Collaborative teaching in math and science through technology

Collaborative Teaching in Math & Science through Technology

COLLABORATIVE TEACHING

Collaborative teaching: Using technology in the math and science classroom

Collaborative teaching: Using technology in the math and science classroom

The availability of online technology has made collaborative teaching easier than ever before: teachers can share lesson plans and even co-teach different subjects together across the nation or the globe. For example, mathematics teachers on different sides of the country teaching the difference between the mean and the medium could have their students compare the mean and the medium levels of rainfall on a particular month in their hometowns: this could show the real-life applicability of mathematical concepts and give an important 'hands on' element to the lesson plan in the classroom. Technology can facilitate in-house collaborative teaching efforts and also open up student's perspective to a wider reality of learning.

Collaborative teaching traditionally has three approaches, all of which can be adapted to the online format (Flanagan 2001). With team teaching, two educators plan and present a lesson together. The most obvious example of this might be a math and science teacher working together to show the application of mathematical concepts to a scientific issue, and using the Internet with the class as a source of research. For example, students could calculate how many calories they burn and eat during the day using an Internet calculator, the math teacher could examine how many calories more or less they needed, based upon their average height and weight, and the science teacher could explain good nutrition from a biological perspective.

The second approach to collaborative teaching is that of supportive learning activities which "reinforce, enrich, or enhance learning for all students" (Flanagan 2001). An example of this might be the above-cited example of tracking the weather in different areas of the nation. Teachers can teach their own independent lessons, but use the input of another teacher's class to enhance the effects and excitement of the lesson.

A third approach to collaborative teaching, complementary instruction, is one in which "one educator takes primary responsibility for teaching content material and the other for teaching functional how-to skills so students can successfully understand and acquire the content material. Examples of how-to skills include note-taking, memorization techniques and locating main ideas and supporting details in passages" (Flanagan 2001). The other educator takes responsibility for helping students apply those skills. This might be one way for a younger and an older teacher to collaborate. The older teacher could teach a conventional unit on a particular type of subject matter, such as the Civil War, while the more technologically fluent younger instructor could show students how to use the Internet and other multimedia sources to research primary sources, such as soldiers' accounts from the battlefield, which would complement but not replace the need for the lecture.

Using collaborative teaching often takes greater planning on the part of the teachers. For example, in team-teaching, the teachers must coordinate which teacher will teach what aspect of the lesson. This may be based upon content area, or the type of medium involved: one teacher may teach multiplying fractions, for example, using a filmstrip to supplement his or her lecture, the second might do the same with dividing fractions. Or the second instructor might field questions, present the same information in a different way, or have the predominant responsibility for using technology.