Get to Know Greenwood's New Research Chair

Mary Gauthier, Executive Director of the Centre for Teaching, Learning and Research, is excited to announce Sarah Cooper as the Centre’s first Research Chair, Teaching & Personalized Learning.

The Research Chair, Teaching & Personalized Learning will explore a specific area of interest within teaching and model highly effective teaching practices in personalized learning and in line with the school’s mission and strategic direction. In addition to engaging in a focused project, the Chair will help the Centre develop a framework Action Research model for Research Chairs. Sarah will focus on the best practices and benefits of co-teaching.

“Sarah is a dedicated and passionate educator, with extensive teaching experience and recent leadership roles, including Subject Team Leader and Interim Coordinator, Personalized Learning,” Mary said. “Her commitment to improving her practice through professional development and action research makes her an ideal fit for this key position.”

"We are incredibly excited about the immediate and meaningful impact Sarah Cooper is having, driving a data-informed and collaborative approach to teaching and personalized learning," Mary added. 

Mary caught up with Sarah about her new role as Research Chair, Teaching & Personalized Learning:

I started my career as the history teacher at Canada’s National Ballet School and I’ve also taught in various secondary and university settings in America and Scotland. I started teaching at Greenwood in 2021 as an English and History teacher, and I’m currently also the Subject Team Leader for the Canadian and World Studies and Social Sciences departments. I have had so many wonderful professional development opportunities since joining the Greenwood community and I’m so grateful for the encouragement to continue to grow as a professional educator in this new role.  

I’m always looking for ways to improve my professional practice, and so the opportunity to create a structured action research project was exciting. Last year I started doing classroom visits as Interim Coordinator for Personalized Learning, and I realized how much I enjoyed watching my colleagues teach, and how much I could learn by observing others. The chance to formally gather data about best practices to share with everyone who co-teaches is fantastic as it will benefit both teachers and our students. I also hope that in the future others can use a similar action research model to pursue their own projects at Greenwood.

I started the year by researching ways other schools use co-teaching models as well as some of the theories behind the co-teaching model and I share my findings with the co-teaching teams during dedicated professional development sessions. The most important part of my research comes from observing co-teaching in action. Each co-teaching team met and decided on goals for their co-teaching practice earlier this year, and during my visits to their classrooms I look to give personalized feedback to help them achieve these goals and best leverage having two teachers in the classroom. After each visit, I meet with each co-teaching team for a debrief and to decide next steps. Student voice is also a crucial part of my research. Students were asked to share their thoughts about co-taught classes at the start of the year and I plan to continue to seek their opinions in future surveys and focus groups.
 

I think the biggest benefit is that students have so much more choice in a co-taught classroom. Teachers can structure lessons that offer choice between independent and teacher-led, allowing students to personalize their learning. When appropriate, teachers offer students a choice of novels, to specialize in specific themes or to study more challenging content in smaller groups. Students also see adults in constant collaboration and communication and have two subject experts in a class to seek help from. For teachers, it offers the chance to collaborate regularly, share observations and feedback and improve efficiencies, all of which has a direct positive impact on student learning and achievement. 

Getting to visit other classrooms and watch my colleagues teach is a huge privilege. I learn so much from my classroom observations and discussions about their practices after that help my teaching practice as well. I’m so grateful that Greenwood co-teachers have been supportive of this more formal research into co-teaching.

Thank you Sarah! The school is excited you have taken on this new position with passion and curiosity!