Case studies
Team
Teaching, the third way to visualise success
Stanchester Community School
Melissa Gardner,Sally Heppenstall and Sarah Todd
Melissa Gardner, Sally
Heppenstall and Sarah Todd share ideas and practical advice
on developing comprehensive team teaching in geography.
Over a year ago our
Head teacher at Stanchester Community School proposed that
the Geography Department should consider setting up a team
teaching room. This would accommodate up to 60 students, 2
teachers and at times learning support assistants. We also
had to allow for the fact that we are an inclusive school
and sometimes we can have up to 3 students that are physically
disabled and in wheelchairs in one class. We had one of the
largest classrooms on the school site and space was needed.
The school's student population was expanding and there were
quite simply not enough rooms.
We are a team of three. All of us
are geography specialists; a Head of Department, an Advanced
Skills Teacher and at that time an NQT. In January 2003 we
all had our own rooms with data projectors and were relatively
well resourced. The designated team teaching room was already
equipped with a mobile interactive whiteboard. This room can
be seen below pre-team teaching. It has fitted cupboards,
space, mobile interactive board and data projector on a trolley
and there is only one entrance at the rear:
Where was
our starting point?
As a Department we
had to consider a number of issues, predominantly how would
it work? Our other considerations were:-
How would it impact
uponƒƒ
-
student learning?
-
resources/equipment?
-
delivering the
national curriculum?
-
ICT availability?
-
using brain based
learning?
-
classroom management?
-
developing and
promoting motivation and learning?
-
planning?
-
staff motivation?
-
working relationships
within the department?
-
relationships with
the students?
-
ownership of a
class?
-
tutor group bases?
-
access?
-
Safety?
-
displaying students
work?
-
space?
How
did we organise ourselves?
We made a wish
list of the perfect classroom. Like all good geographers we
undertook a mini enquiry. We investigated what children thought
of the current classroom. To do this we carried out an Environmental
Quality Survey of the current learning space:
ENVIRONMENTAL
QUALITY SURVEY OF THIS LEARNING SPACE
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Good/Bad
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Comments
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Size
of room |
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Layout
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Display
Space |
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Display
Quality/Balance |
|
|
Ventilation
|
|
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Wall
Covering |
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Windows
: Wall Ratio |
|
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Lighting
|
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Computers/ICT
facilities/TV |
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Furniture
|
|
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Storage
|
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Other
features (please state) |
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What would your
perfect classroom be like?
______________________________________________________________
What could you do
to improve this own room? (short term)
______________________________________________________________
Feedback was very interesting.
As the room owner, Sarah, the AST, thought the room was well
displayed However, students made both negative and positive
comments:
Positive comments
included : You know this room is about places and people,
lots of our work is on display; the interactive boards good;
colourful; carpeted; nice blue tables and chairs; lots of
pictures to think about; plenty of space to move about in;
tidy; neat.
Negative comments
were very telling :- Dangling things stop me seeing the
board, the board is nice - shame we cannot see it; the room
is too light to see the projector's pictures; paper things
hit my head when I walk around; its too busy; it distracts
me; I cannot look at it all!; Hot and stuffy; horrid windows;
damp walls.
Research on emotional
intelligence tells us as teachers that the correct learning
environment is crucial before we can begin learning. In fact
the accelerated learning/ teaching cycle began with Create
a supportive Learning Environment. Here it was
clearly not quite right. It was distracting and it needed
to change. Now the AST was going to share her classroom the
room had to change.
We had all been trained
in the importance of emotional intelligence, with the University
of the First Age. They had stressed BASICS (Accelerated Learning
a User Guide 2003 p 11). Classrooms need to inspire: Belonging,
Aspiration, Safety, Identity, Challenge and Success. We wanted
to further enhance the quality of the existing learning spaces.
So how were
we going to achieve this in the team teaching room?
A small budget was available
to change the room and the changes had to be carefully considered.
