TEAM TEACHING

TEAM TEACHING

What is Team Teaching?

      As the name suggests it is a group of teachers, working as a team and teaching. The team can range from 2 to 5 teachers who will teach the same group of students.

         The different type of teaching may include- Teaching the same group at the same time, shared teaching as per the area of expertise or teaching different subgroup within a large group of students.

Team Teaching Method

        The team-teaching method is one of the greatest innovations in the teaching sector. It came into existence in the year 1954 in the USA and was mainly focused on developing courses and teaching strategies.

          Team teaching is also known as collaborative teaching or co-teaching method. The definitions to team teaching are defined by different people in different ways.

Six Approaches to Co-Teaching:

    Co-teaching or team teaching is basically a collective understanding of two or more teachers focusing on a single group of students with the best use of strategies, methodology and joint accountability.

1.One Teach, One Observe

2.One Teach, One Assist

3.Parallel Teaching

4.Station Teaching

5.Alternative Teaching

6.Team Teaching

Team Teaching Definition:

                 T-together

                   E-Everyone

                  A-Achievers

                M-More

1.        “Team teaching is a type of instructional organization involving teaching personnel and the students assigned to them in which two or more teachers are given responsibility, looking together, for all or a significant part of the instruction for some group students”. – as per Spanish.
2. “In this teaching strategy two or more than two teachers involve to make a plan of any given subject, or subjects cooperatively, carry it out, and always evaluate its effect on the students periodically” – by educationist
3.    “It is a form of organization in which individual teachers decide to pool resources, interest, and expertise in order to device and implement a scheme of work suitable to the needs for their pupils and the facilities of their school”- -- David Warwick
4. “In team teaching method two or more teachers make a plan of subject, cooperatively carry it out and always evaluate its effects on students periodically”.

                                                                                                                            ---- Naik.M.B

5. “Team teaching involves bringing together a number of classes whose teaching is then the responsibility is then the joint responsibility of the teachers’ of these classes who constitute a team”.

                           ----Apter.

6. Team teaching is a type of instructional organization involving teaching personnel and the students assigned to them in which two or more teachers are given responsibility, looking together, for all or a significant part of the instruction for some group students”.

---J.T.Shapliin (1964)

Characteristics of Team Teaching:

·         The team-teaching method is flexible

·         In team teaching, teachers need to decide their activities by themselves

·         It is a collective responsibility

·         In team teaching, the whole responsibility is on all the teachers

·         The requirements of pupils, schools and other things are also considered

·         Teaching and evaluation are both done on the co-operative basis

Few other characteristics are,

·         Economic factors

·         Enthusiasm is structured

·         Staff development

·         Experience-centered work     

Objectives of Team-teaching

The team-teaching method is practiced mainly at a single classroom or space and it is developed so as to improvise the learning strategies for the students.

1. To improve quality of instruction.
2. To exploit talents and expertise of teachers.
3. To utilize resources of school.
4. To understand importance of cooperation and group work among teachers.
5. To develop the sense of shared responsibility.
6. To increase flexibility in grouping and scheduling as the team-teaching groups students according to their interests and aptitudes in the subject.
7. Effective teaching methods as per the interests of the pupils.
8. Make the best usage of abilities, interests, and expertise in the teacher’s community. 

Principles of Team-teaching

1. Allocation of duties to teachers on the basis of their interests, qualifications and personality characteristics.
2. Having varying size of the group according to the purpose of the team-teaching.
3. Allotment of time according to the importance of the subject.
4. Providing appropriate learning environment by making arrangement of laboratory, good library, workshop et.
5. Providing appropriate learning behaviour to each learner within the group,
6. Exercising constructive supervision on the activities of the group.
7. Keeping the level of team teaching appropriate to the level of learner.

Types of Team Teaching:

There are mainly 2 types of team-teaching methods, they are

1. Hierarchic team teaching:

       This type of team-teaching method is just similar to a pyramid where different levels of teachers are organized in a structure from top to bottom. The team leader is placed at the top, mid-level teachers just below the team leader and normal teachers at the bottom.

2. Synergetic team teaching:

        In this type of teaching method, there is no differentiation between teachers. Through the cooperation of two or more teachers working together, synergetic team-teaching groups can be formed.

