Team-teaching as a tool for professional development - insiders' views = Dạy cặp như một phương tiện phát triển nghề nghiệp quan điểm của người tham gia

1



VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES



TRẦN KIM TÚ

TEAM-TEACHING AS A TOOL FOR PROFES-
SIONAL DEVELOPMENT:
INSIDERS’ VIEWS

(Dạy cặp như một phương tiện phát triển nghề
nghiệp: quan điểm của người tham gia)

M.A. MINOR PROGRAM THESIS




Field: English Teaching Methodology
Code: 601410
Supervisor: Đào Thu Trang, M.A

HANOI-2010
2



VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES
_______________



TRẦN KIM TÚ



TEAM-TEACHING AS A TOOL FOR PROFES-
SIONAL DEVELOPMENT:
INSIDERS’ VIEWS

(Dạy cặp như một phương tiện phát triển
nghề nghiệp: quan điểm của người tham gia)

M.A. MINOR PROGRAM THESIS





Field: English Teaching Methodology

Code: 601410






HANOI-2010
6



TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
DECLARATION i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii
ABSTRACT iii
TABLE OF CONTENTS . iv
PART A: INTRODUCTION 1
1. Rationale 1
2. Aims of the study 2
3. Significance of the study 2
4. Methods of the study 2
5. Scope of the study 3
6. Design of the study 3
PART B: DEVELOPMENT 4
Chapter I: Review of Related Literature 4
1.1 Overview of Teachers’ Professional Developmet 4
1.1.1 Concepts of Teachers’ Professional Development 4
1.1.2 Areas of Language Teachers’ Professional Development 5

1.2 Overview of Team-Teaching 7
1.2.1 Definitions of Team-Teaching 7
1.2.2 Forms of Team-Teaching 8
1.2.3 Factors affecting Team-Teaching 9
1.3 Why Team-Teaching as a valuable means for Professional Development? 10
Chapter II: Methodology 13
2.1 The setting of the study 13
2.2 The research questions 14
2.3 The Participants 14
2.4 Data collection instruments 16
2.4.1 In-depth interviews 16
2.4.2 Class room-observation 16
2.5 Data collection procedures 17
2.6 Data analysis 18
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Chapter III: Findings, Discussion and Recommendations 19
3.1 Major Findings 19
3.1.1 EFL teachers’ professional development fostered through Team-Teaching 19
3.1.1.1 EFL teachers’ professional development fostered through Team-
Teaching between English teachers and Vietnamese teachers 19
3.1.1.2 EFL teachers’ professional development fostered through Team-
Teaching between Vietnamese teachers and Vietnamese teachers 24
3.1.2 Barriers to Team-Teaching 27
3.1.2.1 Barriers to Team-Teaching between English volunteer teachers
and Vietnamese teachers 27
3.1.2.2 Barriers to Team-Teaching between Vietnamese and Vietnamese
Teachers 29

3.2 Discussion 29
3.3 Recommendations 31
3.3.1 Recommendations for the administrators 31
3.3.2 Recommendations for team-teachers 33
PART C: CONCLUSION 37
1. Conclusions 37
2. Limitation and suggestion for further study 37
REFERENCES 38
APPENDICES I
Appendix 1. I
Appendix 2. V
Appendix 3. XVII







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PART A : INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale
With the development of regional integration and global participation, the quality of educa-
tion is becoming an urgent need to the Ministry of Education and Training as well as the
government. Since the Vietnamese government sees the quality of teachers as the major
factor in improving education, it is setting targets for the general reform of cirriculum and
teaching methods in all educational establishments. There have been many annual educa-

