Nadya’s Growth

In an interview after team teaching, Nadya felt that the area she gained most from the co-teacher was the way how Andrea interacted with the students. The researcher then asked Nadya to provide an example to illustrate. She said:

For example, we usually had group work…students were required to discuss with their group members. In the beginning, I hadn’t even thought that I can go down from the podium and get involved with the students. I mean the teachers can ask if the students have any questions or else. In one of the lessons, I saw Andrea going down, engaging herself in every group’s discussion. I think she did a good job (interview, Nadya, 2009/07/29).

Nadya went on to talk about another incident which she also benefited from:

There was a time when Andrea led the students to carry out an activity called

“Shopping ABC”. Some of students were not familiar with the activity, while the others knew what the activity was about. Instead of explaining the activity on her own, Andrea then asked “Anyone heard this activity before?”…some students raised their hands… and next she randomly picked a student to explain and demonstrate the game. I felt the way she dealt with the situation was effective (interview, Nadya, 2009/07/29).

As stated earlier, Nadya felt less confident about teaching college students. After team teaching, the researcher therefore asked whether the team-teaching experience enhanced the confidence in her own ability. She told the researcher that what was built was not her confidence but a feeling of being at ease. She clarified

the difference between these two:

Confidence is that you are confident about you own ability to teach or you are sure that you can teach well on your own, but after team teaching I still felt unsure whether I can teach relatively well on my own. But I know I was much more relaxed…when I didn’t teach well or when I came across difficulties, there’s a person who could help out (interview, Nadya, 2009/07/29).

With regard to language proficiency, Nadya described the experience of working with Andrea as “learning by doing.” She felt that her linguistic knowledge in English was enhanced, and she remarked, “I learned form my co-teacher of course, and also from the process of lesson planning” (interview, Nadya, 2009/07/29).

4.2.2.5 The Effects of Participating in the Research Project

At the end of team teaching, both Andrea and Nadya considered participating in this study helpful in their professional growth. Andrea stated that one benefit of writing teaching reflective logs was that it involves deep thinking”. She remarked:

Writing reflection requires the connection of each teaching episode…and you can think more deeply. In class, I just had to carry on with the lessons and I could only think of something quickly. I wouldn’t have more time to figure out how I can improve a certain aspect (interview, Andrea, 2009/07/27).

In Nadya’s case, after participating in the current study, she commented that keeping reflective logs forced her to pay attention to something which she might easily neglect:

At the beginning of writing each log, of course I would write down something impressed me the most. Somehow I found that I have very little to say, so I would try to think more thoroughly and deeply…I would

take a look at the worksheets and syllabus on that day again…and contemplate on what I did in each phase of a lesson (interview, Nadya, 2009/07/29).

Moreover, like Lynn in the first team, Nadya also endorsed the positive effect of having interviews with the researcher. She remarked:

Some of the questions you asked during the interviews made me start to find answers. Like one of your previous questions…you asked me what I learned from observing my teaching partner. This reminded me once again of the alternative methods and techniques I learned from Andrea (interview, Nadya, 2009/07/27).

CHAPTER FIVE

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION

In this chapter, the researcher will first offer a summary of the findings of the two research questions, and then turn to the theoretical issues emerging from the results of the study. Next, the limitations of this study will be addressed. In the end, possible future directions to teacher preparation programs and further research on team teaching will be presented.

5.1 Summary of Findings

The purposes of this study are (1) to explore the team teaching experience of TEFL student teachers in Taiwan and (2) to illuminate TEFL student teachers’ professional growth, if any, in a collaborative-teaching relationship. Aiming to provide more valid and richer evidence, the study adopted a qualitative case study design. The current

investigation was guided by the following two research questions: (1) What are the TEFL student teachers’ perceptions of their team-teaching experience? ; (2) What skills and knowledge do the TEFL student teachers learn from their team-teaching experience? The researcher will begin this section by summarizing the findings of the first research questions, and then the second.