Example of Team Teaching:

             Let’s say that your college has 4 teachers who teach sociology. Here each teacher will be teaching a few sections to your class. The sections or topics of the whole subject will be divided by the teachers themselves. The senior-most teacher will be the team leader of the whole process.

        We can see the advantages outweighs the disadvantages if done properly team teaching can be an effective tool for successful learning. Though it requires a lot of efforts and coordination, it promotes overall growth and development for teachers and for students.

Procedure/Steps of Team-teaching

1. Planning
2. Organizing
3. Evaluating.

1.Planning: This step involves the following activities,

Ø  Formulating the objectives of the team-teaching session.

Ø  Writing these in behavioural terms.

Ø  Identifying the entering behviour of the learners.

Ø  Deciding the details of the material to be taught.

Ø  Assigning duties to teachers, such as lead lecture, follow up work and supervision

their interest and competencies.

Ø  Fixing up the level of instruction.

Ø  Selecting appropriate teaching aids and other inputs, if any, for generating learning environment.

Ø  Deciding ways and means to be adopted for evaluating the student performance.

2.Organizing:

Ø  Destemming the level of instruction. Some questions are asked to explore the background of the learner.

Ø  Selecting the appropriate communication strategy by considering the level of language achievement learners.

Ø  Presentation of lead lecture by a competent of the team; other teachers listen the lecture and note element of the topic that appear to be not easily understandable to the learners or not appropriately presented.

Ø  The other teachers of the team also deliver lectures and clarify the various elements.

Ø  Supervision of the student activities which are assigned in lead lecture or group work.

Ø   Every member of the team should conscious about the time schedule and about the assigned to him. He must be well prepared and ready for implementing the plan.

3. Evaluation:

          Evaluation is an important aspect of any type of teaching. It will helpful to measure the performance of learners. It also provides reinforcement to the team of teachers as well as to the learners, this stage involves the following activities.

Ø  Asking oral questions. Each question should measure a particular objective envisaged by the team.

Ø  Taking decision about the level of performance and realization of the objectives.

Ø  Diagnosing difficulties of the learners and providing the remediation.

Ø  Revising the planning and organizing phase of team-teaching itself on the basis of evaluation of the student.

Necessary Skills Required in the Team of Teachers:

1.      A team of teachers with a various set of skills perspective and expertise.

2.      Vision and sense of direction.

3.      Ability to coordinate internally.

4.      Excellent team planning.

5.      Friendly nature and ability to keep the environment conducive.

Tips to Make Team Teaching Effective:

1.      The openness of mind- Teachers and students must be open to change and must embrace this new form of learning.

2.      An effective strategy is necessary which requires undivided attention and time, willingness to make the learning effective. The strategy should involve coverage of course syllabus, activities and quizzes to be carried out, a flow of lecture and documenting and developing a database of the same.

3.      Regular meetings and follow up.

4.      Rotation of roles to enhance learning and reduce boredom.

5.      An effective way to assess students’ performance.

6.      Respecting others idea.

7.      Training to new teachers who are new to the concept of team teaching.

Main Ingredients of Team-Teaching Strategy:

1.      Scheduling

2.      Grouping of students

3.      Teachers assign themselves responsibilities

4.      New building arrangement

5.      The pupils are provided independent study time

6.      Make use of paraprofessionals

7.      The centralized libraries are replaced by resource centers                

Suggested Best Practices for Faculty

 Team-teaching works well when faculty,

Ø  Plan together.

Ø  Identify sources of information on team teaching.

Ø  Talk to others with experience.

Ø  Become acquainted with each other’s styles.

Ø  Communicate (i.e., clearly define expectations).

Ø  Plan alternating, interjecting strategies.

Ø  Attend each other’s classes.

Ø  Support each other.

Ø  Model debate.

Ø  Participate even if not teaching on a certain occasion.

Ø  Apply common grading standards.

Ø  Attend all staff meetings.

Ø  Let the students speak.

Ø  Be willing to be surprised. 

Advantages of Team-teaching.

