Teachers & Teacher Librarians Collaborate on Inquiry-based Science Instruction

Gabrielle Thormann

CO and IL

Montiel-Overall, P. & Grimes, K. (2013).  Teachers and librarians collaborating on inquiry-based science instruction:  A longitudinal study.  Library & Information Science Research, 35(1), pgs. 41-53.

Summary:  This article focuses on how the teacher and teacher librarian collaboration can be achieved, and as the title says, by collaborating on inquiry-based science instruction.  The article offers basic definitions alongside the complexities of how collaborations were built in six Latino elementary schools with many second language learners.  Students’ and teachers’ skills are generally reviewed:  Currently, many of their skills and knowledge do not support higher-level inquiry-based instruction.  Key points of information-literacy and teacher librarian skills are correlated to the scientific method, and how these points can be used to support students.  The overall process is explained:  to create and support the relationship between the teacher and the teacher librarian, and to provide the necessary content knowledge.  Achievements and challenges of the process are reviewed.  Keys to the success of this project included peer mentors for the teacher and teacher librarian, and the recognition that two heads are better than one.  Challenges are presented and discussed.  Themes - Preparation, Experience, Transformation, Motivation - are also distilled from the process, and examined in writing and in Appendix C.   

Review:  I found reading this article challenging.  However, a lot of practical useful information for creating an inquiry-based science unit is embedded within the theoretical writing.  I found Table 1, “Summary of four modules of professional development intervention workshops,” very interesting as one can see the steps of the transformation for the collaborators.  Also, “Appendix C. Themes and categories from analysis of teacher and librarian collaboration” provides ideas of how the collaborators worked in real time.  Finally, it’s worth noting that this is the eighth article this author appears in in this blog database.  These articles are focused on collaboration/co-teaching and 21^st century skills.