The Impact of Collegial Instruction on Peers’ Pedagogical Knowledge (PK): An EFL Case Study

The Impact of Collegial Instruction on Peers’ Pedagogical Knowledge (PK): An EFL Case Study

Farnaz Latif*

Department of English, Khourasgan Branch, Islamic Azad University, Khourasgan, Iran.

 

Shared responsibilities such as mentoring, instruction, learner monitoring and classroom management enable the peers to observe, review, reflect on and learn from the overall practical professional expertise of one another through collegial instruction experience. The present exploratory case study has The present exploratory case study has attempted to study collegial teaching as an innovative instruction model (as an alternative to solo-based instruction models) in a General Business English course in SAPco (An automotive part supplier in Iran). To this end, the researcher has mainly tried to concentrate  on two expert business English teachers' perceptions concerning their experience of collegial teaching for business English courses, observing their reflections before and after the course, to focus on the possible impacts of this type of instruction on their pedagogical knowledge as language teacher. As a result, as it is indicated in overall reflections of the participant colleagues, collegial instruction is believed to lead toward a more efficient transferability and development of teachers' pedagogical knowledge than what can take place as a result of individually run traditional practices. Moreover, this type of instruction can be a rather cost-effective and timesaving alternative to traditional OJT (on the job training) courses for teacher development authorities and curriculum developers who are concerned about and willing to promote professional development of their teachers.

Keywords:  Professional Development, Collegial Teaching, Pedagogical Knowledge, Collegial Professional Development, Peer-Based Learning.

Professional development entails different components which have been viewed from different perspectives e.g. Day (1999) presented seven common ingredients of efficient  professional development, which areinspiration (sharing visions), exposition, discussion, opportunities for cross reference of standards, training in newskills, opportunities to experiment, and coaching.  On the other hand, Adey (2004, p.194) reported 14 factors essential for effective professional development as listed below:

1. The Innovation

1a. has an adequate theory base

1b. introduces methods for which there is evidence of effectiveness

1c. is supported with appropriate high quality materials

2. The PD (professional development) program

2a. is of sufficient length and intensity

2b. uses methods which reflect the teaching methods being introduced

2c. includes provision for in-school coaching

3. Senior management in the school (s)

3a. are committed to the innovation

3b. share their vision with the implementing department leaders

3c. institute necessary structural change to ensure maintenance

4. The teachers

4a. work in a group to share experiences

4b.communicate effectively amongst themselves about the innovation

4c. are given an opportunity to develop a sense of ownership of the innovation

4d. are supported in questioning their beliefs about teaching and learning

 4e. have plenty of opportunity for practice and reflection

It is proposed that regardless of the varying feature of the aforementioned factors, English language teachers require effective professional development to keep up with the rapidly growing and changing educational developments. To this end, it is initially necessary to refer to Murat Hismanoglu's (2010, 990–95) classification of effective professional development strategies in the proceeding sections.

Peer-Coaching

This strategy is based on reciprocal visits of two colleague teachers whereby they share and swap their feedbacks about their own teaching practices. In this method each teacher acts as a coach and a coachee. This would create sustainability while being cost effective by engaging each participant as an equal partner in the process. Of further advantages of peer-coaching one can refer to the following which has been proposed by Thorn et al. (2007):

•  Reduce isolation among leaders
•  Establish collaborative norms
•  Build a shared knowledge base
•  Share successful practices
•  Encourage reflective practice
•  More cohesive organizational culture

 

Since peer coaching is a professional interaction it provides supportive and developmental context for both peers. Thus, it will be beneficial for language teachers who are required to learn and use new language items and cultural practices.

 

Study Groups

This strategy comprises a number of teachers and administrators willing to exchange ideas, plan lessons, analyze students’ works and even discuss school policy (Murphy, 1992), so these groups form their interactions around scripts or agendas called protocols (Birchak et al., 1998). The discussions can be of great importance in terms of leaning about other teachers’ teaching methods and strategies and reflecting the effective ones to their own classrooms. However, such key notions are to be paid some attention as the size of the groups (ideally six people for each group), the frequency and regularity of the meetings, the necessity of group leaders and representatives and so forth (Joyce& Showers, 1995); otherwise, it can turn into a mess rather than a collaborative and coherent educational setting.

