Abstract:
This qualitative study investigates two university professors’ co-teaching partnership in teaching
college students (48 certificate completers) over five semesters (8, 3 credit-hour courses). Data
were collected from student records, student and professor course material artifacts, and student
surveys to investigate the role of information and technology literacy in the sciences. The
courses were a significant part of a three-year research project, Science, Technology,
Engineering, and Mathematics: Information, Technology, and Scientific Literacy for ALL
Learners (STEM-ALL), funded by a Laura Bush 21st Century Library Program grant from the
Institute of Museums and Library Services. Teacher-effectiveness was viewed through the
theoretical lens of intensity of effort by the two co-teaching university professors and their
students’ achievement by analyzing 22 learning outcomes assessed 187 times in 58 assignments
in four, three-credit hours courses (12 credit hours) for Group A (23 students) and Group B (25
students). Because physical sciences expertise was one-half and library and information science
was the other half of the co-teaching collaboration in the STEM-ALL project, this study builds
interdisciplinary educational theory relevant in both the area of science teacher education and
library and information science education. Study findings revealed high levels of student
achievement, which support the Dow and Thompson (2017) intensity of effort theory of coteaching
and confirms Dresang’s (1999, 2005) and Dresang’s and Koh’s (2009) theory of
Radical Change with evidence of connectivity, interactivity, and access of use of digital
information across all aspects of the STEM-ALL program.
