STEM Cooperating Teachers’ Professional Growth: The Positive Impacts of a Year-Long Clinical Residency Collaboration
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Materials and Methods
2.1. Participants and Data Collection
- What made you interested in becoming a cooperating teacher (CT)?
- What might you say to another teacher who was considering becoming a CT?
- Describe the ways that your experience as a CT influenced you as a teacher.
- Describe any specific instructional practices that you learned about from your pre- service teacher (PST).
- Describe which of those instructional practices you have continued to implement in your own teaching after your PST’s clinical residency with you.
- Describe the ways that your experience as a CT influenced you as a teacher leader.
- Describe any teacher leadership activities that you may have engaged in or led in the past year.
2.2. Data Analysis
2.3. Ethical Considerations
3. Results
3.1. Reasons for Being a Cooperating Teacher
There really are two main factors. One is I feel like there is an obligation to some degree on the part of people who are current teachers to try to do our best to offer whatever we can to people who are becoming teachers. You know, it’s that saying, pay it forward. My student teaching was incredibly important, I mean the time in the classroom was good, but also the learning theory and the university setting was good, but the time interacting with students, being there having to do things myself and figure things out and perform. That was so incredibly important to me, learning how to teach, so I feel like that only happens if people are willing to be mentor teachers.(CT 4)
I would just say it feels so good to know that you’re making an impact on training a new teacher. And you’re helping that person become a teacher. Teaching in and of itself is definitely a calling and so you have to have a part in helping other people pursue their calling and that is really important. Selfishly, a highlight is that you can be out of the class for a little bit of time when they take over in January! It’s pretty nice because you can actually get some other work done. That’s not why I chose to do it, but it was a nice little part of the process. And, actually it’s not even just time to do work, but I spent time getting into other people’s classrooms, my coworkers, who I never get to see teach. I don’t get to see the awesome ideas that they have, or the way that they organize their classes because I’m always teaching myself. And so, having that opportunity was really, really awesome. But in some ways, I think that helps us grow as teachers, too, to get out and see other teachers. You get to see and know what they’re doing.(CT 2)
3.2. Self-Reflection
I think that becoming a CT allows you to reflect and hone some of your best practices. It allows you the chance to communicate what works well in that content area and that it is a great opportunity to have an inward reflection on your leadership and your ability as a teacher within your content area. And to have a better understanding of how all the pieces come together to hopefully provide the best education for our kids.(CT 8)
[Mentoring] boosted my confidence a lot more. I’m a very self-reflective person, and I’m sort of always down on myself, like, how can I improve? What can I do better? But when you see a brand-new teacher coming in and the mistakes that they’re making because they don’t know yet, it helped me see how much I had grown even in 5 years. It definitely boosted my confidence. It helped me realize, oh, I really have come a long way in these 5 or 6 years. I did not anticipate that it was going to really help me as a teacher like when I agreed to do it. But it really did benefit me, not only with the confidence, but also just knowing how to communicate with other teachers a little bit better.(CT 2)
3.3. Promotes Collaboration
I tried to look at [my PST] as a colleague—I guess I am the mentor, but in the fall, I taught, we always co-developed, talked through plans, [they] always had suggestions, as time went on he had more input. I gave more input at the beginning of his teaching and scaled that down. Encouraged him to try new things. [They] chimed in when I was teaching, we both helped the kids. More like co-teaching throughout. Just having those discussions together and trying to have someone else there on a daily basis as a thought partner, and there’s also something about it all for you as the mentor. There’s always that little extra you do when there’s another colleague in the room with you. You feel like you have to up your game a little bit, so I feel like there’s a little bit of that as well.(CT 4)
I learned many cooperative teaching techniques and how to utilize them effectively in my classroom. I use some of the co-teaching strategies with Special Education teachers in my classroom along with other paraprofessionals to make sure they’re included in the instruction.(CT 3)
3.4. Teaching Strategies
[PST] did a whole PBL unit on infectious disease [covering a] brand new standard [on] bacteria [and] viruses. She spearheaded the unit to teach them and I would like to use that unit in the future. [Another] strategy that I am 100% stealing and using forever—I had never heard of “word of the day”—embedding vocabulary into the day. I’ve done word walls, flash cards, and other things. I loved how she did this—word posted on board, had to write it down and the definition, and the word was related to the lesson that day, usually content (like force), sometimes it was about teamwork (like persistence). It was always an important word but not always content. Then she referenced the word throughout the unit days prior [and] had kids talk about it again. Such an easy way to embed vocabulary every day. It was fantastic. Later in the lesson they would already understand the word!(CT 2)