Action Research

Action research is a process in which participants examine their own educational practice systematically and carefully, using the techniques of research (Ferrance, 2000). In this way of professional development, teachers and principals work on the problems they have identified for themselves by helping each other collaboratively. Thus, some useful guidelines in the following should be followed by the participants in action research:

•  Select your setting,
•  Identify what you want to evaluate
•  Select or design your data collection procedure
•  Collect the data
•  Analyze these findings with reference to your original purposes(Nunan,1992, p.4)

Mentoring

Mentoring is a form of personal and professional partnership which generally involves a more experienced practitioner supporting a less experienced one who is usually new to the job, organization or profession (Butcher, 2002). Mentoring calls for mentors to be masters of certain standard practices including such abilities as:

•  Observe lessons analytically
•  Make explicit their craft knowledge,
•  Give appropriate and useful feedback on teaching
•  Notice and take advantages of learning opportunities
•  Set suitable targets for mentee development
•  Assess and analyze a teacher’s strengths and weaknesses (Malderez & Bodóczky, 1999; Fletcher,2000)

Teaching Portfolios

Teaching portfolio can be helpful for teachers’ professional development in terms of course planning and preparation, actual teaching presentation, evaluation and feedback provision process, and currency in the field (Seldin, 1993). Thus, Edgerton et al. (1991) describe portfolios as follows:

• Portfolios provide documented evidence of teaching that is connected to the specifics and contexts of what is being taught.
• They go beyond exclusive reliance on student ratings because they include a range of evidence from a variety of sources such as syllabi, samples of student work, self-reflections, reports on classroom research, and faculty development efforts.
• In the process of selecting and organizing their portfolio material, faculty think hard about their teaching, a practice which is likely to lead to improvement in practice.
• In deciding what should go into a portfolio and how it should be evaluated, institutions necessarily must address the question of what is effective teaching and what standards should drive campus teaching practice.
• Portfolios are a step toward a more public, professional view of teaching. They reflect teaching as a scholarly activity.

 

In-service Training

In-service training is described as a planned event, series of events or extended program of accredited or non accredited learning in order to differentiate it from less formal in-school development work and extended partnerships and inter school networks (Day, 1999). As Özen affirms, swift changes occur to be "in today’s world and, as professionals, teachers should keep up with this rapid progress." Therefore, these programs are good at providing teachers with the opportunity to gain insight into teaching experiences, reflect on classroom practice and cope with change and divergence (Hiep,2001).

Collegial Teaching (Team Teaching)

Collegial Teaching (team teaching) has been defined as a mutual instructional process in which two or more teachers share the responsibility for teaching a class together. Through collegial practice, the colleagues join the instruction and mutually deal with the course materials development, syllabus design, lesson plan, assessment and any follow-up work associated with the class.  On the one hand, this type of innovative instruction entails a cycle of collegial (team) planning, teaching, and follow-up processes. It has often been reported by the participant colleagues that this type of shared teaching is more collegial planning than collegial teaching, though. On the other hand, the subsequent processes of shared planning, decision making, teaching, and reviewing can serve as a powerful medium of collaborative learning. However, regardless of demanding implementation, collegial teaching entails ample benefits for the participant instructors among which the following can be presented (Bailey, 1996):

1. Collegiality: Collegial teaching promotes collegiality i.e. a trend of encouraging instructors to share and swap their information and teaching experiences in order to inform the colleagues of their strengths.
2. Different roles: In a shared classroom experience, tasks which are inefficiently carried out and controlled by a single teacher will be supervised and accomplished by peers. In other words, the practicing peers will have the opportunity to shift from teaching to observing or assisting and this will consequently entail different pace and demands as compared to a typical solo-taught class.
3. Combined expertise: Through collegial instruction, combination of knowledge and expertise of both teachers can ensure a more efficient lesson plan. In other words, not only both teachers will come to recognize and appreciate alternative methods and techniques of teaching but also gain new perspectives on teaching and learning.
4. Teacher development opportunities: Collegial instruction provides ready-made classroom observation situations which are free of any evaluative component. As two teachers observe each other, they can contribute constructive comments and feedback. This can further encourage creativity since both teachers know they are teaching for their colleague as well as for their learners.
5. Learner benefits: In collegially instructed classrooms, learners will have opportunities to be exposed to two different learning styles and models of language. There will also be more opportunities for every individual learner's interaction with a teacher. Thus, creating an environment which promotes a closer teacher-learners contact, collegial teaching, facilitates individualized instruction.

