The Collaborative Residency Project: The Influence of Co-Teaching on Professional Development in Arts Integration

Abstract

This qualitative case study examined teachers’ professional growth in integrating the arts in an attempt to extend our knowledge about influencing factors from a collaborative work relationship with a teaching artist. Teacher and student interviews, as well as instructional observations explore teachers’ perspectives on integrating the arts in their science curriculum. Consistent with the literature, participants in this study supported the educational advantages of teaching through the arts to help students acquire, deepen and construct understanding. The results highlight the interdependence of teachers’ personal beliefs, behaviors, and the environment they teach in, as well as effects on teachers’ professional development, and the need for better institutional support to provide teachers a ground on which they can continue their endeavors. (119)