Andrea’s Growth

After team teaching, the researcher asked Andrea to talk about what she learned most by co-teaching with Nadya. She mentioned the area she gained most from the

collaboration:

I think I learned material design most. In terms of lecturing, I think both of us are novice teachers…student teachers, so it seemed we learned from each other…but not that much. But in the aspect of material design, I think each of us applied our own backgrounds to how to design teaching materials…how to sequence the teaching procedures…(interview, Andrea, 2009/07/27).

Compared with material designation, though not very much was gained in the aspect of delivering instruction, Andrea talked about what she learned from observing her partner’s teaching performance. Unlike Nadya who often felt natural applying computer skills in teaching writing, Andrea intended to avoid using PowerPoint while teaching, for she thought “lights are usually too dim for students to get concentrated or if PowerPoint slides include what’s exactly in the textbook, students might neglect the importance of taking notes” (interview, Andrea, 2009/07/27). Nonetheless, by watching how the other taught the class, Andrea found Nadya’s using PowerPoint slides to pinpoint students’

common errors of their in-class writing effective and interactive. As she described:

Initially, I thought if I’m gonna be teaching this part, I will type all the NG sentences on a piece of A4-size paper and make copies for students…and let’s check those sentences together. But I found the way Nadya used PowerPoint to show language errors more effective (interview, Andrea, 2009/07/27).

She continued, “The waiting time for PowerPoint animations allowed Nadya to have interaction with the students…the time allowed the students to think…and the answers were shown directly on the slides...that was a pretty good way to correct writing errors”

(interview, Andrea, 2009/07/27)! Inspired by her teaching partner, Andrea did it as Nadya did when it was her turn to point out the students’ writing errors.

As mentioned earlier, Andrea expected to learn more about “how to cultivate better classroom atmosphere” (background interview, 2009/05/11) and how to implement multimedia in language teaching by co-teaching. At the end of collaborative teaching, the researcher therefore asked Andrea to talk about whether she gained knowledge in these two areas.

Researcher: Did you put lots of effort to cultivate classroom atmosphere?

Andrea: I think telling lousy jokes counts. As I said, students looked drowsy in the first week, so the following week…when I took the lead, I think…I’m not gonna take the students through writing instruction immediately. There should be a small activity…I told a lousy joke, next I went on by reviewing the

previous lesson…then I took the students to the day’s major topic.

Researcher: Do you think this can be considered a technique for you to get closer to your students?

Andrea: I think this could. I think lessons can have a small warm-up activity as an opening, rather than starting from instruction right away.

Researcher: Did you come up with this idea gradually during the process of team teaching?

Andrea: Yes. Because Nadya took the lead in the first week, and the students were kind of drowsy…Nadya felt the same as I did…so I thought I would try telling a joke the following time.

In the same interview, Andrea also acknowledged the strengths of two teachers’

collegiality in cultivating positive classroom atmosphere. She stated that originally Nadya preferred to have the pattern of one leading teacher, one teaching period. Nonetheless, after practicing team teaching, she realized that Nadya and she usually shifted the lead

unintentionally, regardless who was scheduled to lead the particular class. She remarked,

“It seemed that the sharing of the leading role created a more harmonious classroom atmosphere. It also enhanced the students’ confidence in the teachers” (interview, Andrea, 2007/07/27).

One example to illustrate what Andrea stated above took place in mid-July. One of the foci of that day was using statistics to support a writer’s ideas. After Nadya explained this strategy to the students, one of the students looked puzzled because he was not convinced of this. Nadya thus made a pause and asked if he has any problems regarding this part, and the student said, “To me, using statistics here is not that convincing” (fieldnotes,

2009/07/02). Next Nadya went on to explain the strategy again though the student still remained not convinced. She then asked Andrea, “Andrea, how do you feel about this?” At this point, Andrea endorsed the positive effect of using statistics by referring to several well-known magazines, such as Career and Common Wealth Magazine¹. She shared her viewpoint in general, “Using statistics to quantify one’s ideas makes his writing different from others.” After Andrea’s sharing, the researcher saw a few students were nodding their heads (fieldnotes, 2009/07/02).

Another unexpected effect of collaboration found in the current study was the inter-team interaction among the four participants. Andrea commented that the writing teachers often chatted with the speaking teachers, exchanging ideas and information regarding teaching GEPT. The researcher found that after the first two lessons Andrea

1 “天下雜誌” in Chinese.

made an announcement to the students— whoever was late for class had to prepare an English joke for the next class (fieldnotes, 2009/07/09). Andrea stated this rule was

adopted from Lynn and Irene, the other two student teachers teaching Speaking Class. The researcher therefore asked Andrea whether the other two peers helped her learn about how to facilitate classroom atmosphere:

Andrea: The speaking teachers did help us…we exchanged ideas with each other.

Researcher: Did you share your feeling with them after carrying out the first class?

Andrea: Yes. I said writing is a subject which is less interesting. And they agreed with me. So afterwards Nadya and I would incorporate an activity into a regular lesson. We would sometimes ask Lynn and Irene how they feel about the activity (interview, Andrea, 2009/07/27).

With regard to the area of applying multimedia in teaching writing, Andrea felt that she had not gained too much knowledge in this facet because “We seldom incorporate multimedia with our teaching this time. We only applied some computer skills to making handouts. I think that’s all” (interview, Andrea, 2009/07/27).

4.2.2.3 Areas Nadya Wanted to Improve on Before Team Teaching

In Nadya’s case, she stated in the background interview that she lacked confidence to be a teacher. In her words, “I am not confident in teaching. I always thought that I don’t have much experience” (background interview, Nadya, 2009/05/25). With regard to the skills she would like to gain, she acknowledged that classroom management and language instruction appeared most challenging to her. She went on to say that she considered her language proficiency was not high enough to make herself a capable teacher. She remarked,

“The students might view us as their schoolmates, rather than their writing teachers. It

seems like our levels are similar, but I’m gonna be standing behind the podium to teach them” (background interview, Nadya, 2009/05/25).

4.2.2.4 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

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