory reading were used for instruction. The teachers planned lessons and conferred extensively about students during this project. This study was a qualitative study using ethnographic data collection methods to gather data from multiple sources. Three concurrent data-collection phases were established in order to organize the data. Phase one focused on the teachers, phase two on the thirty-nine students involved in the study, and phase three on five students selected for in-depth case studies. Data were collected and analyzed in three contexts: Context A involved observations and interviews recorded in field notes and teacher logs, Context B consisted of artifacts produced by the students and teachers, and Context C included cured responses such as tests, and inventories of reading and science concepts. Findings from this study were reported on two groups, the collaborating teachers and the students involved in the study. Differing collaborative roles were identified for the teachers and included those of researcher and learner. The teachers' theoretical orientations and their expectations for the collaboration were examined with changes in those expectations being documented. One teacher reported no change in theoretical orientation resulting from the collaboration while the other reported a reconfirmation of her previous change toward a whole language orientation. Both teachers experienced, through the collaboration, extended involvement in the academic and personal lives of their students. The involved students perceived the collaborative effort as a help in their reading and understanding of science. While evidencing a positive attitude toward learning and themselves as learners, the students showed an improvement in science achievement. |
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| Item Description: | Typescript (photocopy). Vita. "Major subject: Curriculum and instruction." |
| Physical Description: | x, 222 leaves : illustrations ; 29 cm |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references. |