5.1.1 (1) What are the TEFL student teachers’ perceptions of their team-teaching experience?

Regarding the first research question, three issues emerging from the data are worth summarizing: (1) the partner as an emotional Anchor; (2) the partner as a cognitive Anchor;

(3) compatibility between partners.

5.1.1.1 The partner as an emotional anchor

Before the team teaching officially began, every participant revealed a high level of anxiety of teaching a course. However, studying in the same TESOL institute, the four participants had the chance to communicate with the other teacher professionally, which relieved the stress and reduced workload of teaching alone. Analysis of the data also indicated that it is significant for student teachers to have a teaching partner in their first teaching experience. When the participants confronted with teaching problems or the decision-making process, the feeling of support and safety provided by the other team teacher was commonly described in the participants’ perceptions of team teaching. Having a partner to discuss with when they were not sure of making any teaching decision was thought to be important among the participants.

5.1.1.2 The partner as a cognitive anchor

In the present study, team teaching between two TEFL student teachers was shown to be of value to each cooperative teacher. Results of the present study suggested that a collaborative-teaching relationship appeared to be not only stimulating to the team members (in this case, Lynn got a sense of crisis by co-working with Irene, who inspired her to broaden her vocabulary bank) but also facilitating for the student teachers’

development of teaching ideas, classroom management skills, English usage, and delivery of effective lectures.

5.1.1.3 Compatibility between partners

In the current study, it seemed that the team teachers taught in harmony with each other and respected each other as team teachers. The four TEFL students all considered the chance of collaborative teaching to be beneficial for themselves. However, the metaphors and the pictures provided by the four participants revealed a number of issues which prospective team teachers should take into consideration before stepping in a

collaborative-teaching relationship. Based on the data yielding from the participants’

metaphors, open-ended questionnaire, and follow-up interviews, three issues may have contributed to a successful team teaching, including (1) Communication, (2) Personality, and (3) Devotion to Team Teaching.

5.1.2 (2) What skills and knowledge, if any, do the TEFL student teachers learn from their team-teaching experience?

Through collaborative teaching, the participants developed their knowledge in the two areas in particular; they are (1) adding to their repertoire of course and material design skills, and (2) knowledge of their strengths and weaknesses.

5.1.2.1 Adding to their repertoire of course and material design skills

The finding indicated that Lynn, Irene and Andrea gained the increasing knowledge of course and material design in terms of the subject they taught. For instance, Irene thought she learned a number of teaching activities as well as teaching topics for teaching

Speaking. Moreover, Lynn viewed the process of lesson planning as the most beneficial from the collaboration while Andrea considered how to design teaching materials for teaching writing to be the area she gained the most.

5.1.2.2 Knowledge of each other’s strengths and weaknesses

Observing the other teacher taught provided the participants with a good opportunity to learn from each other and understand oneself more as a student teacher. Take Lynn for example. Being an observer, Lynn thought that her partner usually spoke at a slower speed and tended to join the students’ discussion. Reflected upon her own teaching, Lynn was inspired to speak slower for the students to understand and engage herself in students’

discussion. Moreover, Andrea used to avoid using PowerPoint as she thought that students might neglect the importance of taking notes. Nevertheless, by watching how Nadya taught the class, Andrea found Nadya’s using PowerPoint slides to pinpoint students’ common

errors of their in-class writing effective and interactive. Andrea thus reshaped the preconceived belief about applying multi-media in language teaching.

5.2 Discussion

As discussed in Chapter One, previous study has shown a growing interest in depicting cooperative teaching between native English-speaking teachers (NESTs) and non-NESTs (see for example, Chen, 2008; Cheng, 2004; Chou, 2005; Liou, 2002; Lou, 2005; Pan, 2004; Tsai, 2007; Wang, 2006). In this study, the researcher aims to provide more holistic and detailed descriptions of four TEFL student teachers’ team teaching experiences in order to uncover the crucial issues and phenomena found within the complicated process of learning to teach.

