Practitioners' Perspectives of Collaboration: A Social Validation and Factor Analysis

This investigation was designed to socially validate the characterization and operational definitions of collaboration as described in the professional literature and quantitatively identify salient features of collaboration. The study was conducted in two phases. The first phase employed an adelphi methodology asking practitioners to define and describe the collaborative process. Open-ended surveys were sent to teachers, special education teachers, administrators, and related service providers at the building, district, and state levels in 3 states representing distinct national regions. A content analysis team identified 35 thematic units that were used to create a second instrument for the second phase of the study, a factor analysis. Surveys were sent to teachers, special educators, administrators, and related service providers at the building, district, and state levels in 7 states. A factor analysis revealed 4 factors as salient components of collaboration. Results of the investigation socially validated most concepts of collaboration articulated in the literature. Overall, practitioners have a pragmatic view of the process of collaboration coupled with an emphasis on the collaborative ethic. Each identified factor is described and discussed. This article concludes with implications of these findings for professional preparation programs.     

Context in Methods Course Learning: Lessons for partnership work

Teacher education programs are being encouraged to collaborate with K‐12 partners to develop and implement contextually rich field experiences that integrate methods course instruction with public school practices. As a result, we outline four models of integrating methods instruction and field experiences and raise the question “How does the classroom and school context of the field experience influence what prospective teachers learned in the methods courses?” This study examines the way two different cohorts of prospective elementary teachers who learned to teach in two different contexts define their own social studies pedagogical content knowledge. The students' espoused philosophies of education offer insight into how different models of integrated field experiences may impact on their beliefs about social studies teaching. Through this study we raise questions that should be considered in constructing methods courses linked to field experiences and suggest Bronfenbrenner's model as a tool for looking at these contextual influences.     

Student and Lecturer Responses to the Introduction of Computer Assisted Learning (CAL) in a University Business School

This paper comprehensively reviews the CAL literature before reporting on a study of student and lecturer take-up of the Learning Resource Web (LRW), within the Bristol Business School. The study was multimethod, incorporating a survey of student expectations (n=394) and qualitative interviews with teaching staff (n=12). The LRW initially supported teaching in the sciences. Its implementation in the Business School raised questions about the support it might offer for active and experiential pedagogies. Lecturers tended to use the LRW as an aid to course management, but also saw it as a catalyst for pedagogic change and, in particular, the development of independent learning skills amongst undergraduates. By contrast, students welcomed the system because it appeared to provide a learning safety-net. The study highlights tentative signs that, because of this, the introduction of the LRW may be promoting the instrumentality and dependence on exposition that lecturers often seek to counteract.