University Scientists and Mathematicians Talk About The `Others' Discipline:
An Examination of the Role of Discourse Among Professors Involved in A Collaborative
Mathematics/Science Teacher Preparation
[Return to MCTP Research Page]
J.Randy McGinnis, University of Maryland at College Park
Tad Watanabe, Towson State University
Paper prepared for the regional meeting of the National Science Teachers
Association, Baltimore, Maryland, November 16--18, 1995.
The preparation of this material was supported by a grant from the National
Science Foundation (Cooperative Agreement No. DUE 9255745)
Introduction
The notion of 'collaboration' has become an important idea in the field
of education. A number of recent studies have investigated the classroom
culture with an underlying assumption that learning/teaching is a collaborative
effort involving teachers and students (e.g., Cobb, Wood, Yackel, &
McNeal, 1992). This development is consistent with the basic premises of
the social constructivist perspective of learning/teaching, which has become
widely accepted.
Because teacher development is also a process of learning/teaching, and
because being a teacher involves a wide range of knowledge (Shulman, 1987),
'collaboration' is crucial. A number of recent reform documents (e.g., AAAS,
1994; NCTM, 1991) call for collaborations among universities/colleges/community
colleges, K-12 schools, business, and government agencies in preparing future
teachers. Since 1993, the National Science Foundation has awarded several
highly funded grants to the projects which aim to reform teacher education
programs under the program, Collaborative for Excellence in Teacher Preparation.
Study
In this case study, a discourse analysis is performed on conversations among
inter-
institutions university mathematicians and scientists participating in reforming
content classes for teacher candidates in the Maryland Collaborative for
Teacher Preparation (MCTP) an NSF funded project. Discourse as used in this
study is defined as the dynamic interplay of dialogue between individuals
that includes the use of rules developed by certain rules of people (Gee,
1990). The focus on discourse in this study is the result of recent theoretical
views that stress the importance of the environment in which members of
a community communicate (Greeno, 1991; Rogoff, 1990). Conversations or `talk'
is recognized as a particularly revealing resource in analyzing social interactions
for patterns that can promote sense making of a community (Lemke, 1990;
McCarthy, 1994). Talking' is a communicative event in which the conversants
collaborate in constructing a social text and an academic text simultaneously
(Green, Weade, & Graham, 1988). The social text is the agreed upon rules
and purposes for the social interactions. The academic text is the content
of the discussion.
In this study, content expertise and an interest in reforming content classes
for teacher candidates defined membership in either the science teacher
preparation speech community or the mathematics teacher preparation speech
community. Sharing ideas on the integration of mathematics and science in
MCTP undergraduate content classes served as the purpose of the social text.
The content of the discussion varied in the two speech communities but one
consensus theme emerged: a recognized need to go beyond the connections
of each content and to gain insight into the nature of the `others' discipline
expertise by direct collaboration with an expert in the others content.
"The new vision of the teaching of science and mathematics "(mathematician,
conversation 6/10/95) required this. The experience of searching for this
assistance among the usual members of the content speech community proved
to be deficient in supplying the depth of understanding of the others' content
which they felt should distinguish a truly integrated mathematics/science
content class. Spurred on by this realization as a result of a newly formed
inter-institutional dialogue, pioneers in the separate speech communities
boldly made plans to create an intra-institutional dialogue with other pioneers
from the other content speech community. A critical implication of this
study is the role of dialogue in both inter- and intra-institutional to
promote collaboration between mathematics and science content professors
involved in teacher preparation.
References
American Association for the Advancement of Science (1993). Benchmarks
for Science Literacy. New York: Oxford University Press.
Bickel, W.E., & Hattrup, R.A. (1995). Teachers and researchers in collaboration:
Reflections on the process. American Educational Research Journal,
32, 35-62.
Cobb, P., Wood, T., Yackel, E., & McNeal, B. (1992). Characteristics
of classroom
mathematics traditions: An interactional analysis. American Educational
Research
Journal, 29, 573- 604.
Denton, J.J., & Metcalf, T. (1993). Two school-university collaborations:
Characteristics and findings from classroom observations. (Report No.
EA 025227) Atlanta, GA: Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American
Educational Research Association. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No.
ED 361850).
Gee, J. (1990) Social linguistics and literacies: Ideology in discourses.
London:
Falmer.
Green, J.L., Weade, R.,& Graham, K. (1988). Lesson construction and
student participation: A sociolinguistic analysis. In J.L. Green & J.O.
Harker (eds.), Multiple perspective analyses of classroom discourse
(pp. 11-47). Norwood, NJ: Ablex.
Greeno, J.G. (1991). Number sense as situated knowing in a conceptual domain.
Journal in Research in Mathematics Education, 22, 170-218.
Lemke, J. (1990). Talking science: Language, learning and values.
Norwood, NJ: Ablex.
McCarthy, S.J. (1994). Authors, text, and talk: The internalization of dialogue
from social interaction during writing. Reading Research Quarterly,
29, 201-231.
National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (1991). Professional standards
for teaching mathematics. Reston, Virginia: Author.
Ross, J., Armstrong, R., Nicol, S. & Theilman, L. (1994). The making
of the faculty: Fostering professional development through a collaborative
science community. (Report No. SE 054585). Paper presented at the annual
meeting of the American Association for Higher Education. (ERIC Document
Reproduction Service No. ED 370812).
Rogoff, B. (1990). Apprenticeship in thinking: Cognitive development
in social context. New York: Oxford University Press.
Shulman, L.S. (1987). Knowledge and teaching: Foundations of new reform.
Harvard Educational Review, 57, 1-22.