Learning and Teaching through Collaboration: Planning the Future through Retrospection
Abstract: Collaboration is a prerequisite skill for inquiry teaching and problem based learning in post-secondary and secondary classrooms. This paper presents a successful 12 year collaboration among faculty across three courses - social studies methods, technology integration and content area reading - within a college of education. Central to the structure of this collaborative social studies learning community was the comparative advantage wherein experts in each area could teach undergraduates related teaching methodologies. A cohort of undergraduate education students enrolled in three separate courses whose faculty collaboratively planned and coordinated learning experiences through interconnected long-term assignments and clinical experiences. Following a review of the history of the learning community we will examine emerging factors impacting the next iteration of the learning community in spring 2011.