tion workshops, conferences, researches conducted in many universities in order to help
teachers sustain high quality performance in their teaching career and encourage them to
pursue life-long learning which is vital to their professional development. To ensure this
ongoing professional growth, teachers-as professionals-should constantly develop them-
selves. Teachers’ own growth is necessary in order to cope with the ever-expanding know-
ledge base in subject matter and pedagogy, rapidly changing social contexts of schooling,
and increasingly diversifying students’ needs. EFL (English Foreign Language) teachers
are not exempt from this professional responsibility. In other words, teachers have to be
viewed as learners- “the teacher as life-long learner”- and they need to learn together.
Teachers today are experimenting with many approaches for professional development
such as: self-evaluation, portforlio collections, classroom observation and performance as-
sessment, peer assessment, keeping a teaching journal, peer coaching, mentoring, action
research Among these, team-teaching seems to be very effective in enhancing teachers’
professional growth, though for many teachers, team-teaching remains unexplored territo-
ry.
Although team-teaching is not new in some locations and used widely in many schools
around the world, it is an experimental approach at my college because of some reasons
below. Firstly, in early 2001, many teachers at my college were sent to a 12-week-skill-
based language teaching methodology course sponsored by the Vietnam-Australia Training
(VAT) Project in Hanoi in which team-teaching was introduced as a new form to improve
the quality of EFL teaching and learning. Secondly, in recent years, our college has re-
ceived some British volunteer teachers from some organizations in order to help EFL
teaching and learning. Then our Department has tried this form of teaching in order to take
the advantage of our situation-that is, working with some British VSO (Volunteer Service
Oversea) volunteers with the hope of contributing to teacher and student development.
9



Hence, team-teaching between a British volunteer teacher and a Vietnamese teacher or be-

tween two Vietnamese teachers has become a common way of conducting EFL classes.
As a teacher, the researcher has been teaching English for nearly 10 years. During that
time, I have observed many team-teaching lessons and I have also team taught with some
colleagues. The issue raised is that: to what extent team-teaching can help to foster teach-
er’s professional growth. Thus, I decided to conduct the study on: “Team-teaching as a
tool for professional development: insiders’ views” to investigate and explore the point of
views, feelings and attitudes of team-teachers towards to team-teaching as a means for
teacher’s growth.
2. Aims of the study
The study was conducted to explore the team-teachers’viewpoints and attitudes towards
team-teaching in order to find out the benefits of team-teaching in terms of their profes-
sional development as well as the barriers to team-teaching.
From the findings of the study, some recommendations were proposed for the administra-
tors and team-teachers so as to use team-teaching as an effective means of professional de-
velopment.
3. Significance of the study
The study is expected to offer an in-depth understanding about the team-teachers’ point of
views and attitudes towards team-teaching as a tool for professional development in terms
of :
(i) Theoretically, it justifies team-teaching as a tool of professional development in an EFL
context.
(ii) Practically and pedagogically, the findings of the study contribute to the understanding
of the advantages and disadvantages of team-teaching as a means of professional develop-
ment.
(iii) The recommendations for administrators and team-teachers can improve the benefits
and reduce the drawbacks of team-teaching in order to help team-teachers conduct a suc-
cessful team-teaching.
4.Method of the study
This is a qualitative exploratory study because it was designed to deeply explore the team-
teachers’ point of views regarding the effect of team-teaching on their professional devel-

opment.
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In order to collect data for the study, two techniques were used: in-depth interview and
class observation. The interviews used in this study were semi-structured interviews with
most of the questions being open-ended. Besides, the researcher also used class observa-
tion to triangulate the data.
5. Scope of the study
In educational history, there are many different activities to foster EFL teachers’ profes-
sional growth. However, due to the limited time and length of a minor thesis, this small-
scale study only explores 9 participants’ point of views towards one of these activities:
team-teaching.
This study focuses on the in-depth interviews from 5 pairs of team-teachers (9 participants)
and observed their lessons to explore their opinions about team-teaching as a tool to de-
velop their teaching skills.
Besides, the study also investigates the data from these interviews to find out the chal-
lenges of team-teaching that these teachers have to face and give some recommendations
for both administrators and teachers.
6. Design of the study
The study is structured as follows: Part A- Introduction, Part B- Development and Part
C- Conclusion.
Part A- Introduction presents the rationale, the aim, the significance, the scope, the me-
thods and the design of the study.
Part B- Development consists of three chapters:
Chapter I: Review of Related Literature - aims at the basic theoretical background con-
cerning professional development and team-teaching.
Chapter II: Methodology - focuses on the setting of the study, the research questions, the
participants, the data collection instruments, the data-collection procedures, and the data-