For faculty,

1. Learn about teaching.
2. Improve their own teaching skills.
3. Have opportunities to socialize graduate students into the world of teaching.
4. Step out of their comfort zone.
5. Have opportunities for creative assignments.
6. Become informed and encouraged in interdisciplinary research.
7. Avoid the lonely, repetitive, fragmented experience of solo teaching.
8. Gain new insights into their disciplines.
9. Build collegial relationships.
10. Foster respect.

Some of the advantages of this approach are;

1. Each teacher has an active role.
2. Students view both teachers as equals.
3. Both teachers are actively involved in classroom organization and management.
4. This approach encourages risk taking. Teachers may try things in pairs that they wouldn’t try alone.
5. Two heads are better than one.

Some disadvantages of this approach are:

1. Preplanning takes a considerable amount of time.
2. Techers’ roles need to be clearly defined for shared responsibility.

Advantages of Team Teaching in Education:

1. Low cost:

       One can get an efficient form of learning at a very low cost; as such no new resources are required to start team teaching.

2. Support to teachers:

       Usually, teachers are overburdened with the fact that they have to complete the curriculum by the end of the term, even if they have creative ideas to teach students, they do not have enough time to plan and impart the same to the students.

       Moreover, it can also happen that teachers have ideas but need guidance to develop the skill and impart the same to the students.

         Team teaching eliminates such problems and other problems of a similar kind. When teachers collaborate, they could play on their strengths and weaknesses and together as a team can make a successful way to teach and learn.

3. Closer integration of staff:

       Very often teachers in schools and colleges lack bonding and friendship among themselves. Even worse a competitive environment is seen among the teachers.

The main motive of educational institutes is to impart value to students and work as a whole for being efficient knowledge importers. Envy or competition among teachers can have a negative impact on the Institute and on the student’s mind.

With team teaching, teachers are bound to bond, as frequent discussions and planning make them develop a good relationship. A happy staff can effectively inculcate the vision of the Institute

4. Variety of ideas:

        When teachers come together with their teaching style, ideas and expertise come together, if planned perfectly, the mixture of best ideas and styles will put forth many ways out of a single topic. It thus helps in better learning

5. Better involvement of students:

         A new method is always appealing; students might wonder what new thing they are going to learn. A team of teacher will have various ways and ideas to put forth, which make the students, put on their thinking cap and question ‘why’ for all things. They will come up with various questions, queries, and ideas.

A dynamic discussion session will increase student’s involvement and thus helps in bringing out the best in students

6. Mental stimulation to students:

         In traditional lecture only one teacher is teaching, the ideas, thoughts are only one way. Often students are forced to accept whatever taught and they do not bother to think the other way around.

         Team teaching helps them question the theories and facts. When the students are totally involved it brings out the creativity and the habit of questioning things.

7. Breaks traditional lecture boredom:

         Let’s be very honest, in lectures, we are often distracted, either chatting with our friends or checking our phones. Or maybe jotting down notes, in all the mentioned cases we are giving divided attention.

An interactive session, debates, help of visual aids and the like evokes interests among students. Team teaching exactly does that.

8. Better bonding between student and teacher:

      Humans bond when they interact, it is as simple as that. The bonding is increased when teachers often ask questions and listen to what students have to say. People when heard and appreciated, will ultimately be more engaged.

9. Provokes participation / interaction:

         Teachers will often find students who rarely participate in any activity and are aloof, mostly students with a shy personality will not speak much in class. But during team-teaching, a variety of ideas are put forth.

         A perfectly planned lecture will provoke even the most notorious and most aloof people to be engaged. Team teaching helps teachers deal with students of all personalities well and get better engagement

10. Imparts the lesson of team management:

       When students see the way, teachers work in a team, they indirectly get the lesson of team management and the importance of working in a team. Everyone in their career will need to work in teams.

        Students get to see how teachers capitalize on each of their strengths how they respect each other’s ideas and how as a whole they put the best picture forward. Indirectly, team teaching is helping reduce the extra lecture on team management.

11. Develops interpersonal skills and logic of students:

        Students interaction and logic is improved drastically as they learn to question things and learn how to communicate their ideas effectively.

While in case of a debate, students get to learn how to respect the contradicting ideas, accept them and also tell their own thoughts in return.