To implement collegial teaching efficiently, it is quintessential to maintain both colleagues' interests and enthusiasm in long run. To this end he following steps can be taken:

 

1. Goal setting

At this stage the program developers decide on the underlying purpose of the team teaching they are going to assign to a peer and determine whether they are looking forward to assigning teaching tasks to new teachers, assisting novice teachers to develop their teaching skills, give senior teachers mentorship opportunities by establishing a greater sense of collegiality within the institution, or simply giving a break to teachers from their usual teaching routines.

 

 

 

2. Preparation

Considering collegial teaching as an innovative instructional procedure, it will work best incase the teachers have a clear perception of the program goals, the procedures and possible problems to be anticipated while program implementation. Thus, to achieve a better outcome, it is advisory to encourage peers to go through a planning and discussion process and make decisions on different participant roles and the required preparation procedures. This can be carried out in sessions which are set up in a seminar format during which both teachers share their views and experiences on collegial instruction with others and elaborate on how they would run different types of team-instructed lessons. At this stage the colleagues are recommended to hold a few trial sessions before implementing the plan in a wider scale. This could further help planning on the course, developing materials and deciding on the activities to be adopted in the collegial instruction.  

 

3. Addressing peers’ concerns

It is recommended to the collegial teaching program supervisors or coordinators to clarify the goals of the program and give the peers the opportunity to know the relationship between these goals and their professional developments. In other words, it is believed that collegial teaching may not be for everyone and normally it would be more effective when teachers participate on a voluntary basis. They should respect teachers' concerns such as, their concerns regarding  financial profit to the peers, timing procedure, selecting the peers to work with, the result of diverse teaching styles, possible disagreements between colleagues, putting all the responsibilities on one colleagues' shoulder, students' positive attitude toward one of he colleagues compared to the other, and evaluation.

 

 

 

4. Deciding on the instruction model

The peers are required to consider appropriate teaching method for collegial instruction. Particularly if the colleagues participate on a voluntary basis, the choice of partners will crucial. 

 

5. Monitoring progress

While the collegial instruction is being implemented, both teachers should discuss after every session over the success of the lesson, the students’ feedbacks and how to improve the instruction in the coming sessions. In other words, through regular post-course meetings both teachers discuss the problems they are facing and try to look for a solution to resolve these problems.

 

Table 1.

J. C. Richards & T.S. Farrell (2005, 166-7)

Students can answer the following questions:	Teachers’ can answer the following questions:
1. Do you think your English has improved through team teaching? In what ways?	1. What are the advantages of team teaching?
2. Are you interested in learning English when your classes are taught this way?	2. What are the disadvantages of team teaching?
3. How do these classes differ from other classes you have?	3. How do you think it affects the students' language learning?
4. Would you like to continue studying English this was?	4. Do you think your students enjoyed this mode of teaching?
	5. What suggestions would you like to make to improve the existing team-teaching program?
	6. Would you like to continue with this way of teaching English?

 

 

 

6. Evaluating the output:

 To evaluate the outcome of collegial instruction, it is necessary to find out what was learnt and whether it is worth continuing this practice. In this regard, both teachers and students' views should be considered. In the following tables you can find different questions that both teachers and students can answer to evaluate the efficiency of the collegial teaching program.

 

In summary, the collegial instruction practice enables both peers to observe, review, reflect on and learn from the overall practical professional expertise of one another via shared responsibilities such as mentoring, instruction, learner monitoring and classroom management. Thus, through observing, being involved in  and reflecting on their mutual practice in a team- taught course, peer colleagues can further increase their awareness of their knowledge base in general and their pedagogical knowledge in particular. In order to illustrate an instance of this collaborative instruction experience the present exploratory case study has been carried out. In this paper it is attempted to present collegial instruction(as an alternative to solo-based instruction models) as an innovative model of teaching General Business English Courses in SAPCO ( an automotive part supplier company  in Iran).

