TEAM TEACHING

Meaning and Definitions

Team teaching a style of instruction in which resources as well as interests and expertise of a team of teachers are pooled in order to enhance the effectiveness of instruction/curriculum transaction to the maximum possible by utilizing all facilities available in school.

“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

 “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 Definition’s

Characteristic of Team teaching

1. It utilizes the service of two or more teacher in the process of teaching the same class.

2. It is an instructional strategy rather than training strategy.

3. In team teaching a group of teachers are responsible for realization of the educational objectives, rather than an individual teacher.

4. A team of teachers of the same subjects work together to deal relevant content area to the same group of students.

5. It can be termed as co-operative teaching , in which teachers together plan to pool resources, interests and expertise for teaching the same content for the same group of students.

6. Every individual teacher of the team gets an appropriate role in the instructional process in accordance with one’s special competencies or area of specialization.

7. The group of teachers involves have shared responsibilities in planning, organizing, leading, controlling and evaluating.

8. In team teaching, the group of teachers have to jointly consider the needs of their pupils.

Objectives of Team teaching

1. To make the best use of expertise of a number of teachers.

2. To improve the quality of teaching by utilizing the sills of more then one person.

3. To develop positive attitude towards co-operation or group in teaching – learning situations.

4. To help the student to satisfy the needs and solve the difficulties relating special content areas.

5. To develop the sense of shared responsibility in teaching and evaluation.

6. To minimize the scope of teaching wrong things to the students by any individual teacher.

Types of Team teaching

1.      Team teaching in the same class period. 

Here the members of the team discuss the various aspects of the same topic to be covered in the same class period and share these aspects in tune with the special knowledge area in which each has expertise.

2.      Team teaching based on ability. 

In this type, units are shared by different teachers not on the basis of subject matter, but on the basis of special competencies such as lecturing, demonstrating, guiding discussion etc.

3.      Team teaching based on specialization 

Teachers with different subject specialization are jointly made responsibilities for instruction, starting from course formation to evaluation. They share the content according to their specialization areas.

4. Team teaching on relay system. 

Hear one teacher starts the instructional process, when he completes, another follows and so on. Hear the division of work not based on subject competency or skill. Each teacher supplements, enriches and supports what others have done.

Principles of team teaching

1.      Principle of size and composition of the class. 

The size of the class should be vary according to the objectives of the team teaching.Eg. To remove the difficulties of students in certain subject, the size of the class should be small.

2. Principle of level of instruction 

The entering behavior of the group of students should be determined so that the presentation of each member of the team in tune with the level of the class.

3. Principle of assigning duties to teachers of the work

Duties to the teachers should be appropriate according to their competencies of teaching.

4.      Principle of learning environment

Learning environment must be generated by employing appropriate teaching aids and other inputs.

5.      Principle of time factor

Time schedule should be prepared by allotting appropriate time to subtopics, lead lecture, group work etc.

6.      Principle of Supervision

o The aim of team teaching is to develop mastery over subject matter by utilizing the expertise of teachers

o Supervised study is essential for assimilating various items of knowledge of a topic
o The nature and duration of supervising students activities depends upon the purpose for which team teaching is employed.

Procedure of Organizing the Team teaching

Team teaching involves three steps

1.Planning

This step involves the following activities

• Formulating the objectives of the team teaching session.

• Writing these in behavioral terms.

• Identifying the entering behavior of the learners.

• Deciding the details of the material to be taught.

• Assigning duties to teachers, such as lead lecture, follow up work and supervision considering their interest and competencies.

• Fixing up the level of instruction.

• selecting appropriate teaching aids and other inputs, if any, for generating learning environment.

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

2.Organizing

The organization of team teaching is decided by considering the needs of the learners. The following are the general activities which are usually performed by a team of teachers.
• Determining the level of instruction. Some questions are asked to explore the background of the leaner’s.

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

• Presentation of lead lecture by a competent of the team; other teachers listen the lecture and note down the element of the topic that appear to be not easily understandable to the learners or nor appropriately presented.

• Follow up work. The other teachers have to supplement the lead lecture by explaining the elements of the topic in a simpler way so that the learners can understand easily.

• Providing motivation or reinforcement during both the stages. i.e, during the lead lecture and follow up work.

• Supervision of student activities which are assigned in lead lecture or group work or follow up work. This stage is considered to be important for assimilation.
Every member of the team should be conscious about time schedule and about the duty assigned to him. He must be well prepared and ready for implementing the plan.

Evaluating

Evaluation is an important aspect of ant 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.

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

• Taking decision about the level of performance and realization of the objectives.
• Diagnosing difficulties of the learners and providing the remediation.
• Revising the planning and organizing phase of team teaching itself on the basis of evaluation of the student.

Advantages of team teaching

1.Better planning

• Team teaching has to overcome repetition and hence every teacher has to devote more time towards planning and preparation of his unit.

2. Better utilization of resources.

• It results in the optimum use of available resources, human, material, finance. A number of teachers can work together and make the best use of their specialized knowledge.

3. Effective use of teaching techniques.

• Teachers observe each other and thus improve their teaching techniques.
4. Better motivation.

• It provides better motivation for good teachers to become team leaders. Student too are better motivated while they are being taught by a number of teachers. Teachers with greater technical skills influence the performance of their colleagues.

5. Better follow-up work.

• It ensure better follow-up work as a number of specialists teach the same subject to the same class.

Limitation of team teaching

1. It is very difficult to ensure co-operation among teachers of a team.

2. It is not east to assign powers and responsibilities to a group of teachers. It might happen no one takes care of the responsibilities expected.

3. Many teachers do not maintain regard and respect. Every teacher considers himself an expert of the subject and has his own style of teaching.

4. Teachers generally do not like to deviate from the routine methods of teaching and they do not prefer any change in the system of education.