We had to plan for and implement: resourcing, new furniture,
pigeonholes for class resource management, ICT equipment and
access all within 4 months. We love a BIG challenge!
We planned the layout
within the restricted area and realised that the fixed units
had to be removed to enable 60 students and 2 teachers to
fit into the room. Which then posed the problem of where we
were going to store all our resources. It became clear that
we would need a separate store room/office for filing cabinets
and a teacher workspace. We got on the case and acquired the
department an office!
With the units gone
it was clearer to organise the room layout. We opted for a
colour scheme and layout with a geographical theme with blue
and green desks laid out like a world map.
We wanted to limit the loss of time at the beginning and endings
of lesson ¿ with 60 pupils to enter and dismiss we wanted
sharp starts. To this we created desktop resource boxes ¿
these contain pencils, coloured pencils, scissors, glue, whiteboards,
etc. They minimise disruption from disorganised students and
also help in practical lessons. Each box would have a checklist
to ensure resources are returned.
Below is an aerial
Layout of the Team Teaching room, where access to the
outside of the building where both classes line up is at the
top of the diagram and access to an internal corridor for
teacher use only is at the bottom of the diagram::
Piloting the
Room
As geographers are
very spatial people we wanted to see how the students and
teachers would cope in this environment. We carried out pilot
studies with 60 students entering and exiting the classroom.
This highlighted issues such as:
-
Where were the
bags going to go without causing a health and safety issue?
-
Space for the teacher
to move around (we could not afford to put on any weight)?
-
Where the focus
of learning had to be?
-
The mobile interactive
whiteboard and projector took up too much space ¿ what
was the solution?
-
How was the room
going to be ventilated, especially in the summer?
After the pilot
was complete, we re-addressed the room layout, wall mounted
the interactive board, ceiling mounted the data projector
and created formal seating plans for each team teaching group.
Planning the
implementation of the team teaching room
This phase took a considerable
amount of personal time, effort and energy to get right ¿
we were lucky that we had such a committed team. We planned
thoroughly how we would introduce the room to students. We
looked at and created the entrance routine, the introduction
of the resource boxes and the management of resources and
homework distribution/collection.
Ensuring Effective
Learning
To ensure effective
learning we produced an introductory powerpoint for the students
which focused on expectations for the room, and published
the seating plans. It was imperative that we got to know the
students early as we had to bond and know our designated classes
as well as the other teacher's students.
The lessons within
our current schemes of work were designed to follow the four
part learning cycle (connect, activate, demonstrate and consolidate/review/reflect).
Our department ethos is to empower all learners by providing
a range of activities to suit different (visual, auditory
and kinaesthetic). This was not going to change with team
teaching.
As a department we
have been constantly assessing the teaching and learning that
has taken place as a result of team teaching. Below are the
results of our most recent SWOT analysis:
Strengths:
-
There is
a real ñteamî spirit (teachers and students)
-
Sharing knowledge,
expertise and experience
-
2 teachers
for the price of 1 (more brain power)
-
Takes the
loneliness out of teaching
-
Sharing ideas
leads to more creative and innovative lesson
-
Peer assessment
has empowered students in their learning and evaluation
-
Continued
excellence in geography
-
Sustained
high KS4 take up in the first year of team teaching
-
More students
means its easier to model questions and answers
(specifically in KS4), using the interactive and
normal white board in sync
-
The collaborative
personalities in the classroom has enhanced the
teaching environment
-
Behaviour
has not been any more of an issue with 60 students
than it is with 30 students (due to thorough implementation
and planning)
-
Geo-resource
boxes have invaluable in minimising classroom disruption
-
We still
effectively played the trading game ¿ two worlds
at once, which enabled a comparison.
-
We get to
know more students in class
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Weaknesses:
-
Lack of space
(for students and teachers to manoeuvre and to display
work)
-
Hard to involve
drama, due to lack of space
-
Loose some
teaching ïexperiences' as the rapport between teachers
and individuals is weakened or lost (depending on
the classes involved)*
-
You can't
put on weight as a student or a teacher as there
just isn't the room!