Method

The present exploratory case study has been carried out to explore two General Business English instructors' teachers’ perceptions regarding collegial instruction in general and the particular impact of this innovative instruction model on their pedagogical knowledge. Thus, in this study the researcher has attempted to answer the following questions:

1. What are the participant peers' pedagogical concerns?
2. What are the participant peers’ perceptions about collegial teaching in general?
3. Are the participant peers' practiced pedagogical concerns similar to their perceived pedagogical concerns?
4. Does collegial instruction have any impact on participant peers' practiced pedagogical knowledge?

To explore the answer of the four mentioned research questions two General Business English instructors  with at least 10 years overall of experience in teaching English were selected and participated in a 6-month case study in the language department of SAPCO(an automotive part supplier company). However, both teachers were not only directly engaged in the process of instruction but also in planning, materials development, modification and assessment. After preliminary meetings with the head of the training department and reviewing the needs and demand of the company a workshop -based course was designed called “Professional English”. The mentioned course was a General Business English course which was designed and developed as  the follow up and complementary course to a series of Business skills classes ( socializing, telephoning, meeting and business correspondences , presentations and negotiations) held in the same training department previously. The developed course was rather like a workshop-based which was managed via application of means of technology (video projector, DVD player, Computers, electronic dictionary, etc.).  The course materials were prepared and presented in MS power point slides. The classes were held two hours a week. It should be mentioned that the teachers had both been colleagues in that department for 5 years but they had experienced solo-based classroom instruction and it was their first collegial instruction experience.

Participant colleagues performed collegial instruction in three classes of Professional English. The instructors had an hour post-session meeting everyday (after every session) to reflect on what they have been though and decide on further modifications in the materials or tasks for the coming session.

 

Data Collection

The data collection of the present study was carried out in two major different phase illustrated below (Figure1):

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 1.Data collection procedure

Pre-study interview

   To start the data collection process, the researcher attempted to develop a list of interview questions to carryout the "pre-study" interview. Thus, the categories of teacher's pedagogical knowledge were adopted from Gabonton (1999 p.168).Then the researcher asked a consultant to assist her to modify and restate categories to form interview questions. To conduct the pre-study interview, primarily the researcher had an interview with each of the participant colleagues to collect their reflections on the concept of teacher knowledge in general and teacher's pedagogical knowledge in particular. This was to evaluate their pre-study background information on the concept of pedagogy in language teaching. In other words, through this phase of data collection, the researcher could have access to the participant instructors' perceived pedagogical knowledge components to answer the first research question.  This interview questions are presented in Appendix A.

Pre-lesson interview

During the next phase the participant colleagues were interviewed with a set of questions (Appendix B) which were developed based on their responses in the pre-study interview stage. During 8 sessions of the collegial instruction, the teachers were both interviewed before they attend the class. Then the responses were carefully collected and coded for data analysis. This phase was particularly carried out to help the researcher come up with the responses to the second research question which looks for the participants' perceptions concerning collegial instruction before they actually start the course in general and every session in particular.

Post lesson interview

This phase occurred after every session of collegial instruction. The interviewer asked the same questions as in the pre-session interview to compare the participant colleague's perceptions before and after practicing collegial instruction. Finally the researcher went through careful content coding and comparative study to explore convergence or divergence   between the participant peers' responses before and after the course in general and every session in particular (Appendix C). This phase and the proceeding acted as facilitators to figure out the responses to the 4^th and 5^th research questions.

Non-participatory observation

At this phase, the classes of the participant colleagues were recorded and observed. In other words, 8 sessions of non-participatory classroom observations (McDonough & McDonough, 1997) were carried out to obtain information about participant instructors' actual teaching practices. Then, specific episodes of events observed during the lessons and the accompanying observer's field notes were used to generate discussion topics during post-lesson interviews. The video recordings of the lesson observations were also transcribed, as were the accompanying observer's field notes. Lesson plans as well as instructional materials and exercises were also collected. The observer filled up in the following checklist after every session of observation. This phase took place every session and after the classes finished. The transcribed data after observations and the responses of the instructors to the post-session interview were studied for accurate coding and segmentation. The underlying purpose of observation was to study and explore the similarity and differences between what the teachers stated and what they actually have been through in actual classroom practice. In addition, to ensure the validity of the collected data in two interview sessions and to conduct a frequency analysis procedure the frequency of the extracted patterns of teacher's pedagogical knowledge practice and their perceptions needs to be estimated (Appendix D).

