A New Perspective Into Team Teaching As a Continuous Professional Development Model for English Teachers

Abstract

This qualitative case study seeks to explore professional development of three nonnative English language teachers through a new perspective into team teaching. In line with this, this study aims to provide an in-depth description of the teachers’ professional needs, reflection and perspectives on the new model of team teaching. Data were collected over a four-month period from three non-native English language teachers working at a foundation university through semi-structured interviews, observations and analysis of documents. A constant comparative method of data analysis was employed to describe the teachers’ needs, reflections and perspectives. The findings suggested that the team teachers’ professional needs were grouped in three areas: managing the lesson, teaching language skills, and knowledge and skills in assessment. It was found that team teaching with a new perspective met the team teachers’ professional needs in five areas: planning teaching and learning, managing the lesson, teaching language skills, engaging in professional development, enhancing teacher collaboration. With regard to the teachers’ reflection on their experiences during the phases of team teaching, the findings indicated that the teachers reflected on what they learned, what they thought and how they felt in each phase of team teaching. The findings further revealed that the teachers’ reflection on their experiences showed improvement from negative attitudes and feelings (e.g., feeling concerned and uncomfortable) towards more positive attitudes and feelings (e.g., adjusting to team teaching, increased selfconfidence) upon the completion of all the phases in team teaching.