Interrogating Collaborative Teaching

“The most valuable resource that all teachers have is each other. Without collaboration our growth is limited to our own perspectives.”- Robert John Meehan. Team teaching can be defined as a group of two or more teachers working together to plan, conduct and evaluate the learning activities for the same group of learners. Quinn and Kanter (1984) define team teaching as "simply team work between two qualified instructors who, together, make presentations to an audience." Team teaching can be a wonderful and effective strategy regarding teaching and learning. Team teaching involves a group of educators working purposefully and cooperatively. Teachers together prepare lesson plans, share insights, teach students and evaluate the results. It is widely reported that the team teaching idea originated in the United States of America in 1954. It is rather unfortunate that in many instances there is no prior meeting of the team in order to get some synergy going. Regrettably, it has become commonplace that teachers who are teamed meet in the classroom for the first time and this is problematic. This approach is both unfair and unprofessional not only to the teachers involved but also to the students. The fair and professional practice should be that prior to the teachers beginning their first class teaching together, intensive staff development in the area of team teaching should be conducted. This training may involve learning the rationale behind team teaching, shared readings and discussions, learning cooperative skills to enable a positive partnership to evolve, as well as learning a variety of time management skills in order to ensure a smooth operation in the classroom. Team teaching or collaborative teaching should not be forced nor should it be used across the board as a method to merely add teaching sessions. Oftentimes, as educators we ignore the fact that schools are for the development of our students. When team teaching is not done successfully, there will be chaos. Furthermore, there will be situations where one teacher bears the brunt of this partnership. Regrettably, this then becomes burdensome on that teacher with an increase in absenteeism and attending problems that will negatively impact the educational institution. There are also mental health issues that can accompany team teaching as the teacher who is burdened might experience anxiety and depression and hopelessness. However, do we care given that mental health is not taken seriously? Emotional Intelligence. It is at this juncture that Emotional Intelligence comes into question. Emotional intelligence is defined as the ability to understand and manage your emotions, as well as recognize and influence the emotions of those around you. There are five key elements to Emotional Intelligence: self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skills. People with high EI can identify how they are feeling, what those feelings mean, and how those emotions impact their behavior and in turn, other people. Obviously, it becomes more challenging to “manage” the emotions of other people. We cannot control how someone else feels or behaves. However, if you can identify the emotions behind their behaviour, you stand a better chance of understanding where they are coming from and how to best interact with them. School Leadership. Those administrators who are tasked with teaming teachers must be more meticulous and conscious of the approach they take when implementing team teaching. In many cases the unsuccessful partnership concerning collaborative teaching involves a languid teacher working alongside an industrious teacher. At the end, the students are always the ones who suffer. Obviously, collaborative teaching can be a wonderful, useful experience and quite beneficial to the students. However, it takes a great effort to put together the workable team. The pursuit of collaborative teaching should never be done on the premise that the teacher/s need more teaching sessions or out of malice. Collaborative teaching, also known as team teaching, is a specific approach to classroom instruction and has many models such as station teaching and parallel teaching. Without doubt the vital components to successful team teaching are two teachers, working as equals and planning instruction both before and during the class. These methods should be supported by the school with feedback and professional development. With these components, collaborative teaching is an effective way to meet the diverse needs of students in a classroom. The 21st century learner deserves the best strategy in order to excel and become a law-abiding citizen. The following are some of the more popular approaches to collaborative teaching: Team Teaching Approaches. The traditional teaming approach, also known as co-teaching, splits the responsibility of teaching the full class equally between two instructors. Opposite this model, the one teach/one observes approach has a single instructor doing all the teaching while the other observes and takes notes. There are several models in between these two methods. All models will make use of two instructors and be based on the same general content. The depth of that content and the role of each instructor vary. One Teach/One Observe. The one teach/one observes model for team teaching is the least collaborative approach to team teaching. This model places the responsibility for instruction on one individual, usually the content-area instructor. While this teacher instructs the class, the other teacher floats around the room making observations. These observations could be general or specific to a student. The one teach/one observes model ensures that the entire class receives consistent information from a single source and that the source is the best qualified to provide that instruction. It can also be a very useful model to gain helpful information for behavior or instructional plans for individual students. The model's usefulness is limited, however. It does not utilize either teachers for instruction or student support.