Data Analysis

The qualitative data analysis conducted by the researcher and a paid consultant involved content analysis  of the participant colleagues' thoughts and perceptions in their responses to the 3-series interview (pre-study, pre-session and post-session) at one phase and extracting the salient patterns and themes from observation transcript coding at another phase. On the other hand, the quantitative data analysis noted the frequency of the resulted themes in the aforementioned qualitative analysis. Both qualitative and quantitative analyses were used in order to derive a more comprehensive picture of the data than could be obtained from each analysis alone.

Results  

According to the findings of the present case study, as an answer to the first research question, both participant colleagues were ,mainly, pedagogically concerned about the pace of the class, discipline in the classroom , freely adopting instructional creativity in the classroom , instructor's confidence, equal and fair participation opportunities for the instructors , successful class management and  appropriate lesson plan deployment. 

On the other hand, when the researcher delved into the colleague instructors' perceptions concerning collegial instruction, to answer the second research question, before and after the course in general and every session in particular, she illustrated the contradiction between the instructors' pre- and post-session perceptions. For instance, as it is illustrate in Table 2 (Appendix E) there is a contradiction between the first teachers's pre- and post-session stated perceptions. In other words, although the first teacher primarily had stated her concern about the possible inappropriateness of the class pace in the collegially instructed classes and the ineffectiveness of time management, her post-session interview analysis illustrates an opposite statement. In other words, unlike her pre-session, at the post-session interview she claimed that it would be rather time saving and the pace of the class would be adequate if collegial instruction is replaced by solo-based instruction. 

In addition, although at the pre-session interview phase both colleagues had considered a rather "personal attribute for teaching ethics" which is rather "resistant and inflexible toward any possible changes", in the post-session phase, after observing the change in their believed ethics, they revised their claims and asserted on the changeable dimension of the teaching ethics. They further emphasized on the impact of collegial instruction ethics on one another as an influential factor which leads to ethical change.

Furthermore, contrary to the pre-session interview statements, at the post-session interview phase both teachers stated that "strictness and discipline are not only transferable but also can be instructed". They claimed that they could successfully experience such a phenomenon in the case of collegial instruction.

Moreover, both teachers believed that "collegial instruction will enhance their confidence as instructors "and "would give them the opportunity to act creatively in the class".

Nevertheless, unlike peers' pre-session concerns about probable inadequate preparedness and inappropriate lesson planning at the post session interviews both of them stated that they could experience "efficient lesson planning and organization during the course". This fact was further emphasized when both teachers agreed that "efficient time management can be guaranteed through collegial instruction particularly via responsibility sharing of the peers and efficient balance between peers' talking time".

Observed collegially- taught Session Evaluation

In order to ensure the validity of the qualitative data analysis and to respond to the third and fourth research questions, eight sessions of the collegially instructed class were observed. After transcribing the observation film recordings and reviewing the field notes the following categories were extracted into categories to calculate their occurrence frequency in 8 sessions. The counted numbers were then transferred into percentage to develop table 3. As it is illustrated in table 3, majority of the observed sessions

Table 2.

Outline of 8 Sample Collegially–Instructed Sessions’ Evaluation

	Observed Classroom Practices	Occurrence percentage
1.	Appropriate pace	75%
2.	Organized lesson plan	100%
3.	Equal opportunity for both peers to participate.	50%
4.	Successful class management	90%
5.	Creativity	90%
6.	Confidence	90%
7.	Discipline	100%

were held in an appropriate pace and based on an organized lesson plan. Moreover, during most of the sessions both of the peers were given equal opportunities to participate in classroom instruction. In addition, instances of creative and well organized (disciplined) instruction were frequently observed during the course. Finally the class seemed to be controlled efficiently. 

To compare both colleagues' statements at the pre- and post-session interviews with their observed classroom practice the following tables are drawn (tables 4&5). As it is listed in the tables(4&5), extracted from the interview coding and content analysis, both teachers seemed to be concerned about issues such as time management, assigned responsibility accomplishment, freedom to employ creativity, confidence and discipline in a collegially instructed classroom. To show the traces of their beliefs in their classroom practices the frequency of the listed concerns was estimated.

Table 3.

