Co-teaching two courses in preschool teacher education during campus-based sessions

Action research in higher education

Abstract

The Icelandic government has enacted new laws regarding children’s welfare and wellbeing. The Ministry of Education and Children has emphasised that organisations working on children’s issues should collaborate and focus on children’s well-being. In the national preschool curriculum, one of the six essential elements of education is health and welfare.

This study was conducted at the Faculty of Education at the University of Akureyri. It was aimed at preschool teachers’ students. The study examined the possibility of coteaching two courses in higher education and integrating assignments using the inquirybased learning method. The courses varied, with one course emphasising play theory while the other stressed creativity. Welfare was the common thread used to tie the two courses together. The goal was to support student teachers in connecting theory with practice. Emphasis was placed on purposeful reflection, where the projects that the student teachers worked on and their experiences were examined in the light of theories of creativity (Malaguzzi, 1993; Rinaldi, 2021; Vecchi, 2010) and theories of play and play environments (Bandura, 1997; Bronfenbrenner 1979).

This is an action research study where qualitative data was collected. The purpose of the research is to develop and improve one’s work and practices (McNiff & Whitehead, 2003), and it is well suited when the intention is to increase understanding and knowledge of the social conditions in which teaching takes place (Kristín Þórarinsdóttir & Rúnar Sigþórsson, 2021). In this study, university teachers closely examined their work, preparation, and implementation to improve their educational methods (Kristín Þórarinsdóttir & Rúnar Sigþórsson, 2021).

The researchers are two university teachers overseeing the two preschool teacher education courses: one involving play and the other creative practices. The courses are Play, Theories, and Play Development and Creativity in Kindergarten. Both courses are taught in the second year of the B.Ed. Programme, following introductory courses in preschool studies and arts. The part of the research presented here relates to the cooperation of teachers, the integration of the courses, and the practical implementation (teaching) in a local session when all students attend and are present on the school grounds.

Data was collected from the students through projects, assessments of how things were done, questionnaires, and the joint reflection of the two university teachers who wrote research diaries and took field notes and photographs. The results show that the student teachers appreciated the challenge of the work and felt that it yielded essential lessons. The method opened the student teachers’ eyes to how everyday aspects of preschool activities, as well as creativity, are related to play and how both are rooted in theories that previously students had found difficult to connect. The conclusion is that co-teaching s was successful for the student teachers, especially in increasing their ability to connect practice with theory. In addition, the university teachers also experienced benefits in their working methods, but these will hardly be covered in this paper.

The collaboration between the teachers and the co-teaching of the two courses was a success. The goal teachers set for using inquiry–based learning (IBL) in the teacher education program was to promote student teachers by encouraging their motivation (Preston et al., 2015), and, according to the student teachers’ responses, this seems to have been achieved. Teachers were motivated and more interested in examining their work and having the opportunity to reflect on their collaborative teaching.

The findings indicate that the co-teaching of the courses and the integration of assignments were successful. This is, therefore, an excellent reason to continue the collaboration with the same focus. Potential problems can be remedied based on student suggestions and organisational aspects teachers learned during the process. The next step is to co-teach an additional course into the project with the involvement of a third teacher, and it will be exciting to see how this develops.