Meet Our Research Chair

Greenwood’s Research Chair models the cycle of reflection, renewal and professional growth for their colleagues, discovering and implementing research that is both mission-appropriate and beneficial to the school.

Here, Research Chair Sarah Cooper answers a few questions about the role and future research projects that the school can benefit from.

My primary research focus is to investigate best practices for co-teaching classrooms. Throughout this year, I’ve engaged in formal research about different iterations of co-teaching to see what we can learn from other schools. I’ve conducted visits to each co-teaching team to observe and offer support to improve their practices and help them meet their goals. I’ve planned professional development sessions to help co-teachers build their relationships, share successful examples of differentiation and engagement within co-teaching classrooms and reflect on their practices. I work within the Centre for Teaching, Learning and Research (CFTLR) team to align my work with broader school goals and to ensure we are supporting all teachers. I’m also a member of the Teacher Growth Team, planning overall professional development for our staff, so I can work specifically with co-teachers to help best implement policies and practices within co-taught classrooms. 

Within my co-teaching research, I am developing a model for future action research projects at Greenwood, which other teachers can use for their own professional research.  As Subject Team Leader for Canadian and World Studies and Social Sciences, I am always researching new resources, strategies and programs to share with my colleagues to enrich our lessons. 

I’ve had a number of co-teaching experiences over the past 5 years and I was curious about investigating ways to further improve the experiences for both students and teachers. This year, I focused on supporting teaching teams to experiment with ways to best leverage the subject expertise and pedagogical skills of both teachers in the room. Next year I plan to continue this work, focusing on the importance of intentional planning to find ways to differentiate and personalize learning, and on relationship building between teachers and students and between the two co-teachers. 

I’m excited to continue working with the co-teaching teams to empower them to experiment with different strategies within their classrooms. I’m also excited to challenge myself to write up a more formal report of my research experience as the two year position comes to an end. I plan on taking an Instructional Coaching course through Harvard University to further develop my skills in this area.