Approaches to Teaching and Learning Case Study:
Team Teaching
Jason Conley 3750310
As part of my Applied Curriculum Project, I have been granted the
opportunity to take part in Hoppers Crossing Secondary College’s D’s and E’s
Aren’t Permitted (DEAP) class. The program was initiated last year after
principal Wayne Terril observed a similar program at Hoppers Crossing’s sister
school in the United States of America, Estancia. The program is aimed at
bridging the gap between the current content being taught in a specific year level
and the current ability of the student. At HCSC, the program is numeracy based
as a staggering 80% of the year 7 intakes are below the VELS levels for numeracy
based on pretesting of students. A number of key areas such as multiplication,
division and measurement have been identified as key topics of focus and
students are invited to attend the program every Tuesday and Friday from 3:15
to 4:00. Each class contains around 25 students and is taught by two Victoria
University pre-service teachers. I had the pleasure of being paired with a parttime dip-ed student Teresa Hilkemeijer, and the modicum of learning challenges
that we have overcome in the process of exploring one of my weaknesses, team
teaching, is the focus of this case study.
As a brief background, the idea of an after school maths program was
enticing to me for several reasons; firstly, I previously worked as a Kumon
instructor which I thoroughly enjoyed, secondly, I saw it as a great opportunity
to get some extra teaching experience under my belt and thirdly, it was a chance
to work with younger high school students as both my methods are catered
towards years 10-12. My assumptions from my previous tutoring experience
sadly left me astray as I wasn’t fully prepared for the reality of both the student’s
current knowledge of the first topic (times tables) and their level of motivation
and willingness to learn.
Teresa and I were handed a curveball with a number of obstacles; half our
class have English as an additional language, most of them were at a grade two or
three level for numeracy, several of the students have behavioral problems and
two of the students have learning disabilities. This acted as a dilemma as we had
prepared several lessons prior to commencement of the first class, which we
realized, would not be suitable almost instantaneously through a shared glance
after several minutes with the class. Teresa and I were given the predicament of
creating and delivering content in a way that could be received by a wide array
of students who had a broad spectrum of abilities and reasons for having arrived
into the DEAP program.
On top of these barriers, we were also faced with the uncertainty of team
teaching. With neither of us having had previous experience working with each
other or with teaching with other people, it was in many ways a game of trial and
error in the first few weeks. When we started out, Teresa would plan and deliver
the Tuesday class, and I would do the same on Friday. By the fourth week, we
had acknowledged each other’s strengths and weaknesses and were meeting
regularly and planning lessons together, establishing who would fulfill what role
and separating learning activities between each other. This synergy can be
viewed by looking at the change in behaviors of students within the class and
their level of respect towards us from this point onward, as well as being
reflected in a marked increase in their weekly test results. This collaborative
process embodied a wealth of personal development, as Teresa and myself were
capable of offering each other constructive feedback after every class. We
followed the process of Praxis Inquiry in order to achieve this (Kruger et al,
2007). From this end, I was able to work on a number of topics raised both by my
mentor in my Communication Protocol and by feedback forms that I had created
and distributed to each of the year 11 and 12 classes I taught in my full teaching
rounds. Through this I was able to develop better classroom management
practices through personal research as a means to overcome the barriers for the
DEAP class (Plevin, 2013) and through observing Teresa, a mother of two. I now
have a better understanding of how my presence has an impact by moving to
different points of the room in different situations, what types of stimulus gains
the most engagement from the students, how raising and lowering my voice can
control the overall volume of the classroom. These were all things that I had
learnt from direct observation on placement and not from reading theory. I made
an effort to observe as many different teachers, subjects and year levels across
my observation time to try and gauge a sense of what works in what situations
and why.
The one thing that struck me resplendently throughout the DEAP
program thus far is that I have a number of misconceptions about students and
the impact of teaching. Whilst pursuing strategies to encourage the development
of these students including attempting behaviorist (Sammons, 2012) and
constructivist classes (EBC, 2004), it is really obvious how much of the learning
process comes from within the individual, and I have seen an enormous
paradigm shift in my vision of how I teach and who I want to be as a teacher. In
researching constructivism (EBC, 2004), I fully agree that there is a certain
weight to the learning process being dependent on the internal motivation of an
individual, and that the practice of teaching isn’t simply about imparting
knowledge in a way that is exciting or easy to model and comprehend, but one
that also encourages a specific individual in a very personalized way which
makes the student want to learn.
In being given the opportunity to work with Teresa and these students
regularly, we have able to adapt our team teaching approach to allow for one of
us to run the class with a greater sense of control and confidence while the other
focuses on the students who need one-on-one mentoring to guide and stimulate
them. This being said, I have learned when to be supportive and add to her
comments, and when to step back and move to different parts of the room to
place the focus on her. I learnt very quickly that the students are highly receptive
to when there is a conflict between two teachers in a room when an activity isn’t
going to plan, or when something has been delivered out of sequence. The ability
to compliment another teacher with a different style is something, which is
something I have slowly gotten a grasp of. Teresa is very soft spoken, and many
of the male students in the class (and at Hoppers Crossing in general) do not
offer female teachers the same amount of respect as males. Seeing this in
practice is both confronting, and something, which I was keen to address. Moving
to “hot spots” in the room while students were not offering Teresa the
appropriate level of respect was an excellent way to control the effectiveness of
the teaching experience, without directly engaging the class or having to resort
to yelling and more aggressive teaching approaches I had witnessed other
teachers apply during my rounds.
There have been several classes which have been difficult, either through
feeling like I have lost power to the students, or that I am making absolutely no
progress with specific students, but the ability to reflect on each individual
situation, analyze what had actually occurred and then plan how I will do things
differently via the method of praxis inquiry has meant that I haven’t found the
same dilemma obstructing me repeatedly. Obviously there are certain students
who require a lot more intricate an understanding, but I feel confident that I
have the appropriate tools and resources to be able to find solutions to these
challenges, and that one of my weaknesses in team teaching is evolving very
healthily.
References
Aidan Sammons, 2012, Approaches to Psychology: Behaviourism,
<http://www.psychlotron.org.uk/newResources/approaches/AS_AQB_approach
es_BehaviourismBasics.pdf>, [viewed on 5th of June 2013].
Educational Broadcasting Corporation, 2004, Constructivism as a paradigm for
Teaching and Learning,
<http://www.thirteen.org/edonline/concept2class/constructivism/>, [viewed
on 5th of June 2013].
Rob Plevin, 2013, Classroom Management Strategies to Take Control of Noisy
Classes,
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u086rr7SRso>, [viewed on 25th of May
2013].
Kruger et al, 2007, Investigating praxis inquiry within teacher education using
Giddens' structuration theory, AARE 2007 Focus Conference 2007: education,
innovation and research : strategies for capacity building : 13th and 14th June
2007.