Session Information
01 SES 13 A, Research Perspectives on Team Teaching
Paper Session
Contribution
New types of learning spaces allowing for larger cohorts of pupils and teachers working in teams have emerged across the world and are challenging teachers to interact in new ways. These learning spaces are often described as innovative learning environments, and the pedagogical practices that accompany them as team teaching. In light of these developments, this study examines the concept of team teaching, introducing an analytical framework for unpacking it in relation to learning environments and other issues.
In order to prepare pupils for an uncertain future, calls around the world revolve around new capabilities and knowledge, new pedagogies and new learning environments that support such a preparation. Innovative learning environments have been defined as innovative spaces and practices (French, Imms, and Mahat, 2020). Following this line of argument, when new schools are built across the world ordinary classrooms should to be replaced with a more varied collection of spaces that can be shared by larger cohorts of pupils and several teachers (Dovey and Fisher, 2014). These new ways of designing school buildings and learning environments have emerged over time, together with ideas about lifelong learning, an increased degree of individualisation in education and the importance of variation for the individual’s learning, as well as from a contextual perspective emphasising the importance of professional learning communities (cf. Schön, 1983; Stoll, Bolam, McMahon, Wallace, and Thomas, 2006).
Working in new learning environments require new skills from teachers (Campbell, Saltmarsh, Chapman and Dre, 2013; Charteris and Smardon, 2019; Leighton and Byers, 2020), who have traditionally had sole responsibility for one class but are now expected to transition into new types of spaces, organising and pedagogies. Such transitions mean extensive changes to their teaching practices (Woolner, Clark, Laing, Thomas, and Tiplady, 2014). One response, team teaching, according to Simons et al (2020) means that teachers collaborate around all pupils. Some teachers argue that collaborating in a teaching context benefits their professional growth and pupils’ learning (Ronfeldt, Farmer, McQueen, and Grissom, 2015).
Previous research often refers to the importance of so-called professional learning communities (PLCs) (Datnow, 2018). PLC is a way of organising teachers in groups in order to introduce and increase cooperation between teachers as teams (Lipscombe, Buckley-Walker, and McNamara, 2020; Ronfeldt et al., 2015). This is central from a perspective in which teachers develop and learn from each other by planning together, exchanging experiences, sharing responsibility for a group of pupils and so on as a way of organising activities to build a professional learning community (Ronfeldt et al., 2015). In the long term, teachers’ collaboration organised in teams can provide a more sustainable development of teachers’ professionalism, schools and education (Duyar et al., 2013; Lipscombe et al., 2020). A strong teaching team can also according to Hattie (2012) be a success factor for pupils’ learning.
However, conceptualising and defining a collaboration between teachers can be problematic in that several synonyms and concepts are used (Welch, 2000). In this context, the paper aims to examine and shed further light on the concept of team teaching by the development and presentation of a framework for describing four levels of interaction (from superficial to deep) involving four shared dimensions of pedagogical work (from space to teaching). The framework is illustrated using data from a case study of team teaching in two Swedish innovative learning environments with different layouts and organisations.
Method
The study took place in a Swedish context were organising teachers into different types of teams has a long tradition, since the beginning of the 1980s when the concept of teacher teams was introduced (Blossing, 2008). A case study was conducted in two schools with innovative learning environments (ILEs), where teachers were organized in teams. Initially, school visits were undertaken during which photographs and other documentation for supporting the analysis were collected. The data used for analyses in this study was collected during the spring of 2021 and consisted of 14 semi-structured interviews with teachers, seven at each school. These were selected with consideration for the ages taught, gender, length of teacher experience and work in ILEs. An interview guide was used with questions relating to teaching background, the vision of the school in relation to the physical learning environment, organising and pedagogical practice. The interview transcripts were coded using the three overarching categories of physical space, organisation and organising (the latter referring to everyday activities) and pedagogical practice. In the next step, statements relating to interactions between staff were coded and sorted based on the level of interaction and work content. In a previous work, two of the authors developed an analytical framework (Author 1 & Author 2, 2022b), however, during the analysis, the need for a more fine-grained framework emerged. Due to this study and following the analysis of the empirical material as described above, a revised so-called 4Co analytical framework was developed.
