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Mark A. Minott FHERDSA(Registrant), Ed.D., M.Sc., PGDE.

Associate Professor, Teacher Education Department

University College of the Cayman Islands (UCCI)

Ionie Liburd Willett M.A., B.Ed., Cert. Ed.

Head, Division of Teacher Education

Clarence Fitzroy Bryant College, St. Kitts- Nevis

November 26-27, 2010

The economic “hard times”.

Need for ‘cost effective’ professional development methods.

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A belief that acting as a cooperating teacher is a cost effective professional development method

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Why cost effective?

Work related skills are developed or reinforced during the regular working day in the context of teachers’ classroom

Little or no financial demands Little or no financial demands Pro

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Need to ‘sell’ this idea to

potential cooperating teachers

we train.

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Problems Encountered Little knowledge of skills that could be

developed or reinforced. No known local research which

addressed this concern.

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Potential skills that could be developed and/or reinforced: Self-reflection (Lopez-Real & Kwan 2005,

Hamlin 1997 Simpson et al 2007 & Koerner 1999).

Adopting and utilising strategies and

innovations introduced by student teachers (Simpson, Hastings and Hill 2007).

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Modelling best practices (Weasmer & Woods

2003).

Instructional advising and guiding the

student teaching (Weasmer & Woods 2003, Blank & Sindelar, 1992).

Observing and giving feedback (Glenn,

2006).

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Tuning-in and becoming a listener (Blank

and Sindelar, 1992 and McCann and Baker , 2001)

Empathy (Feldman, 1997).

Being friendly (McCann and Baker 2001).

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1. To ascertain what specific

skills local cooperating

teachers reinforced or

developed.

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2. To aid in filling a literary gap

and make an original

contribution to knowledge development (Phillips & Pugh 1995).

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3. To discuss the implications of

the findings for teachers’

professional development.

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Qualitative instrumental case study (Creswell 1998 and Stake 2000).

4 cooperating teachers, Cayman Islands

4 cooperating teachers, St. Kitts-Nevis

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Purposeful convenience or opportunity sampling (Guba and Lincoln 1998).

E-mail and face-to-face interviews

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Having recently completed the supervision of a student teacher, what skills did you develop or reinforce during the process? Please provide a practical example in support of each skill you identify.

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Within and cross-case analyses

Direct interpretation of the data

(Creswell 1998).

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We read through each response

to find words and phrases that

recurred

These became our initial

categories

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By examining these initial

categories, the main categories

emerged. Main categories were defined

after working with the data or as

a result of working with the data.

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For example, we found words such as Lessons, planning, teaching strategy, modelling and evaluations. (Essential teaching skills)

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Categories Skills Reinforced Skills Developed

Essential teaching skills Essential teaching skills reinforced

Essential teaching Skills developed

•Lesson planning.•Evaluating.•Modelling.•Instructing students.

•Adopting new pedagogical strategies utilised by the student teacher.•Information Technology.

Mentoring skills Mentoring skills reinforced•Open discussion and dialogue. •Tuning-in•Giving feedback•Giving instructional support•Counselling

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Categories Skills Reinforced Skills Developed

Collaborative skill Collaborative skill reinforced•Team-building

Strategic skills Strategic skills reinforced •Knowing what actions to take or not to take that will help the student teacher accomplish his/her goals.

•Knowing when to give only positive feedback to boost confidence and when to be critically constructive.

•“Organise”, in order to accommodate the student teacher for the whole practice time in the classroom to ensure that the curriculum was delivered.

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Categories Skills Reinforced Skills Developed

Other skill not identified by participants but could be inferred from the data

Other skill reinforced

•Reflection

First, we concur with the findings of the study of Mark (2006) which highlight that it is acceptable and feasible to recognise the work of cooperating teachers in schools as Professional Development:

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because they develop and reinforce

work-related skills.

they are contributing to the development

of the teaching profession.

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Specifically : In St. Kitts-Nevis and the Cayman Islands where the teaching practicum is scheduled for ten weeks, cooperating teachers have some time to be exposed to current best practices which they use to improve their instruction.

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Over time, these teachers are selected for subsequent teaching practicums and thus become “expert” cooperating teachers, contributing to the development of their personal repertoire of skills and strategies.

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Despite the benefits to cooperating teachers, universities and colleges run the risk of not finding competent teachers who readily agree to assume such responsibilities. This is because the teaching practicum experience has not been duly given the recognition it deserves.

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In the Cayman Islands and St Kitts-Nevis, there is the need to develop policies to guide the recognition process.

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Secondly, our study suggests the need to provide opportunities - through training programmes - to encourage cooperating teachers to engage reflectively with their teaching

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Carrying out the role of cooperating teacher had some positive effects on the majority of the participants.

There were clear reports of the various skills reinforced or developed.

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The comments show that participants are aware of the need to make time for their role but, this is not without its challenges.

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Data in this study facilitate general conclusions similar to other studies, but also provide a more in depth analysis of cooperating teachers’ responses from a part of the world not yet explored by other researcher, i.e. the Cayman Islands and St Kitts-Nevis.

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E-mail: mminott@ucci.edu.ky Website: http://www.faynot.webs.com

&E-mail: liburdwillett_ionie@yahoo.com