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Community building of (student) teachers and a teacher educator in a school–university partnership

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Abstract

School–university partnerships (SUPs) are considered a way of improving teacher education. For the successful implementation of such partnerships, cooperation between the different stakeholders is of crucial importance. Therefore, most partnerships are organised in short- and long-term teams, which are usually composed of teachers, student teachers and representatives of the university faculty. This study focused on the collaboration process of a team of modern language teachers who work and learn together in a teacher community. The aim of this study was to investigate how to design a learning environment that stimulates community development in these teams, applying the cooperative learning model of Johnson and Johnson in Learning together and alone: cooperative, competitive, and individualistic learning. Allyn and Bacon, Boston, (1999). Based on this model, design principles were developed to stimulate community development in this group. Community development was measured through observations of the meetings of the group, using the community model of Admiraal, Lockhorst and van der Pol described in this issue. The five principles found relevant in this SUP team were profiling the group as an identity, equivalent cooperation, rotating the chairperson, reflecting on the collaboration and giving feedback on the products made in the group.

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Acknowledgments

We wish to acknowledge the work and contribution of the large research team, of which we are part. This research is funded by NWO-PROO: 411-05-352.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. LOOK, Open University, Heerlen, The Netherlands

    Inne Vandyck

  2. IVLOS, Utrecht University, PO Box 80127, 3508 TC, Utrecht, The Netherlands

    Rick de Graaff & Albert Pilot

  3. Department of Research & Theory in Education, VU University, De Boelelaan 1105, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Jos Beishuizen

Authors
  1. Inne Vandyck
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  2. Rick de Graaff
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  3. Albert Pilot
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  4. Jos Beishuizen
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Correspondence to Inne Vandyck.

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Vandyck, I., de Graaff, R., Pilot, A. et al. Community building of (student) teachers and a teacher educator in a school–university partnership. Learning Environ Res 15, 299–318 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10984-012-9118-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10984-012-9118-2

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