Interdepartmental collaboration for A-level mathematics and physics revision

The aim of this project was to establish sustainable collaboration between a mathematics teacher and a physics teacher for A-level revision of their respective subjects and to evaluate its impact on those involved. The review of the existing literature led to research questions exploring the overlap...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Pruciak, R
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: 2022
Subjects:
Description
Summary:The aim of this project was to establish sustainable collaboration between a mathematics teacher and a physics teacher for A-level revision of their respective subjects and to evaluate its impact on those involved. The review of the existing literature led to research questions exploring the overlapping topics between mathematics and physics, thoughts that students and teachers hold about collaborative revision for A-level mathematics and physics, and the effect that collaborative planning for revision of overlapping topics in A-level mathematics and physics have on students and teachers. For the intervention, two teachers prepared resources on three overlapping topics, first independently and then collaboratively. The collaboration consisted of a task-design session, and a follow-up discussion. Subsequently, the intervention was comprised of three revision lessons, as well as the exploration of the effectiveness of the collaboration through questionnaires completed by students and teachers, and task analysis. Additionally, semi-structured interviews were used to investigate student and teacher perceptions of collaboration, and assessment analysis was used to evaluate student progress. Findings suggest that although teachers hold positive perceptions on collaboration, they identify many barriers to enabling such practices in day-to-day teaching, and therefore are hesitant to commit to regular collaboration unless support and time are provided. The sessions were perceived as valuable and useful by the students and the teachers and there is some evidence to suggest that some of the tasks prepared had a small positive impact on the level of confidence of some students. There is also a strong case for encouraging this kind of collaboration for teaching, rather than revising, of the overlapping topics.