Implementing Coteaching and Cogenerative Dialoguing in Urban Science Education

Over the past 7 years the authors have been involved in the development of a new model for the education of science teachers that has the potential to address teacher education in challenging urban settings characterized by problems such as teacher turnover and retention, low job satisfaction, and contradictions arising from cultural and ethnic diversity. An intensive research program accompanied the development effort; the research results were used as resources in redesigning the evolving model to make it more appropriate for the situations at hand. The science teacher education program at an urban university was built around a yearlong field experience, during which all prospective teachers learned to teach in an urban high school while coteaching, that is, while teaching at the elbow of a mentor teacher or one or more peers. Over this period, a number of different configurations of coteaching and the associated cogenerative dialoguing were tried, tested, and investigated. The paper describes the historical development of the different configurations of the model and the emergent contradictions that led the researchers to enact changes to their approach. The central idea in the development effort was the creation of an environment that (a) best affords the learning of how to teach in urban high schools, (b) decreases teacher isolation, (c) mitigates turnover and retention, and (d) addresses contradictions arising from the cultural and ethnic diversity of students and teachers. Most importantly, this model of teacher education and enhancement simultaneously multiplies the resources and opportunities to support the learning of students.