Classroom practices of cooperating teachers and their relationship to collaboration quality and time: perceptions of student teachers |
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| Authors: | Theresa J Gurl |
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| Institution: | Department of Secondary Education, Queens College, CUNY, Queens, NY, USA |
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| Abstract: | This study examined the complexities of the collaborative relationship between student teachers and cooperating teachers in secondary mathematics from the perspectives of the student teachers. Four cohorts of student teachers (N = 170) in secondary mathematics were surveyed using a questionnaire that measured their perceptions of two dimensions of their student teaching experience: collaboration with their cooperating teachers and the classroom practices of their cooperating teachers. Although analysis of the responses revealed that student teachers were generally satisfied with the amount and quality of the collaboration, two important results were revealed. First, about half of the respondents reported spending less than an hour collaborating weekly with their cooperating teacher in various contexts. Second, certain classroom practices of the cooperating teachers were found to be significantly associated with whether they spent more or less than an hour collaborating with their student teachers, and were significantly correlated in most cases. This explicit linkage suggests that the classroom practices of cooperating teachers may extend to the mentoring approach they take when working with student teachers. Suggestions for teacher education programs and cooperating teacher support are shared. |
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| Keywords: | Cooperating teachers student teaching collaboration feedback classroom practices mathematics time collaborating |
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