Increasing engagement and participation in a large, third-level class setting using co-teaching

Abstract

[EN] This study focused on the collaborative practice of two teacher educators who implemented a co-teaching intervention with a large class of first-year student teachers. The research arose from the teacher educators’ wish to increase the range and nature of participation of students in the large class setting and to model co-teaching for the students who would be expected to engage in such practice themselves in primary schools. The aims of the study were to explore the use of co-teaching in the large class context as a support for student participation and students’ meta-learning about co-teaching. In three separate 50-minute workshops, students were provided with samples of a child’s work and were required to work in pairs or groups of three in order to come to conclusions about his current level of performance and to develop possible learning targets arising. Data were collected using a short, online survey. The student cohort was very positive in terms of the effectiveness of the co-teaching approach in helping them to understand the concepts and allowing more active engagement. Further, students were able to articulate their learning with regard to using the co-teaching approach. From the researchers’ perspectives co-teaching was very useful in terms of increasing student participation and replicating a learning context that might be more usual with much smaller groups. Further, it allowed for provision of formative feedback both during and following the co-taught sessions that would not otherwise have been feasible. Finally, it allowed the student voice to be heard within the large class context.