Chemistry Solutions
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In the ever-evolving landscape of education, collaboration among educators has proven to be a cornerstone for professional growth and enhanced teacher retention.1 Working together within their discipline allows teachers to share best practices, provide mutual support, and develop innovative strategies that enhance both their teaching and their job satisfaction.2 However, the benefits of collaboration extend far beyond the confines of a single subject area. Engaging with teachers across different subjects has the potential to enrich our teaching practices, and ultimately benefit our students’ learning experiences.3,4
Collaborating within disciplines
Within our disciplines, I have found that collaboration has always been essential. Sharing best practices helps us stay updated with the teaching strategies and pedagogical content knowledge. It also allows us to collectively troubleshoot challenges, whether they pertain to classroom management, student engagement, or curriculum delivery.
In a previous editorial, Past-President Michael Farabaugh discussed the importance of “making connections” and collaboration in his own professional growth, and in overcoming his sense of isolation during his first few years of teaching. The camaraderie built through these interactions contributes to a supportive environment that can significantly reduce the sense of isolation often felt by educators. This support network is crucial for teacher retention, as it provides a safety net of professional and emotional support.
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Figure 1. The author (center) with Kathryn Bolton (left) and Tracy Kirsten (right). |
Through social media, such as X, I have been able to expand my professional learning network across the U.S., and even to other countries. These platforms have allowed me to connect with amazing chemistry educators across many states, such as Scott Milam, who frequently posts on X about new and innovative approaches to teaching chemistry. For example, during the pandemic I began collaborating with Tracy Kirsten, an amazing chemistry/physics teacher in South Africa whom I met through an international chemistry teachers Facebook group.
Through my collaboration with Tracy and other colleagues, I have learned a tremendous amount. We continue to share lessons, best practices, and discuss methods to overcome challenges that we all face in our classrooms.
This past spring, our collaborations even brought us together in real life, when Tracy and her colleague Kathryn Bolton visited my school in New York to work with my students for the day. This was part of their school-funded trip to collaborate with teachers — first in the UK and then in the US, where they visited schools in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New York. After their visit to my school, I joined them on a tour of two other schools in New York, where we got to learn from some dynamic educators, sharing ideas and building our professional learning network.
I also look forward to learning from exciting chemistry educators through each issue of Chemistry Solutions, the quarterly publication from AACT. In this issue, you’ll be able to start your school year with these articles from your peers:
- In our feature article, a chemistry teacher reflects on her year-long use of continuous lab-based reflection to boost her students’ self-awareness and learning ownership.
- A teacher explores how she used flexible grading and immediate feedback to enhance student engagement and understanding in her chemistry classroom.
- A chemistry teacher shares how she used soccer as inspiration to improve safety in her lab, using rules that many students are already familiar with to reinforce proper procedures.
- A high school teacher tells the story of how he started his career in a pharmaceutical lab and now uses the skills and insights he learned there to inspire his students.
Collaborating with other disciplines
Throughout my teaching career, my primary collaborative focus has always been on other chemistry educators. My network of teachers, as well as the workshops I attended, have all been related to chemical education. Last November, I had the opportunity to co-present with physics teacher Robert Krakehl in a workshop centered around phenomena and modeling in the science classroom.
As we began planning for the workshop, we quickly realized how much overlap there was between our two curricula in terms of the phenomena that we used and the concepts that we teach. For example, we both teach about the movement of electrons between energy levels, and how it leads to the production of the bright line spectrum. In my state-provided chemistry curriculum, students learn that these transitions correspond to different wavelengths of light, while in the physics curriculum, students build upon this knowledge as they calculate specific transition energy requirements and learn how they relate to the released photons studied in chemistry. A similar example is that in chemistry, students learn about Coulomb’s law, while in physics, they build upon that understanding using Coulomb’s law to calculate the electrostatic force between two charged objects.
I walked away from our workshop with the realization that, by keeping my professional learning network centered only around chemistry teachers, I was likely missing opportunities to learn best practices and innovative approaches to common curricular challenges.
Another compelling reason to foster collaboration across disciplines is the widespread adoption of the Framework for K-12 Science Education and the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). In the U.S., nearly all states have education standards influenced by these frameworks, which emphasize the importance of learning progressions throughout the grade levels, necessitating a cohesive and integrated approach to education. In addition, there is overlap between many of the Disciplinary Core Ideas (DCIs) and Performance Expectations (PEs) of each discipline. For example, if we look at the Performance Expectation HS-PS1-3, it calls for students to gather evidence to compare the structure of substances at the bulk scale to infer the strength of electrical forces between particles. By working with colleagues outside our specific discipline, we can ensure that our teaching aligns with these standards, promoting a more seamless learning experience for students as they progress through each course.
Building a collaborative culture across disciplines
If you are interested in expanding your professional learning network beyond just fellow chemistry educators, consider some of the ways in which I have grown my network.
- I began by meeting with teachers of other science disciplines within my school to tease out common topics, themes, and uses of phenomena in our curricula. We discussed challenges, best practices, and ways that we can support each other through the progression of sciences in our school. I also met with algebra teachers to discuss strategies for helping students with the mathematics infused throughout our state chemistry curriculum.
- Next, I started to follow various educators outside of my discipline on the X platform, such as physics teacher Joe Cossette and biology teacher Ed Miller, who continually share amazing lessons and teaching strategies. There are also great hashtags to follow, such as #iteachphysics, that offer up some fascinating physics content and discussions.
- When attending conferences, I began seeking out workshops in other disciplines to broaden my network.
- I also grew my professional learning network by joining professional learning communities in addition to chemistry, such as the American Association of Physics Teachers. Last year I joined the international PoLS-T Physics Teaching Network, which offers a multitude of education talks, Q&A resources, and opportunities for teachers to share best practices and provide support.
- I’ve also taken part in various cross-discipline workshops offered by AACT, such as the recorded webinar “Lessons Learned from Teaching Chemistry and Physics Simultaneously.”
If you haven’t already done so, I encourage you to expand your collaboration beyond the chemistry community. This can not only provide you with more opportunities to grow as an educator, but also decrease any sense of isolation you might feel, particularly if you are the only chemistry teacher at your school. You may be able to find support/resources at your school from your fellow biology, earth science, and physics colleagues. My goals for this upcoming school year are to expand my network even further, through collaboration with English teachers at my school, to discuss literacy strategies and ways to incorporate them into my chemistry curriculum.
Martin Palermo
Board President, AACT
2024–2025
References
1 Rodgers, C.; Skelton, J. Professional Development and Mentoring in Support of Teacher Retention. Journal on School Educational Technology. 2014, 9(3), 1-11.
2 Postholm, M. B. Collaboration between teacher educators and schools to enhance development. European Journal of Teacher Education. 2016, 39(4), 452–470. doi:10.1080/02619768.2016.1225717. (accessed Aug 27, 2024)
3 Darling-Hammond, L.; Wei, R.; Adree, A.; Richardson, N.; and Orphanos, S. “Professional Learning in the Learning Profession: A Status Report on Teacher Development in the United States and Abroad.” National Staff Development Council. 2009. https://edpolicy.stanford.edu/sites/default/files/publications/professional-learning-learning-profession-status-report-teacher-development-us-and-abroad_0.pdf (accessed Aug 27, 2024).
4 Ronfeldt, M.; Farmer, S. O.; McQueen, K.; Grissom, J. A. Teacher collaboration in instructional teams and student achievement. American Educational Research Journal. 2015, 52(3), 475-514.