Do Teachers' Behaviors Change While Leading a Collaborative Classroom?

• In Event: New Developments in Cooperative Learning

Abstract

The authors examined changes in teacher behavior in a problem-based collaborative environment. We examined ten urban seventh and eighth grade social studies teachers for structural and instructional behaviors to determine if differences emerged between their behaviors while leading a collaborative classroom and their normal curriculum. Teachers taught a problem-based curriculum at least one time a week for fourteen weeks in one of their two classes. Observers came in once a week for ten-weeks to record the on-goings of both the control and collaborative classrooms using an observation tool based on the How People Learn framework. Results indicated there were three common patterns of teacher behavior with only 40% adopting behavior within the first five weeks of the study.

Authors

• James B Oren, University of Illinois at Chicago

• Kimberly A. Lawless, University of Illinois at Chicago

• Scott W. Brown, University of Connecticut

• Kamila Brodowinska Bruscianelli, University of Illinois at Chicago

• Jeremy Riel, University of Illinois at Chicago

• Lisa J. Lynn, University of Illinois at Chicago