Building
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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:
Clearly, the participants understand the benefits of collaboration for students. In their teacher aide practicum experiences, they had occasion to work one-on-one and with small groups of students, and realized that lowering the student-to-teacher ratio assisted both students and teachers. Access to more ideas, integrated resources, and increased opportunities for creativity were noted by more than half of the participants. Another of the most encouraging concepts was the understanding that collaboration results in broader perspectives on curriculum. If these benefits became values for these preservice teachers, the likelihood that they would practice collaboration with colleagues, teacher-librarians, and others could increase. On the other hand, only one of these preservice teachers mentioned student achievement as a benefit of collaboration. Although achievement can be inferred from some of the other concepts, particularly individualized attention for students, it was surprising that more participants did not specifically cite this benefit. This was especially unexpected since one of our texts was Increasing Student Achievement through the Library Media Center: A Guide for Teachers (Loertscher and Achterman 2003). We continued the use of the Loertscher and Achterman text in the social
studies methods course, the final course of their first year in the program
(spring 2005). We continued our collaboration conversations and worked
with Information Power's information literacy standards for students
(AASL and AECT 1998) in our social studies explorations. On the final
examination for that course, I provided a scenario in which the social
studies standards had changed for 6th grade and the textbook did not address
that particular concept or historical event. I asked the students what
they would do. Six out of sixteen students (38%) said they would attempt
to collaborate with colleagues; only four (25%) mentioned collaboration
with the teacher-librarian. The infrequency of a collaboration response
was surprising. My interventions were not as effective as I'd hoped in
helping these preservice educators integrate collaborative work into their
curriculum problem-solving schema. Return to Interventions Menu. Last updated: 1 February 2008 |