There are quite a few things that I have kept over the years. I have continued using an exit ticket that allows me to assess both student confidence level and whether they actually got the problem correct. Another [strategy I use] is to let students self-segregate during work time depending on how much help they think they will need. Students who are confident can go ahead and get started, while students who need more help will be grouped together so that I can work with them all at once rather than just one at a time.(CT 4)
Working with [the PST] was phenomenal, she was always prepared. She had to do virtual, hybrid, in person and she adapted and did really well and it prepared her for next year. For me, now if I have a sub I have tons of stuff! It was a challenge but we have to take a step back and see the growth that we all made—veteran teachers too—we’ve opened our eyes about how we teach curriculum in different ways.(CT 3)
3.5. Enhanced Communication
I think I’m more willing to have discussions and talk about things, and I always find something new through others and ideas for what my students might like better. I think having that practice being a [PST] myself and then having two [PSTs], where we had that open communication, of sharing ideas, I think, especially influenced me. I’m a lot more open to go to any staff meetings, department meetings, team meetings in our building and say, Hey, I found this and our kids really like it, you may want to try it, or have we found something else that the students really like? It’s just open communication and sharing. We have a couple of new teachers teaching [content] in my school, and I’m always checking up on them, [saying] Hey, do you know what we’re doing for [lab]? Do you need help? Because of my [PSTs], I’m more open to discussing and having ideas exchanged with my staff members.(CT 1)
[PST] works in our district and is in the building right next door. We just saw each other at the textbook adoption meeting. We email back and forth, sometimes asking for a resource or lab. With all my [PSTs], I tell them, it’s like you’re one of my kids, even though you’re out of my house. You’re always welcome back and you’re always welcome to call, or text, or whatever the case is. You know I want you to have that sense that you can still lean on me when you need it.(CT 3)
3.6. Leadership
Being a CT allowed me to develop my teacher leader skills and abilities. It helped me learn ways to articulate best practices to new teachers and the best types of questions to ask to facilitate reflection. It also helped me identify common “student-teaching” mistakes so I can help mentor new teachers in my department. The experience of being a CT helped instill more confidence in me to lead other science teachers. In addition, since my [PST’s] personality was very different than mine, my experience with being her CT has helped me learn better ways to interact with different types of individuals. The more experience you get with leading other teachers the more the school wants you to do it, but also, the more you realize yeah, I can do that. I’m confident with doing that. I have that ability. And so, you take on more responsibility.(CT 2)
Those of us who have experienced [PBL from our PST] can be a mentor at our school. [PBL] was brought by my [PSTs]; as a CT, I saw it done somewhat successfully. Our school has started PBL this year, so those who have experienced it can be a mentor at our school. [Our state] now has the [new] pathways to graduation [which includes required inquiry-based components such as] PBL. Those of us who have done [PBL] can be mentors. And throughout the year it’s just been momentum to get that going, and when people have questions they come to me or to [the PST], and I think having us there is really, really helpful for the whole school, the whole department. [It was] definitely helpful to have me and [the PST] in the school to help teachers while they are actually doing it.(CT 7)
4. Discussion
Author Contributions
Funding
Institutional Review Board Statement
Informed Consent Statement
Data Availability Statement
Acknowledgments
Conflicts of Interest
References
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Baker, K.M.; Stickney, K.W.; Sachs, D.D. STEM Cooperating Teachers’ Professional Growth: The Positive Impacts of a Year-Long Clinical Residency Collaboration. Educ. Sci. 2024, 14, 899. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci14080899
Baker KM, Stickney KW, Sachs DD. STEM Cooperating Teachers’ Professional Growth: The Positive Impacts of a Year-Long Clinical Residency Collaboration. Education Sciences. 2024; 14(8):899. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci14080899
Chicago/Turabian StyleBaker, Kimberly M., Katherine W. Stickney, and Deborah D. Sachs. 2024. "STEM Cooperating Teachers’ Professional Growth: The Positive Impacts of a Year-Long Clinical Residency Collaboration" Education Sciences 14, no. 8: 899. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci14080899