1^st Teacher’s Performance

	1st teacher's observed classroom practices as compared to her concerns	Occurrence percentage
1.	To follow up the assigned timing	50%
2.	To stick to the lesson plan procedures assigned to her	100%
3.	To have enough opportunity to take part in class instruction	50%
4.	To work on her creativity	50%
5.	To be confident	50%
6.	To adopt discipline	50%

 

According to both tables, time management of the first teacher seems to be more effectively controlled than the first teacher. However, both teachers could successfully run the class according to the pre-designed lesson plan. Moreover, the first teacher had rather less opportunity to take part in classroom instruction. In fact she was not very confident and she couldn’t employ 100% of the creativity she possessed. Finally she was less organized. The second teacher on the other hand shows a considerably more satisfactory performance compared to the first one. Perhaps this considerable variation could make the collegial instruction successful. 

 

Table 4.

2^nd Teacher’s Performance

	2nd teacher's observed classroom practices as compared to her concerns	Occurrence percentage
1.	To follow up the assigned trimming	90%
2.	To stick to the lesson plan procedures assigned to her	90%
3.	To have enough opportunity to take part in class instruction	100%
4.	To work on her creativity	100%
5.	To be confident	100%
6.	To adopt discipline	90%

Discussion

After analyzing the participant colleagues' responses to the pre-and post session interview questions and their comparative analysis with the observation results  primarily demonstrates language teachers' instructional concern " pedagogical concerns" before employing an alternative instruction model instead of their routinely practice type. In other words, when the participants of the present case study were initially asked to attend such a program they stated their concerns about appropriateness of time management and its affect on the pace of the class, the ethical conflicts of both colleagues particularly since ethical issues are subject to inflexibility and resistance, probable imbalance between teach colleague's talking time opportunity and finally probability of using disorganized lesson plans and the likely consequent unpreparedness of the participant colleagues during the collegial instruction.  In the proceeding sections, in order to further discuss and clarify the findings of the study, the researcher has tried to explore and elaborate on each teachers' primary concerns, their perceptions after experiencing the collegial instruction and the actual classroom performance of each of the participants during 8 observation sessions.

Instructor's Time management and classroom pace 

The first teacher primarily expressed her concern and uncertainty regarding the plausibility of the collegial instruction project. She asserted that the project entails simultaneous acts of syllabus designing, lesson planning, materials development and adaptation along with instruction for both participant colleagues. In other words the project seemed rather idealistic to the first teacher. Nevertheless, as it is reflected in the findings, both teachers expressed their satisfaction as gradually as they proceeded through the program. In addition, they both emphasized on the effectiveness and efficiency of collegially-instructed classrooms as compared to their traditional individually- run classrooms.

According to the collected data, time management was considered as the second concern of the first teacher. In fact she considered collegial instruction as a time consuming process particularly when it is held and managed through similar procedures as traditional individually run classes. However, the first participant teacher claimed that "efficient responsibility delegation between two colleagues could result in much more efficient time management than expected.

Instructor's teaching ethics

At the early stages of the study the first teacher expressed her concern about the occurrence of the possible inference of individual participant colleague's beliefs and their practiced ethics with the other one. However, the findings reflected on the bilateral influence on both peers as reported by them during and at the end of the course. 

Instructor's Confidence

One of the issues which seemed rather concerning for the teachers was losing confidence. In other words, initially it was believed that attending the collegially instructed project would threaten the teacher's already built up confidence and thus would spoil their reputation in front of the learners and their colleague. However, according to the end of the project reports, both teachers believed that not only their level of confidence hasn’t decreased it has increased to some extent.

Instructor's creativity

Instructor's creativity has always been a considerable factor which adds of to the dynamic spirit of language classes. The participant instructors in the present case study as any other teacher were initially concerned about their inefficiency to act as creatively in collegially instructed classes as they could in individually run classes. Nevertheless, the first teacher particularly delightedly states that she had opportunities to act creatively an develop her sense of creativity while working next to a creative colleague. 

Classroom management

According to the participant colleagues' statements among various aspects of classroom management those such as instruction, assessment and monitoring can be efficiently carried out through collegial instruction. Because as the second teacher asserted " collegial instruction entails all the aforementioned merits particularly in large classes which requires task-based assignment completions in groups which demand active monitoring, error correction and feedback to learners". She further exemplifies instances of collegial instruction in which the colleagues head for "role playing a conversation scenario" as a correct model for all the learners. She believes such techniques would be more efficiently managed with two teachers rather than by an individual teacher.

