Chapter 27: Team Teaching

 C H A P T E R  O U T L I N E

• Introduction
• Meaning and Definition
• Objectives
• The Guiding principles
• Type of Team Teaching
• Organization , Procedure and Steps
• Advantages
• Drawbacks and Limitation

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INTRODUCTION

               Team teaching we can term it is an innovation in the field of teaching and learning. In a simple way, it may be understood as an attempt to seek ways and means for bringing improvement in the process and product of teaching through collective efforts by a group of an individuals mostly teachers teaching in the same school.

MEANING AN DEFINITION

Several scholars have defined the team teaching in various ways. Lets us reproduce some of them.

L.A Singer(1964): Team teaching may be defined " as an arrangement where by two or more teachers cooperatively plan, teaching and evaluate one or more class groups in an appropriate and agreed teaching plan and is given length of time so as to take advantage of specific competence of team members."

Carlo-Olson(1971) team teaching may be defined as "an instructional situation where two or more teachers possesing complimentary teaching skills cooperatively plan and implement the instruction for a single group of students using flexible scheduling and grouping technique meet the particular instruction."(S.S Chuahan, 1979:114)

David Warwick (1971:35) team teaching represent "a form of organization in which individual teachers declared to pool resource, interest and expertise in order to devise and implement a scheme of work suitable to the needs of their students and facilities of institution."

    

     The analysis of the above definitions brings into limelight the following characteristics of team teaching

1. Team teaching is not the method of teaching but an organizational device to plan, execute and evaluate the teaching work in a cooperative way. 2. It represents an arrangement of teaching-learning situation where two more teachers join hands for achieving the desired teaching-learning objectives. 3. The teaching team consist not only the teachers but also the other personnels who may join hands to help the teachers in their tasks. 4. Team teaching works on the principles of joint responsibility shared by the members of the team. 5. It is called cooperative teaching calling for the full willing cooperation of the members. 6. While calling for the joint responsibility and combined efforts, it provides full opportunity to the individual member of the team to contribute its maximum. 7. Here, every teacher is provided appropriate time and opportunity for utilizing his specific talent and competencies for teaching a topic or content to a group of students. 8. It helps the students in getting the best services of the best talent of nthe team members at the proper time. 9. It provides flexibility in terms of scheduling and grouping techniques to meet the need of a particular instruction. 10. It calls upon the members to work hard for bringing improvement in the teaching-learning process. 11. It inspires and motivates the individual teacher to improve his knowledge and skills for contributing his share in the team work. 12. Team teaching provide autonomy and freedom to the members of the team to choose their teaching activities and responsibilities according to their interest and abilities. 13. It helps in utilizing the available resources – human and material – in a proper way and at the proper time in the interest of the students and institution. 14. The need and interest of the students are fully cared in the joint responsibilities shared nu the teachers. 15. Here, the teachers are owned by all the members of the team and not only by an individual teacher.

OBJECTIVES

 Team teaching aims for:

1. Seeking cooperation of all the members of the subject faculty and other personnel in the instructional work.

2. Developing the feelings of joint responsibility towards the students 

3.Proper realization of the teaching objectives of a particular school by making best use of the available men -material resources

4. Removing some of the difficulties and problems of the teaching of a particular subject faced on account of the paucity of resources

5.Minimizing the wastage subject and errors occurring in the instructional process.

THE GUIDING PRINCIPLES

1. To bring improvement in quality of instruction by making the best use of the available resources.
2. To develop the feeling of joint responsibility of instruction.
3. To provide better organization of the teaching-learning by increasing qrouping and scheduling flexibility.
4. To make best utilization of talents, interests, and expertise of the teachers.
5. To provide opportunity to a specific large or small group of students to take advantage of the specifically talented, experience and more expert teachers, otherwise not available to them.
6. To meet the needs and interests of the students and institutions and removing their difficulties relating to the teacher-learning of some specific contents or activities.
7. To minimize the wastage and errors occurred in the instructional process

TYPE OF TEAM TEACHING

1. Single disciplinary team teaching- In this type, the members of the belong to the same institution and also from the same discipline or subject

2. Interdisciplinary team teaching- here, the teachers from different disciplines, but working in the same institution, join hands to take responsibility of teaching the topics belonging to their own discipline. This type of team teaching suits most to the teaching of the interdisciplinary subject.

3. Inter-institutional team teaching- In this type of team teaching, the members are not confined to the same institution. Here, we can call the service of any talented teachers. expert, etc. from any same institution/public life for dealing with some or the other specialized field ,topic work activity , content material etc., and in this way we can ask him to contribute in the capacity of the members of the team for a specific period , to teach a particular group of students

ORGANIZATION, PROCEDURE AND STEPS

     Team teaching is carried out in a cooperative way by a team of person. Every team has its leader and one or more cooperating teachers, Beside, this the team may have a clerk, a librarian , a laboratory assistant and other full time  or part time professional for the desired help according to the needs of the of the teaching-learning situation.

    In terms of procedure, team teaching usual;y involves three main stage or step: I Planing, II Execution, and II Evaluation.

Planning Stage 

   At the planing stage, team teaching involve the following activities:

1. Decision about the topic to be taught.

2. Formulating the objectives and writing them in behavioral terms

3. Identifying the initial behavioral of the learner

4. Identifying the available men and materials resources.

5. selection of the members of the team teaching, teachers, team leaders, and other professional and non-professional helping hands.

6. Taking about the tentative schedule, large or small group teaching, the level of instruction and teaching strategies, etc.

7. distributing responsibilities among the members of the team according to their interest and abilities.

8. taking decision about the means and ways of evaluating the learning outcomes. 

Execution Stage

1. Large group session (general assembly) – Two or three sections of a class may be combined to form a large group. 2. Small group session – These groups work under the supervision of the individual teachers. 3. Individual study session – Following the activities in large group or small group sessions, as discussed, the students are able to engage in self-study and do independent work on the individual level.
  Evaluation Stage

At the evaluation stage of team teaching, attempts are made for the evaluation of the process and outcomes of the activities performed. The outcomes are subjected to evaluation in the light of the set objectives, the learner’s initial behavior, the methods and strategies, planning the responsibilities shared by the team members, etc. The evaluation of the child’s performance in done through oral. Written and practical tests.

ADVANTAGES

1. Best utilization of the available talents. 2. Best utilization of the available material resources. 3. Provides opportunities for professional growth. 4. Provides better learning opportunities. 5. Provides opportunities for interaction with the experts. 6. Helps in maintaining proper human relationships and cooperative attitudes. 7. Proves economical in terms of time and labour. 8. Provides proper flexibility. 9. Helps in maintaining discipline. 10. Provides opportunities for proper supervision. 11. Proves an effective training technique.

DRAWBACKS AND LIMITATION

1. Difficulty in the  distribution of the responsibilities.

2. Difficulty in maintaining harmony and understanding.

3. Too much expectation from the teachers.

4. Undue importance of the teachers at the cost of the teachers.

5. Difficulty regard lack of materials facilities in school.

6. Not suitable to the present educational set up.

7. Teachers resistance for any change.

8. Expensive in terms of finance.

9. Limitation in term of planing and execution 

10. Lack of accountability.