A Collaborative Learning and Teaching Experience Using Journal Writing

Abstract

Combining theory, research and practice is not an easy task. In the following article, a bilingual teacher and bilingual teacher educator attempt to share how they collaborated in a learning and teaching experience using journal writing. Each person’s view is presented according to setting or scenario. The main agenda is a mutual consideration, i.e. how to better facilitate, guide, and evaluate bilingual children’s literacy and biliteracy development using the latest research and theory. The problem is how to put this into practice. Within the article we share our discoveries about how to use theory and research in practice. The instructional practice is journal writing; however, both teacher and teacher educator had to discover and make decisions about how to begin, sustain, and change journal writing. We learned that implementing theory into practice is a collaborative venture.