Of other advantages of collegial teaching mentioned by the second teacher was the balanced ‘teacher’s talking time’ as a result of sharing responsibilities. Although there were worries concerning teachers’ unpreparedness in collegial teaching courses, it was observed that the teachers were more consciously prepared  to follow up the pre-set plans and even  were alert enough to make spontaneous decisions for required modifications.

Conclusion

In conclusion it can be mentioned that as it was observed in the present case study and regardless of the participant colleagues' concerns about issues related to preparation, classroom management, time management, responsibility delegation, creativity, confidence and ethics, the project seems to have been managed successfully. Particularly since, as it was observed, the instructors were consciously prepared to follow up the pre-set plans and even were alert enough to make spontaneous decisions for required modifications. Thus the present findings imply that collegial instruction can be introduced as an innovative instruction model to replace traditional solo-instructed classrooms for multiple reasons. Firstly the instructors can find opportunities to cooperate with each other and directly be involved in the process of preparation, development, modification, adaptation and application of techniques, materials, and resources. Secondly, they will save time while attending a continuous on the job training opportunity. In other words, through active peer observation, briefing and modification they can improve their teaching skills and develop as an experienced reflective teacher, researcher, material developer and supervisor. Finally, all the learners in the class will have the chance to participate, to be heard and corrected while having access to two reliable sources in the class.  

Suggestions for Further Study

Since the present study focused on two instructors, it is suggested to the other researchers to replicate the same study and carry out research on larger number of instructors. Moreover, in this case study I mainly focused on General Business English course instructors while scholars can explore other courses and classes as well.

 

The Author

Farnaz Latif is a PhD holder in TEFL.  She has totally 12 years experience of teaching TEFL at university and language institutes. At the moment she is anassistant professor and a faculty member in Islamic Azad University, Khourasgan branch, Iran. She has worked on issues concerning teaching and teacher education, syllabus design and materials development CALL, and ESP.

References

Attardo, S. & Brown, S. (2005). What’s the use of linguistics? Pre-service English teachers’ beliefs towards language use and variation. In N. Bartels (Ed.). Applied linguistics and language teacher education (pp. 91-102). New York: Springer.

Bailey, K. M. (1996). The best laid plans: teachers’ in class decisions to depart from their lesson plans. In K. M. Bailey,& D. Nunan (Eds.), Voices From the Language Classroom (pp. 15–40). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Borg, S. (1999). Teachers’ theories in grammar teaching.ELT Journal, 53(3), 157-167.

Borg, S. (1999a). Studying teacher cognition in second language grammar teaching. System, 27(1), 19−31.

Borg, S. (1999b). Teacher cognition in second language grammar teaching. Unpublished Ph. D. thesis, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK.

Borg, S. (1999c). Teachers’ theories in grammar teaching.ELT Journal, 53(3), 157−67.

Borg, S. (1999d). The use of grammatical terminology in the second language classroom: A qualitative study of teachers’ practices and cognitions. Applied Linguistics, 20(1), 95−126.

Borg, S. (2005b). Experience, knowledge about language, and classroom practice in teaching grammar. In N. Bartels (Ed.).Applied Linguistics and Language Teacher education (pp. 325-40). New York: Springer.

Clandinin, D. J., & Connelly, F. M. (1986). Rhythms in teaching: the narrative studyof teachers' personal practical knowledge of classrooms. Teaching & Teacher Education, 2(4), 377-387.

Fenstermacher, G. D. (1994). The knowledge and the known: The nature of knowledge in research on teaching. In L. Darling-Hammond (Ed.), Review of research in education (pp. 3-56). Washington: American Educational Research Association.

Golombek, P. R. (1998). A study of language teachers’ personal practical knowledge. TESOL Quarterly, 32(3), 447−64.

Grossman, P. (1990). The making of a teacher: Teacher knowledge and teacher education. New York: Teachers' College.

Grossman, P. (1995). Teachers' knowledge. In L. W. Anderson (Ed.), International encyclopedia of teaching and teacher education (pp. 20-24). New York: Pergamon.