One Teach/One Assist. The one teacher/one assist model is similar to the one teach/one observe model in that a single teacher, usually the content expert, provides instruction to the whole class. In this model, however, the second teacher works directly with individual students. They may address either behavior or academic questions or concerns. In this, students benefit from the strongest instruction and receive attention to their individual needs. An example of this model would be a Social Studies class where while one teacher is delivering instruction, the other is walking around the class checking individual students' homework and answering questions or correcting errors. Station Teaching. Also known as rotational teaching, this model deems both teachers responsible for teaching a specific lesson or a specific part of a lesson to the students. The class is divided into smaller groups and then these groups rotate through lessons by each instructor. Depending on the number of students in the class, more groups may be required to retain the advantage of small-group instruction that this model offers. If this is the case, the additional stations students rotate through may consist of activities or opportunities for them to apply their learning. An alternative is having students remain in place and teachers rotate. Parallel Teaching. The parallel teaching model also has the benefit of smaller groups. In this model, the students are split in half and each teacher teaches the lesson to one half of the students. There is no difference in the materials presented to students by each teacher in this model. Each half of the class receives the same information, and there is no rotation of students or teachers. Alternative or Differentiated Teaching. In the alternative or differentiated teaching model, most of the class will receive the same lesson from one teacher, while the other teacher works with a small group of students on a completely different lesson. There is no rotation in this model. The alternative or differentiated model allows for a small group of students with targeted needs to receive lessons specific to those needs. It can be used for both remediation and extension activities. An example would be one teacher working on multiplication skills with a group of students who are struggling while the other teacher instructs the large group with a lesson introducing division. Teaming. Teaming is the collaborative teaching model that has traditionally been known as co-teaching. This model places equal responsibility for instruction of the large group on each teacher. The two teachers work in tandem throughout the lesson. This model gives students two instructors who are equally experts on the subject being taught, as well as two different teaching styles to learn from in the same lesson. Advantages and Disadvantages. Working as part of a team has a multitude of advantages: it gives the participating team teacher a supportive environment. Another benefit of team teaching enables teachers to overcome the isolation inherent in teaching. When an instructor teaches solo, she rarely has the time or the opportunity for interacting with her fellow teachers, even though she is surrounded by educational colleagues. By working together, team teachers can discuss issues relating to students, such as behavioral expectations, student motivation and teaching policies, and end up with improved solutions. Robinson and Schaible (1995) describe each team member as a sounding board for sharing the joys and the disappointments of particular class sessions. On the other hand, there are also disadvantages. Team teaching is not always successful. There are some teachers who have unyielding personality types and may be uncomfortable to move out of their comfort zone. There are those teachers who fear that they will be expected to do more work for the same salary as the other team member. Some teachers do not want to risk humiliation and discouragement from administrators regarding their failures. Additionally, some students flourish in a highly structured classroom environment and are confused by conflicting opinions that comes along with team teaching. Workplace Culture. Whether you are the keeper of the organization’s grounds or the chief executive officer, mutual respect is a key driver for the success of any business. And yes, education is indeed a business. Respect in the workplace is mainly about valuing the time of each individual in the organization regardless of one’s position. The trust factor is another critical element in having a successful collaborative approach to team teaching. The teachers involved in this partnership must believe that their fellow teacher has their best interest at heart. A respectful environment is one in which everyone is treated with fairness and respect. Unfortunately, this does not happen in the real world of hustle and bustle. In many organizations, including educational institutions, there exist preferential treatment and this creates a toxic work environment oftentimes characterized by low levels of productivity. Embracing Professional Development. Like all disciplines, teachers continue to learn and grow throughout their careers. Schools should support this growth by providing explicit professional development or providing resources to specific teachers to attend professional development sessions on specific strategies. Such should be the case with teachers who are teaching collaboratively. Collaborative teaching is a specific approach that is not explicitly supported in many professional development programs. Therefore, specific attention to finding opportunities for professional development in this area may be required, particularly in smaller districts without the resources to have people with expertise in this area on staff. An example would be sending two teachers who work collaboratively to a professional development session on parallel teaching. As educators, we should not discount the positives to collaborative teaching; however, we must also acknowledge the disadvantages to this strategy and make the necessary adjustments accordingly to benefit all the stakeholders. “A boat doesn’t go forward if each one is rowing their own way.” – Swahili Proverb. Wayne Campbell is an educator and social commentator with an interest in development policies as they affect culture and or gender issues. waykam@yahoo.com @WayneCamo © #teamteaching #collaborativeteaching #education