12. Teachers can give individual attention:

        When a teacher is teaching solely, he or she cannot give attention to the students who have a problem learning. The main focus is to make the whole group of student understanding at the same time. But we all know that all students are different and everyone has their own learning pace.

     In team teaching, if one teacher is speaking the other one can solve the queries student raises, without disturbing the whole class.

13. Staff development:

      There is no limit to learning, provided if one wishes to, team teaching gives teachers an opportunity to learn and grow themselves.

Teachers also get a chance to brush up their skills, work up to their fullest potential and along with that their creativity, motivation, and team management skills get a solid boost too.

14. Long-term knowledge retention:

           With a dynamic and interactive session student are engaged and they learn better. Knowledge retention is much higher than the traditional learning approach

Disadvantages of Team Teaching:

1. Acceptance of change by teachers:

         Let’s face it, we humans dislike change, teachers may not accept the idea of team teaching, they are often rigid and want to stick to the traditional teaching techniques. The idea that they will have to put extra effort and work hard makes them reluctant.

Team teaching can only be effective if teachers are willing and happy to involve in the new form of teaching. A forced approach is bound to fail.

While traditional teaching has been an attempted and tried technique, likewise it has disadvantages of traditional teaching, especially nowadays the innovation has improved adapting, more fun and intelligence.

2. Rigidity in teachers:

        Apart from accepting the change in the form of teaching, teachers often have the rigidity to accept and adjust with other teachers, while working in a team we have to accept others idea and drop ours. Teachers should not have an ego and should handle criticism openly.

3. Bad team management:

        Internal coordination and good team tempo are extremely important, internal conflict may result in a complete failure.

4. Personality conflict:

        People with contradicting personality must devise a way to work together effectively. A dominating person will overpower other people, a collaborative approach will help everyone grow and devise an effective process of team teaching.

5. Inability to complete curriculum:

         While devising creative curriculum & engaging students in an interactive session, the curriculum may fall behind.

         Even though creative teaching is necessary, it is also important for completing the course syllabus. This is one of the major challenges faced during team teaching.

6. Time for coordination and planning:

          Teachers have to take out time from their busy schedules and sit together to devise the lecture flow and activities that have to be carried out.

Many times, you could find them juggling through their own work and the time required for planning out the course

7. Hard to keep track:

         The sessions at times can get super interactive and teachers will forget the link. The teachers have shared responsibility and have an individual role to play. If anyone of the teachers is absent for some reason then the whole session will be jeopardized.

8. Takes time to develop:

         Teachers will have to refer many books and talk to several veteran teachers for designing an effective teaching plan.

It will also involve deep research and planning out activities which will be appealing to students. Thus, it takes lots of time and efforts before even starting a session.

9. Going overboard:

        While being creative and lining up too many activities, it could get way beyond the required amount.

        A little simulation to students’ brain will bring the best in them, but if it gets too much they will find it too hard to comprehend. One needs to find the right amount.

10. Resistance from students:

          Since childhood, students get used to the traditional form of teaching, they like the structure and the repetitiveness of the lectures. Most probably they have devised their own ways to make it work, a sudden change in the style of teaching will make them confused and they might resist the change.

         Some Students like the basic lecture and then they do their self-study to learn in deep about it. You could find students coming up with specific problems that they find difficult.

Teaching them everything in detail and inculcating activity, debate or different methods to teach the same topic may make them feel that their time is getting wasted.

11. Takes time to develop:

          This new teaching style is fresh to students as well as teachers. Teachers would not have perfect coordination at the first go, they will have to do many trails for reaching a most effective format. There can be an overlap of ideas among teachers or they could not impart whatever they thought of.

         It could also happen that they overestimated or underestimated the time required to complete the planned tasks. If one of the teachers finds it too difficult to carry out and opts out of it then the whole team will be disrupted.

          Teachers can also face resistance from the students. Too many ideas and discussion will make the classroom chaotic. Patience from teachers as well as students is required for a successful team-teaching

12. The expectation of higher compensation:

         If we compare the efforts required for teaching solely with the efforts required to teach in a team, then the later one is undoubtedly much harder and would require deep study, time and planning.

         Thus, teachers may demand a higher salary. It could ultimately bring financial pressure on the educational institute.