Kennedy, M. M. (1999). Ed schools and the problem of knowledge. In J. D. Raths, & A. C. McAninch (Eds.), What counts as knowledge in teacher education? (pp. 29-45). Stamford: Ablex Publishing Corporation.

Lortie, D. (1975). Schoolteacher: A Sociological Study. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Marland, P. (2001). Teachers' practical theories: Implications for teacher development. In Y. C. Cheng, M. M. V. Mok, & K. T. Tsui (Eds.), Teaching effectiveness and teacher development: Towards a new knowledge base (pp. 165-182). Hong Kong: The Hong Kong Institute of Education.

Shimahara, N. K. (1998). The Japanese model of professional development: Teaching as craft. Teaching & Teacher Education, 14(5), 451-462.

Tamir, P. (1991). Professional and personal knowledge of teachers and teacher educators. Teaching & Teacher Education, 7(3), 263-268.

Tsui, A. B. M. (1996). Learning how to teach ESL writing. In D. Freeman, & J. C. Richards (Eds.). Teacher learning in language teaching (pp. 97-119). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Tsui, A. B. M., & Nicholson, S. (1999). Hypermedia database and ESL teacher knowledge enrichment. Journal of Information Technology for Teacher Education, 8(2), 215-237.

 

Appendices

Appendix A

Pre-study interview

1. Could you elaborate on your teaching experience?

2.  Have you passed any teacher training courses?

3. What are your own typical instruction techniques?

4. How do you see learners' interaction in your classes?

5. How do you see your own classroom management?

6. How do you think team teaching is different from solo instruction?

7. What can be the advantages of team teaching in your opinion?

8. What can be the disadvantages of team teaching in your opinion?

9. How do you think it affects the students' language learning?

10. Do you think your students will enjoy this mode of teaching?

 

Appendix B

Pre-study interview

1. How do you anticipate time management and pace of the classroom?

2.  Will your personally believed ethics change?

3. How organized and disciplined will the session be?

4. Will you have the chance to employ your creativity freely?

5. How efficient will the lesson plan be practiced?

6. How efficient will the class management be?

7. Do you think you will have enough time to talk and share your views?

8. How much responsibility will be on your shoulders? Will it be fair?

Appendix C

Post-study interview

1. How do you evaluate the time management and pace of the classroom?

2.  Do you think any of your believed ethics changed?

3. How organized and disciplined was the session?

4. Did you have the chance to employ your creativity freely?

5. How efficiently as the lesson plan be practiced?

6. How efficiently was the class management?

7. Do you think you had enough time to talk and share your views?

8. How much responsibility was on your shoulders? Was it fair?

 

 

Appendix D

	Observed Classroom Practices	Class sessions
		S1	S2	S3	S4	S5	S6	S7	S8
1.	Appropriate pace
2.	Organized lesson plan
3.	Equal opportunity for both peers to participate
4.	Successful class management
5.	Creativity
6.	Confidence
7.	Discipline
KEY:  S: sessions    o = Observed    #= Limited occurrence    x= Not observed

 

 

Appendix E

		First teacher		Second teacher
	Teachers' Stated perceptions	Pre-session Perceptions	Post-session Perceptions	Pre-session Perceptions	Post-session Perceptions
1.	Collegial teaching would be time consuming and the pace of the class would be inappropriate.	o	x	*	x
2.	Ethics of teaching is personal and cannot be changed.	o	x	o	x
3.	Teaching discipline and strictness is not teachable and transferable.	o	x	o	x
4.	Teacher’s self confidence will be lowered through collegial teaching.	o	x	x	x
5.	Through collegial teaching, teachers cannot use their creativity freely.	o	x	x	x
6.	Teachers would have difficulty to get prepared for their lessons. There won’t be an organized lesson plan.	o	x	o	x
7.	Teachers would not be able to manage the classroom efficiently through collegial teaching.	o	x	x	x
8.	Teachers’ talking time would not be balanced. In collegial teaching both teachers won’t have equal opportunity to talk.	o	x	x	x
9.	Burden and classroom responsibility would be on one of the peers.	o	x	o	x
KEY: O =Agrees   X= Does not agree   *=Not stated

 

Article View: 276

PDF Download: 158