Co-Teachers, Preservice Teachers, and Teacher Educators: What Can They Learn in a Community of Practice?

• In Event: Moscone Center West Roundtable Session 2
  In Roundtable Session: Shaping Leadership in Preservice Learning Through Collaboration and Co-Teaching

Abstract

School- university partnerships are widely promoted as an effective means to support the preparation of pre-service teachers. However, these partnerships are rarely conceived with school-based teachers working in a university context as co-teachers. At one Australian university, co-teaching has become a significant aspect of the Teacher Education program. In this study, we viewed school-based co-teachers, university-based teacher educators and pre-service teachers as a community of practice and investigated the learning of two of these groups. Data was collected in the form of surveys, focus groups, interviews and thematically analysed. Findings include importance of sharing aims and purpose to understand context, and the generation of community knowledge through shared reflection on teaching.

Authors

• Rebecca Cooper, Monash University

• Karen Marangio, Monash University

• Amanda K. Berry, Monash University