analysis.
Chapter III: Findings, discussion and recommendations - reports majors findings con-
ducted from the result of previous chapter and discussion, and offers recommendations for
better team-teaching.
Part C- Conclusion summarises all the issues in the study, particularly the major findings
and recommendations. The limitations of the study and some suggestions for further study
are also included in this part.

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PART B: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER I: REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
The opening chapter presents an overview of the nature of professional development and
provides a conceptual framework for team-teaching and some related studies about team-
teaching as a tool for professional development.

1.1 Overview of Professional Development
1.1.1 Concepts of Teachers’ Professional Development
The term “Teacher Development” or “Professional Development” for teachers is a broad
term including a variety of aspects connected not only to a teacher’s professional devel-
opment but also to his/her personal development (Igawa, 2002). In other words, “Profes-
sional development, in broad sense, refer to the development of a person in his or her per-
sonal role” (Eleonara, 2003, p.11). Surely, professional development enhances competence
of all members in a learning community to pursue their life-long learning.
Underhill (1997) states that professional development involves teachers in a constant
process of learning about their practice and discovering and using their own potential. For
Richards (1998), this process requires teachers to creat their own personal teaching metho-

dology that takes into account their experience, beliefs and understanding about good
teaching. He adds that reflection, self-inquiry, self-monitoring, and self-evaluation are ne-
cessary elements in fostering professional development, since they help teachers to be bet-
ter informed and to evaluate their professional growth, as well as to plan for improvement.
Likewise, Richards and Farrell (2005) assert that teacher development involves teachers in
understanding themselves and their teaching; in analysing their teaching practices, beliefs,
value and principles, in keeping up-to-date with theories and trends; and in sharing their
experiences with colleagues. So it can be said that in order to develop professionally,
teachers should feel a continuous desire to learn more about themselves as professionals,
and about their profession. Hence, teachers’ professional development becomes a miles-
tone in teacher’s continuum of life-long learning and career progression.
To sum up, although definitions and concepts of teachers’ professional development may
be some what different as scholars might approach it from different perspectives, they all
share a common view that professional development is used to refer to the process through
12



which teachers attain higher professional competence and expand their understanding of
self, role, context and career. It is any experience that teachers engaged in to widen their
knowledge, appreciation, skills, and understanding of their work inline with goals, values,
of the school and their interests and needs of teachers. (Duke and Stiggins, 1990; Beerens,
D.R., 2000; Norton, M.S, 2008). Professional development is, therefore, seen as “an ongo-
ing process and an integral characteristic of a fully professional teacher” (Mc Donough,
1997, p.318).
1.1.2 Areas of Language Teachers’ Professional Development
Educational reform, a rapidly changing student clientele, technological development, and
new views on assessment are just a few of the pressures that today’s foreign language teach-
ers are encountering. Foreign language teachers must maintain proficiency in the target lan-
guage and stay up to date on current issues related to the target culture. Regardless of the

skills and knowledge that foreign language teachers possess when they commence teaching,
maintenance and improvement must be an ongoing process. In most states, teachers must
continue to accumulate academic credits, while teaching, in order to keep their teaching li-
cense current. This can be done through evening cources, summer seminars, lectures, or
workshops offered by professional associations or universities, so that teachers can improve
language proficiency and cultural knowledge, teaching methods
Met (1989) states that foreign language teachers need: “competencies in the general areas of
education, interpersonal skills and professional education” (p.177). In addition to demon-
strating Met’s ideas, Peyton, in his study, presented in 1997, points out some skills and
knowledge that foreign language teachers need. According to him, good foreign language
teachers need the following:
• A high level of language proficiency in all of the modalities of the target language-
speaking, listening, reading, and writing.
• The ability to use the language in real-life contexts, for both social and professional pur-
poses.
• The ability to comprehend contemporary media in the foreign language, both oral and writ-
ten, and interact successfully with native speakers in the United States and abroad (Phillips,
1991).
• A strong background in the liberal arts and the content areas.
• Understanding of the social, political, historical, and economic realities of the regions
where the language they teach is spoken.
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• Pedagogical knowledge and skills, including knowledge about human growth and develop-
ment, learning theory and second language acquisition theory, and a repertoire of strategies for
developing proficiency and cultural understanding in all students (Guntermann, 1992).
• Knowledge of the various technologies and how to integrate them into their instruction. Ri-
chards (1998) asserts that professional development is directed towards both the institution’s

