Skills and Knowledge Learned in Team Teaching

In the background interview, Lynn mentioned her preconceived concern that she may not be able to handle the students’ questions—certain word usages or vocabulary which appear unfamiliar to her. Moreover, taking a role of a graduate student and a Speaking Class teacher at the same time, she also mentioned her worry because of the vague identity—“What I am lacking is confidence. The students here are in a fairly prestigious university, maybe they wouldn’t trust our expertise…because their teachers are graduate students but not teachers” (background interview, Lynn, 2009/05/09).

When she was a college student, Lynn had the experience of carrying out an

English-learning summer camp which was held by the college she studied in. She did not consider that experience beneficial for her to teach this time. She stated:

The experience at that time was more activity-oriented to me. As for teaching, they hired other teachers to conduct English lessons. I’ve always had a question about how to strike a balance between being authoritative and establishing a good relationship with students (interview, Lynn, 2009/07/28).

4.1.2.2. Lynn’s Growth

Co-teaching with Irene, Lynn thought of “lesson planning” as the area she gained most by working with her partner. In her words, “My partner usually came up with some good ideas which could make the entire lesson become more focused, and could encourage the students to speak out and share their viewpoints” (interview, Lynn, 2009/07/28).

Lynn went on to provide an example by telling the researcher that Irene always typed the agenda of each class in the first PowerPoint slide to inform the class of major foci of a lesson. In her words:

Even though this idea was originated from someone else, in our team it was Irene that first proposed adopting it. By doing so, I felt the procedures of each lesson went more smoothly, and the students were told clearly about what they’re gonna be learning in a certain lesson (interview, Lynn, 2009/07/28).

According to the aforementioned, Lynn was afraid that she was incapable of answering the students’ questions. The researcher therefore asked Lynn whether her co-teacher helped her overcome this preconceived concern. In her word, “We asked each other if one of us was not sure of the usage. Sometimes she would search word usages online for me. We helped each other with the students’ questions, and this also provided feedback that was more immediate” (interview, Lynn, 2009/07/28).

In the same interview, Lynn talked about what she gained by watching her co-teacher teach the class. She first reflected upon her own teaching, saying:

I was the kind of person who would speak quickly whenever I felt nervous.

This might give students the impression that I just wanna shuffle it off. But my partner usually speaks at a slower speed, and this also helps her process what she’s going to talk to the students and avoid slips of tongue (interview, Lynn, 2009/07/28).

She went on to say that, when leading group discussion, Irene seemed to like to join the students’ discussion. Even thought it might be impossible to get involved to every group, Lynn thought joining students’ discussion was a tip for getting close to the students.

4.1.2.3 Areas Irene Wanted to Improve on Before Team Teaching

In the background interview, Irene said that she would have a strong sense of

frustration if her students just sit motionlessly and appear uninterested. She thus mentioned that what she like to learn in team teaching is how to establish a rapport with the students.

4.1.2.4 Irene’s Growth

In an open-ended questionnaire, Irene wrote down what she learned from team teaching. In her words:

From the process of team teaching, I learned that being a teacher isn’t that easy.

When I was a student, I always thought that teaching is easy, because a teacher just has to teach. Much to my surprise, I found what I had thought was

completely wrong after my first teaching. The preparation process is really tons of work, especially for novice teachers who are inexperienced and have limited resources. Thanks to Lynn, we shared the workload of lesson preparation.

Meanwhile, by cooperating with Lynn, I learned a number of teaching activities as well as teaching topics. I think I learned the spirit of “1 plus 1 equals 2”

(open-ended questionnaire, Irene).

Reflected upon the area she had expected to learn before team teaching, Irene said she did gain something from working with Lynn. In her words,

Every time after each group summarized and shared their discussion to the class, I, as a leading teacher, often listened to their sharing but rarely provided some follow-up comments. I usually said “Very good!...Ok. Let’s have next group.” But I discovered that Lynn quite often threw the students some follow-up questions, which were usually funny, and the atmosphere was in turn lightened.

4.1.2.5 The Effects of Participating in the Research Project

Both Lynn and Irene felt positive about participating in this project. Lynn commented that, after keeping reflective logs after each lesson, she figured out that people should learn

from continuous self-reflection—“If you didn’t ask me to do this, I might already forget which mistake I had made in which lesson…and what areas I should further improve to make my teaching better” (interview, Lynn, 2009/07/28). She continued:

Another good thing is having the interviews with you because you asked me some questions that I never thought of. For example, you asked me what I learned from my co-teacher. Without those questions, I might not know that I could really gain something from my teaching partner.

As for Irene, she stated that her promise to participate in this study drove her into her first teaching—“Participating in this research project pushes me to carry out this course. If it were not for the research project, I would still hide like a shy shrimp as I used to be and I will never teach” (interview, Irene, 2009/07/29). She added, “Thanks to the opportunity to teach this time, I found that it was not that scary and I benefited a lot from the teaching experience.” Moreover, like Lynn, Irene also endorsed the positive impact of completing teaching reflective logs. She remarked:

At times I found something should be improved…and I did not write it down…the idea would just flash through my mind. But I felt the process of keeping reflection on teaching…the idea somehow becomes very clear in my mind. And I would ponder more deeply over the matter rather than just let it pop into my head. While I was observing Lynn teaching the class, I found some problems regarding her teaching and forgot to talk to her about those problems…by writing reflection, I was reminded once again that I should remember to discuss with her (interview, Irene, 2009/07/29).

She continued to conceptualize the idea of keeping reflective logs by offering a metaphor.

She remarked, “It’s like to rewind our teaching video to watch it again.”

4.2 TEAM 2: ANDREA AND NADYA