Coteaching across STEM Disciplines in the ESSA Era of School Librarians as Teachers

Dow, M. J., & Thompson, K. W. (2017). Coteaching across STEM Disciplines in the ESSA Era of School Librarians as Teachers. Teacher Librarian, 44(4), 16-20. Retrieved from http://web.b.ebscohost.com.libaccess.sjlibrary.org/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=0ad77cc0-9d7b-40a9-993f-b65b0f0b293a%40sessionmgr102&vid=1&hid=116

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Summary: This article looks at the STEAMALL project at Emporia State University, which requires licensed educators to complete four 3-credit-hour college courses specializing in coteaching scientific learning. Considering the ESSA era has focused more on digital literacy skills, the classroom is shifting to a more student-driven learning environment where coteaching offers new insights to teaching STEAM skills.The article looks at the techniques for collaboration between science, technology, engineering, and mathematics teachers and professional school librarians. It goes through the various stages of scientific research, and the effects of and the potential in coteaching during each step.

Review: The article provides a strong background/evidence for coteaching as a general concept, but could benefit from more direct evidence or studies on specific aspects. As such, it feels more like the article addresses how co-teachers can teach STEM (and why they should) rather than the techniques for this collaboration (as outlined in the abstract). In addition, there is not a lot of information on how this is impacted by ESSA, except in the article's generalized notions that de-standardization allows for this type of teaching.

[by Stephannie Tornow]