Building A Culture of Collaboration >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>@storytrail.com

Longitudinal Case Study

Two Heads Are Better than One:
Influencing Preservice Classroom Teachers' Understanding and Practice of Classroom-Library Collaboration

Judi Moreillon: Home | Author | Educator | Advocate

Two Heads Are Better than One: Interventions During Participants' Preservice Education

Two Heads Are Better than One:
The Factors Influencing the Understanding and Practice of Classroom-Library Collaboration


Reading the Research and Classroom-Library Panel Presentation and Discussion

During the first few weeks of the participants' elementary curriculum class (spring semester 2005), I invited a panel of classroom teacher, teacher-librarian, and principal teams from two schools to share their collaborative work with our class. One of the texts for this course was Loertscher and Achterman's book Increasing Student Achievement through the Library Media Center: A Guide for Teachers (2003). Before the panel visit, the study participants had engaged in discussions related to classroom-library collaboration. I had provided a mini-lesson that focused on the distinctions between cooperation and collaboration as well as a review of the benefits to students, including achievement, and to teachers, including collegiality and professional development. Students individually prepared a list of questions in advance of the panel discussion, which began with a presentation by each school's team.

During their presentation, the panel shared standards-based collaborative lessons and unit plans, research strategy handouts in K-5 student-friendly language, graphic organizers, and student assessment rubrics. In addition, the teams also passed around samples of students' learning artifacts and shared student work that was published on the Web. The classroom teachers and teacher-librarians shared their experience of collaboration from both personal and professional perspectives. The principals shared the value they place on these collaborative practices and the many ways they support these learning and teaching opportunities in their schools.

Although the preservice teachers asked few questions during the presentation itself, their concerns were evident in the question-and-answer period. Although the unmistakable focus of the panel and that evening's class was clearly collaboration and the majority of the students had brought prepared questions on that topic, many of their questions were related to interviewing for jobs, offering advise to new teachers, and delving into political issues in education, such as the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, the focus on high-stakes testing, and standards-based instruction. I am a firm believer in following the students' interests so I did not attempt to redirect their questions. However, as a researcher, I was disappointed in the data collected during the panel discussion.

Upon later reflection, I realized that one way to improve the impact of the panel could have been to ask teacher-librarians to invite novice, rather than veteran, classroom teachers to be on their presentation team. The depth of the curriculum planning and instruction demonstrated was exemplary. It may have been too sophisticated for preservice teachers, who may have had trouble picturing themselves in these scenarios. In addition, the study participants' assignment for that week had been to compose a letter of interest for a teaching position; their focus on interviewing and landing a job was the natural result.

After the panel presentation, students made astute observations in their response journals. These examples are representative of the range of comments:


I cannot imagine why teachers do not jump at the prospect of having someone brainstorm ideas, help with lesson planning, and provide a new perspective on the classroom curriculum. As stated by [one principal], "Teacher and teacher-librarian collaboration provides higher achievement. The librarian is the only one who impacts all the children leading to academic success and works with every single teacher."

When teachers can brainstorm with someone who has a different background and skills, they have the ability to create great things.

Each teacher and teacher-librarian had many stories and examples about how collaborating enabled them not only to come up with more creative lesson plans, but also to better assess themselves and the quality of their lesson. Having another person's perspectives and observations is enormously helpful.

I learned that you are never alone; there is always someone there to help.

I was impressed with how much the teachers and principals value their librarians and were very picky when choosing one for their school.

Before this class, I never thought it would be "okay" to ask a librarian to collaborate. It hadn't crossed my mind that a librarian would even do so. It is possible that I feel this way because during my elementary experiences, my teachers would basically dump us there [in the library] for lesson planning time.


These responses indicate that the study participants' paradigm of classroom teaching as a solo experience for individual teachers was affected by this intervention, and they were positively influenced toward classroom-library collaboration by the panel discussion.

Return to Interventions Menu.

Last updated: 18 September 2007


Judi Moreillon: Home | Author | Educator | Advocate