The nature of team teaching

Team teaching (sometimes called pair teaching) is a process in which two or more teachers share the responsibility for teaching a class. The teachers share responsibility for planning the class or course, for teaching it, and for any follow-up work associated with the class such as evaluation and assessment. It thus involves a cycle of team planning, team teaching, and team follow-up. It allows teachers to cooperate as equals, although when teachers with differing levels of experience share the same class, some elements of a coaching relationship may also occur. We should point out that we do not regard shared teaching as all that team teaching involves. Teachers have sometimes reported to us that by team teaching they mean two teachers planning independently the different parts of a lesson, and while one is teaching the other uses the opportunity to mark homework or take a break! This is not team teaching but simply team planning. The following is an example of two teachers sharing an EFL class in Japan.

Vignette

A Japanese colleague and I often team-teach some of our classes. We feel that it's a good way for students to experience a different kind of lesson and we both learn from watching how the other teaches the class. We always plan well ahead to make sure we complement each other during the lesson. Sometimes I do the lead in part of an activity and my colleague takes over from me. If there is a group-work activity, of course we are both involved in moving around and facilitating the task.