Faculty Scholarly Dissemination Grants

Beginning with Co-Teaching to move K-6 Achievement Forward

Department

Leadership and Learning

College

College of Education

Date Range

2014-2015

Disciplines

Education

Abstract

A student internship with an experienced cooperating teacher is the culminating experience for Grand Valley State Universitys (GVSU) College of Education (COE) students prior to teacher certification. This student internship involves four stakeholders: teacher assistants/student teachers, university field coordinators, classroom teachers, and K-6 students. GVSU students are able to demonstrate their teaching abilities through teacher assisting (5 half days per week) and student teaching (5 days per week for 15 weeks for General Education or 10 weeks for Special Education) in an actual classroom setting by co-teaching with cooperating teachers. In this pilot project, the role of teacher assisting and student teaching changed to a more active teaching role from the first day of the student practicum experience by requiring COE project volunteer teacher candidates to co-teach alongside volunteer cooperating teachers throughout the experience. This presentation presents the results of this pilot program in which the teacher candidate began teaching on day one using a co-teaching model. Early results suggest that the co-teaching training model increased class time effectiveness and resulted in both improved teacher preparation and increased K-6 student achievement.

Conference Name

Lilly Conferences on College and University Teaching and Learning

Conference Location

Traverse City, MI

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