-
Planning
time is required for both teachers involved ¿ there
is just no time left in the teaching day and so
this runs into the teachers personal time
-
Planning
has to be rigorous so teachers are aware of their
roles and can both be actively involved in the class
-
It's hard
to get all the students involved in ICT at the same
time
-
You can not
have an ïoff' day as someone else is relying on
you
-
It's hard
to be spontaneous because you are not the only teacher
affected
-
If one teacher
is missing, it's hard on the teacher left in the
class as the member of staff covering can not help
with the delivery
-
Implementation
of team teaching and the room fell mainly into teachers
personal time
-
The class
of 60 feel like a unit yet getting them all out
on fieldwork together is difficult
-
Writing reports
for your designated class was more difficult as
you don't deal solely with them
|
Opportunities:
-
CPD through
working so closely with excellent colleagues
-
Enhance the
teaching and learning experiences of all involved
-
Further develop
the emotional intelligence of the team teaching
room
-
More creative
lessons due to rigorous planning
-
Sharing knowledge
and experience
-
Given us
the opportunity to pioneer team teaching on a long
term basis, in Geography
-
Enhanced
resources in Geography Department
-
Moderate
marks/levels and peer assess within a year group
|
Threats:
-
Budget ¿
photocopying for more classes on at once in some
cases
-
If one of
the current team leaves ¿ would it still work?
-
Sustainability
of team teaching, physically and emotionally
-
Potential
personality clashes (between all members of the
classroom)
-
Mismanagement
of classroom could be disastrous
-
Concerns
about losing your identify as a teacher (luckily
this hasn't affected us)
|
We have also been very
aware of the students' opinions of team teaching and have
regularly asked for their feedback. Student thoughts
from the most recent feedback of the strengths and weaknesses
of team teaching at GCSE (Year 11) can be seen below:
Strengths:
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Weaknesses:
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- Two lots of expertise to learn from
- Teachers can help each other
- It's good when one teacher talks and the other writes
on the board
- ñTwo teachers are better than oneî
- Competition between the two teaching groups in the
room
- ñWhilst one teacher is teaching the other can be
helping studentsî
- More variety of input and responses as there are
more students
- The lessons are more fun
- Everyone can help
- ñThe teachers work well with each otherî
|
- Too many people for the space
- Hard to see the board(s) and TV due to angle and
peoples heads
- It's noisier because there is twice as many people
and there are more distractions as there are more
students in the class
- ñWhen one teacher is away supply struggles so less
learning is achievedî
- ñHarder for teachers as they can not help everyoneî
- The 2 classes are always getting compared
- Competition between the two teaching groups in the
room
- No room to move
- ñWe don't get the same amount of help as when we
were 2 separate classesî
- It's hard to understand/cope if both teachers are
talking at once
|
The geography team
at Stanchester Community School have had a fun, yet tiring
year and will be continuing with team teaching for 2004-2005.
Ideas are still flowing and through evaluation team teaching
can only get better. We would like acknowledge the support
of the RGS for recognising this as an ñInnovative Geography
Teaching Projectî, for which we received a £500 RGS-IBG
grant, which helped us to set up and implement team teaching
in geography at Stanchester Community School.
If you are interested
in team teaching, or require any further information please
do not hesitate to contact us.:
Melissa Gardner ( melissag30@hotmail.com
), Head of Geography
Sally Heppenstall (
sallyhep@hotmail.com
), Geography teacher and Acting HOY7
Sarah Todd ( sarahtodd.home@talk21.com
), Advanced Skills Teacher
at Stanchester Community
School, Stoke-sub-Hamdon, Somerset, TA14 6UG
Reference:
Alistair Smith, Mark Lovatt and Derek Wise 2003 Accelerated
Learning; a Users Guide Network Educational Press Ltd, Stafford
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