Expected Outcomes
Based on empirically grounded concepts, the study offers a theoretical framework for unpacking team teaching in terms of four levels of interaction (from superficial to deep) involving four shared dimensions of pedagogical work (from space to teaching). It contains the dimensions’ co-location, coordination, cooperation, and collaboration, which visualise how different shared dimensions of teachers’ work in terms of space, organising, planning and teaching involving varying competences and different types of activity are needed if the pedagogical practice is to function well. Use of the same teaching spaces (but not always at the same time) is termed co-location. Sharing spaces means that coordination needs to be organised. If the teachers also plan together, they practice cooperation, and if they teach together, they practice collaboration. The framework contributes to the existing body of research by bringing together elements from the research areas of learning environments and PLCs and by developing an analytical framework for unpacking team teaching that takes space seriously in discussions about how team teaching is carried out and how it can be developed. The long-established discourse on professional learning communities (PLCs) has had a major impact on schools and is increasingly part of how schools organise their teaching and learning activities. However, the notion of space has been largely absent in these discussions, and the role of space for team teaching is only highlighted when innovative learning environments are created. In this study, the concept of team teaching has been examined and a framework presented through which the phenomenon can be unpacked and discussed. The 4Co framework offers opportunities for a more nuanced analysis of what is often referred to as team teaching, and including the spatial context.
References
Author 1, and Author 2 (2022b). Title and report removed for peer review. Blossing, U. (2008). Kompetens för samspelande skolor : om skolorganisationer och skolförbättring. Lund: Studentlitteratur. Campbell, M., Saltmarsh, S., Chapman, A., and Drew, C. (2013). Issues of teacher professional learning within ‘non-traditional’ classroom environments. Improving Schools, 16(3), 209–222. https://doi.org/10.1177/1365480213501057 Charteris, J., and Smardon, D. (2018). “Professional learning on steroids”: Implications for teacher learning through spatialised practice in new generation learning environments. Australian Journal of Teacher Education. https://doi.org/10.14221/ajte.2018v43n12.2 Datnow, A. (2018). Time for change? The emotions of teacher collaboration and reform. Journal of Professional Capital and Community, 3(3), 157–172. https://doi.org/10.1108/JPCC-12-2017-0028 Dovey, K., and Fisher, K. (2014). Designing for adaptation: The school as socio-spatial assemblage. Journal of Architecture, 19(1), 43–63. https://doi.org/10.1080/13602365.2014.882376 French, R., Imms, W., and Mahat, M. (2020). Case studies on the transition from traditional classrooms to innovative learning environments: Emerging strategies for success. Improving Schools, 23(2), 175–189. https://doi.org/10.1177/1365480219894408 Gradwell, J. M., and DiCamillo, L. (2013). “The Second We Stop Growing We Are Dead”: Examining a Middle Grades Social Studies Professional Dyad. Middle School Journal, 45(2), 3–11. https://doi.org/10.1080/00940771.2013.11461881 Hattie, J. (2012). Visible learning for teachers: Maximizing impact on learning. London: Routledge. Leighton, V., and Byers, T. (2020). All innovative learning environments have one factor in common: A spatially active teacher. Australian Educational Leader, 42(1), 30–33. Lipscombe, K., Buckley-Walker, K., and McNamara, P. (2020). Understanding collaborative teacher teams as open systems for professional development. Professional Development in Education, 46(3), 373–390. https://doi.org/10.1080/19415257.2019.1613256 Schön, D. (1983). The reflective practitioner : how professionals think in action. New York: Basic Books. Simons, M., Coetzee, S., Baeten, M., and Schmulian, A. (2020). Measuring learners’ perceptions of a team-taught learning environment: development and validation of the Learners’ Team Teaching Perceptions Questionnaire (LTTPQ). Learning Environments Research, 23(1), 45–58. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10984-019-09290-1 Stoll, L., Bolam, R., McMahon, A., Wallace, M., and Thomas, S. (2006). Professional Learning Communities: A Review of the Literature. Journal of Educational Change, 7(4), 221–258. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10833-006-0001-8 Welch, M. (2000). Descriptive Analysis of Team Teaching in Two Elementary Classrooms: A Formative Experimental Approach. Remedial and Special Education, 21(6), 366–376. https://doi.org/10.1177/074193250002100606 Woolner, P., Clark, J., Laing, K., Thomas, U., and Tiplady, L. (2014). A school tries to change: How leaders and teachers understand changes to space and practices in a UK secondary school. Improving Schools, 17(2), 148–162. https://doi.org/10.1177/1365480214537931
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