The findings of the present study echo the previous literature on the positive effect of team teaching on teachers’ professional development (Anderson & Speck, 1998;

Buckley, 2000; Richards & Farrell, 2005). As revealed in Chapter Two, team teaching provides student teachers with good peer support during the transition from the role of student to the role of teacher. By comparing the current study with the former studies on the same topic — team teaching, it is found that a community of peers is also as a crucial source of ideas and constructive comments.

Because the current study is based on the view of social constructivism, and team teaching is a kind of social activity which is contributory for learning to take place, the following section aims to discuss the concept of zone of proximal development. On top of that, individual and interpersonal factors which involve in the professional collaboration are also discussed. Lastly, how peer-based collaboration could facilitate the participants’

teaching skills is also presented.

5.2.1 Zone of Proximal Development

Guided by the spirit of the social constructivism, the current study aimed to shed some light on TEFL student teachers’ development involved in the collaborative teaching.

According to Vygotsky (1978), social interaction is a prerequisite to learning and cognitive development. As discussed in Chapter Two, within the ZPD (i.e., each individual’s zone of potential learning), more capable students can provide peers with new information and new ways of thinking so that all parties can create new means of understanding. In addition, from the growing body of literature on social constructivism, it seems clear that the focus of Vygotsky’s social constructivism is on how an individual’s learning and understanding grow out of social encounters. In a social constructivist view, a crucial question to ask is what kinds of social activities are contributory for learning to take place. In other words, the context in which the learning occurs is central to the learning itself (McMahon, 1997).

Findings of this study suggested that when team teachers were both intimately and equally involved in all aspects of teaching, the team-teaching mechanism was able to bring the benefits to the team teachers. This kind of collaboration seems probable to lead to student teachers’ learning when they are equal partners who share equal degree of responsibility to carry out a lesson. Analysis of the findings indicated that the participants, being new and inexperienced in the field of teaching profession, were observed, critiqued, and improved by the other team member in a nonthreatening, supportive context. Although teacher development can occur through a teacher’s own personal initiative, the findings in this study indicated that collaboration with others could cause individual learning and encourage greater peer-based learning through sharing and finding solutions to their teaching problems.

5.2.2 Collegiality vs. Individualism

Another issue emerging from the data is related to individual and interpersonal factors which involve in the professional collaboration. It is important to note that it takes a lot more than simply equally engaging in the team-teaching process for collaboration to bring positive effects to teachers. Findings of this study suggested that numerous individual and interpersonal factors were dependent upon a pleasant team-teaching experience. For example, individual factors, such as team members’ personalities, were found to cause the other member different degree of stress in a collaborative-teaching relationship. Not knowing whom to co-teach in the future, Andrea indicated that when looking for a

potential teaching partner, she would in a way evaluate his/her personality as a significant element whether to team up with him/her.

The results from this study seem to lend some support to the view that the negative impact of working collaboratively was the need to meet more frequently with colleagues to discuss and plan, which placed an added work burden on teachers (Buckley, 2000; Johnson, 2003). Despite the fact that the four participants endorsed the positive effects of team teaching, they also identified their dislikes about team teaching. For example, in the case of the writing teachers, both of Andrea and Nadya considered learning from each other’s different ideas when planning lessons to be their dislike as well as their like. This means chances for expressing and examining teaching ideas could improve their teaching practices, and all of the participants came to recognize and appreciate each teacher’s different ideas on how to teach. However, the process of lesson planning required successive communication and negotiation which usually took a lot of time for the participants to negotiate, and sometimes they just could not get their own way. As seen in the case of Andrea, Nadya and Irene, they stated that team teaching made more demands on time and energy than teaching alone. What’s more, rethinking the courses and

explaining them to the other co-teacher did cause inevitable inconvenience to the

participants and discussions were sometimes exhausting from the constant interaction with their peers.

