Unitec Teaching &
Learning Symposium
I Teach Alone or We Teach
Together: Exploring Team Teaching
and Impact on Teacher Identity
Daniel Stamp
Department of Sport
Session Outline
 Our project
 Team Teaching
 Disadvantages and advantages
 Identity
 Challenges
Sport Science Project
 Integration of sport and exercise
science courses
 Interdisciplinary approach
 Better understanding for students
 Team teaching approach
 All interdisciplinary courses and classes
 No mono-discipline courses or classes
 Integrated assignments
Team Teaching
 A group of two or more teachers
working together to plan, conduct
and evaluate the learning activities
for the same group of learners.
 Teaching the same students at the same
time within the same classroom.
 Working together but not necessarily
teaching the same group of students nor
necessarily teaching at the same time.
(Shaplin & Olds, 1964)
Team Teaching
 Traditional Team Teaching
 Collaborative Teaching
 Complimentary/Supportive Team
Teaching
 Parallel Instruction
 Differentiated Split Class
 Monitoring Teacher
(Robinson & Schaible, 1995)
Collaborative Teaching
 Team teachers work together in
designing the course and teach the
material not by monologue, but
rather by exchanging and discussing
ideas and theories in front of the
learners from multiple perspectives.
Collaborative Teaching
 Obvious potential in broadening topic
expertise and perhaps reducing individual
teacher’s classroom time.
 Offers other significant teaching/learning
possibilities
 Model for the learners a wide variety of
professional interactions including






Disagreement
Exploration
Concept evaluation
Conflict
Resolution
Collaboration (Wenger & Hornyak, 1999)
Disadvantages for Teacher
 Time required prior to implementation
for professional development
 Learning the rational behind team
teaching
 Shared readings and discussion
 Learning co-operative skills
 Learning time management skills
 Many meetings or impromptu chats
during the running of the course
 Potential conflict
Advantages for Teacher
 Supportive environment
 Development of new teaching
approaches
 Overcomes academic isolation
 Likelihood of sounder solutions
regarding discipline of problematic
students
 Augments the opportunity for
intellectual growth
Disadvantages for Student
 Potential frustration and
discontentment about having more
than one teacher
 Confusion from considering multiple
perspectives of an issue
 Concern about assignments
Advantages for Students
 Students benefit from seeing
teachers collaborate and co-operate.
 Allows students to see how topics
are connected therefore making
better sense of the information.
 Interdisciplinary learning reinforces
understanding of new concepts.
 Students observe teachers planning
in front of them.
 Obtain the ‘bigger picture’.
Making it work
 Teachers share common beliefs
about learning and students.
 Teachers will question their own
teaching as well as learning from
their teaching colleague.
 Teaching colleague will listen and
share during classes.
 Trusting and open relationships.
 Practice disagreeing amicably.
Professional Issues
 Teachers have different
philosophies.
 Sharing of workloads, equal
contribution required.
 Exposes professional and personal
points of view.
 Worry about professional growth.
 Expertise?
Teacher’s Emotional
Challenges
 Giving up unitary control of the
classroom
 Allowing one’s ideas to be publicly
challenged
 Openly acknowledging the limits of
one’s knowledge
 Impact on one’s identity
Identity
 How a person describes him- or
herself to be distinctive or unique
(Brettschneider & Heim, 1997).
 Who are you?
 Includes our values and norms.
 How will team teaching impact on
these?
 Will your specific teacher identity
change?
Teacher Identity
 Teacher identity or teacher-self
incorporates the holistic, dynamic,
and situated nature of teacher
development.
 The teacher is an autonomous
individual constantly moving
between the need to connect with
other colleagues and the need to
maintain a sense of individuality
Teacher Identity
 Individuality
 One key aspect to this transition
from “me” to “we” is the need to
overcome the discomfort of
relinquishing the autonomy and
authority that are inherent to
teaching alone (Martin 1975).
 Shifts in statuses and roles
 Power (dominance)
Teacher Identity
 One’s comfort with one’s “teaching self”
increases dramatically over time as our
status enhances (Olson and Einwohner,
2001)
 Negotiation of teacher identities
 Student perceptions
 Is fluid and dynamic by nature and can be
shaped by social engagements with
others.
 Embrace formation of new and different
identities?
 Hold on to old established identity?
Teacher Identity Issues
 Understanding identity and the issues
related to it can be a challenging
endeavour.
 the problem of defining the concept
 the place of the self
 related issues of agency, emotion, narrative
and discourse
 the role of reflection
 the influence of contextual factors.
(Beauchamp & Thomas, 2009)
Challenging the Teacher’s
Identity
 Identity negotiation in team teaching
has the potential to impact one’s
teaching, one’s career, and student’s
learning (Auster & MacRone, 1994).
 Establishing oneself as a credible
lecturer who has enough knowledge,
experience, and authority to teach
class content effectively is an on-going
aspect of any classroom interaction.
References
 Auster, C. J., & MacRone, M. (1994). The classroom
as a negotiated social setting: An empirical study
of the effects of faculty members’ behavior on
students’ participation. Teaching Sociology, 22(3),
289-300.
 Beauchamp, C., & Thomas, L. (2009).
Understanding teacher identity: an overview of
issues in the literature and implications for teacher
education. Cambridge Journal of Education, 39(2),
175-189.
 Brettschneider, W. D., & Heim, R. (1997). Identity,
sport, and youth development, in K.R. Fox (ed.).
The physical self: From motivation to well-being,
Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.
References
 Goetz, K. (2000). Perspectives on team
teaching. Egallery, 1 (4), August.
 Martin, W. (1975). The negotiated order of
teachers in team teaching situations.
Sociology of Education 48(2):202-22.
 Olson, T., & Einwohner. R. (2001). Forming
and transforming the teaching self in
different institutional environments: Two
teachers’ experiences. Teaching Sociology
29(4):403-22.
 Robinson, B., & Schaible, R. (1995).
Collaborative teaching: Reaping the
benefits. College Teaching, 43(2), 57-60.
References
 Shaplin, J. T., & Olds, Jr. H. F. (Eds.)
(1964). Team teaching (pp. 1-23). New
York: Harper and Row.
 Wenger, M. S., & Hornyak, M. J. (1999).
Team teaching for higher level learning: A
framework of professional collaboration.
Journal of Management Education, 23(3),
311-327.