Several researchers (Buckley, 2000; Clement & Vandenberghe, 2000) also proposed the concept that the tension between being an effective team member and retaining one’s

autonomy is what team teachers need to tackle with every day. The healthy balance between teachers’ internal freedom and external collaboration cannot be created by enforcing collegiality (Clement & Vandenberghe, 2000; Sawyer, 2002). According to Nadya, the way of thinking between two parties should be similar so that every member knows and follows similar teaching styles. Here, the results supported the previous studies (Avalos, 1998; Sawyer, 2002) for the point that the diversity among team teachers may not bring positive effects on teachers’ professional development, and collaboration is better when it is not planned by a third party. In addition, as discussed earlier, team teachers fitting into the team type of “Blind date” strangers who are matched by someone else, such as an administrator— could lead to either committing to working closely over time or a one-night stand (Eisen, 2000, p.13). Therefore, the findings underscore the importance of recognizing team teachers’ individualism and lend support to the idea that the diversity among team teachers might be a potential challenge embedded in a collaborative

relationship. Thus, it may suggest that perhaps team teachers are not necessary mutually compatible, so it might not be a fruitful way for school administrators or government officials to team up teaching members.

5.2.3 Emotional Support from Peers

This study depicted TEFL student teachers’ feelings and thoughts when they carried out a team-taught class. The findings of the present study show that at the phase of turning their imagination into a reality, every participant in the current study reported a high level

of anxiety. Carrying out a lesson with a co-teacher, every participant acknowledged the significance of peer support during the transition from the role of a graduate student to the role of a GEPT teacher. They felt more secured and confident when there was a team member to back them up and to reduce their workload, particularly in the aspects of lesson planning and teaching.

In Fuller’s (1969) research in teacher professional development, he theorized that teacher concerns can be classified into three distinct categories, including “self concerns,”

“task concerns,” and “impact concerns” and teacher concerns will develop in sequence.

Although the duration of the current study only lasted for five week, analysis of the data indicated that at the outset the participants did care about what their students might think of them as teachers. Before team teaching began, Lynn and Nadya expressed that their

students might lose confidence in them due to their identity, that is, a graduate with little teaching experience; their nervousness was found to affect their emotion at the outset.

However, their perceived anxiety gradually relieved as the teaching process went on. The findings of this study echo Fuller’s (1969) research since Lynn and Nadya laid much value on what their students thought of them and they felt insecure about their ability to teach. It is of importance for teacher educators to have an understanding of preservice and novice teachers’ concerns in order to decrease the rates of attrition of teacher candidates within their progress (O’Connor & Taylor, 1992). In addition, it is worth noting that isolation is a challenge that can inhibit teachers’ learning if peers are not accessible to assist (Little, 1982) or inexperienced teachers are less active to seek professional advice (Tsai, 2010).

5.2.4 The Nature of Team Teaching in the Current Study

Analysis of the data indicated that team teaching can serve as a means of student teachers’ professional development. As discussed in Chapter Four, when Irene was leading the task of picture description, Lynn’s advice served as a cure which saved Irene as well as

the students from being in an embarrassing silence. Although Irene showed agreement in getting the students to talk at least for one and a half minutes at the outset, the further

implementation demonstrated that some of the students simply could not meet the criterion, that is, the time requirement of 1.5 minutes. The real situation and Irene’s reflection of the situation enabled Irene to develop deeper understanding of teaching. Analysis of the data showed that most of the participants’ learning was triggered under team teachers’

continuous communication and the socially mediated activities. Since their peer teachers did not impose great tension or provide judgmental feedback, the participants’ teaching skills and knowledge of language teaching did not improve greatly.

Near the end of the research, the researcher conducted two separate interviews. One of them aims to elicit skills and knowledge, if any, the participants gain from team teaching (Appendix I). In addition to the question like what they gained most by working with a partner, the participants were also asked to talk about whether the experience was helpful

Near the end of the research, the researcher conducted two separate interviews. One of them aims to elicit skills and knowledge, if any, the participants gain from team teaching (Appendix I). In addition to the question like what they gained most by working with a partner, the participants were also asked to talk about whether the experience was helpful