goals and the teacher’s own personal goal. Achieving personal growth and improving de-
partmental performance can go hand in hand. Most schools strive for a mix of both. From the
point of view of some teachers’ personal development, he lists six domains of professional
development as follows:
• Subject matter knowledge: Increasing knowledge of the disciplinary basis of TESOL, that
is, English grammar, discourse analysis, phonology, testing, second language acquisition re-
search, methodology, curriculum development, and the other areas that define the profes-
sional knowledge base of language teaching.
• Pedagogical expertise: Mastery of new areas of teaching, adding to one’s repertoire of
teaching specializations, improving ability to teach different skill areas to learners of differ-
ent ages and backgrounds.
• Self-awareness: Knowledge of oneself as a teacher, of one’s principle and values, strengths
and awareness.
• Understanding of learners: Deepening understanding of learners, learning styles, learners’
problems and difficulties, ways of making content more accessible to learners.
• Understanding of curriculum and materials: Deepening one’s understanding of curriculum
and curriculum alternatives, use and development of instructional materials.
• Career advancement: acquisitions of the knowledge and expertise neccessary for personal
advancement and promotion, including supervisory and mentoring skills.
Obviously, the field of language teaching is subject to rapid changes, both as the profession
responds to new educational paradigms and trends and as institutions face new challenges as
a result of changes in curriculum, national tests, and student needs. As a result, teachers need
regular opportunities to update their professional knowledge and skills, that is, their oppor-
tunities for professional development. Teachers need to be able to take part in activities such
as:
• engaging in self-reflection and evaluation
• developing specialized knowledge and skills about many aspects of teaching
• expanding their knowledge base about research, theory, and issues in teaching
14

• taking on new roles and responsibilities, such as supervisor or mentor teacher,
teacher-researcher, or material writer
• developing collaborative relationships with other teachers
(Jack & Thomas, 2005)
An important direction in teacher development in recent years has been a movement away
from “outsider” approaches to “insider” ones. This means the former are often based on ex-
pert knowledge as well as general theories and principles that teacher apply to their own situ-
ation; the latter are locally based approaches that encourages teachers to explore their own
contexts and construct their own knowledge and understanding of what takes place in their
classrooms. In self-directed learning, teachers assume responsibility for setting goals for self-
development and for managing and controlling their own learning.
In short, language teachers have different needs at different times during their careers, and
the needs of the school and institutions in which they work also change over time. The pres-
sure for teachers to update their knowledge in areas such as: curriculum trends, second lan-
guage acquisition research, composition theory and practice, technology, or assessment is
intense, and it is the school and the classroom that provide a major source for future profes-
sional development. Thus, foreign language teachers have very specific professional devel-
opment requirements that include maintaining language skills, increasing cultural know-
ledge, and keeping current with developmennts in the field that will enhance their perfor-
mance as a classroom teacher.

1.2 Overview of team-teaching
1.2.1 Definitions of team-teaching
At the outset of my discussion, I need to address the question of what we mean by “team-
teaching”.
In 1995, Davis suggested that team-teaching was not easily defined. He states that it refers
“most often to the teaching done in interdisciplinary course by the several faculty members
who have joined together to produce that course” (Davis, p.6) . Accordings to Buckley

(2000), “Team-teaching involves a group of instructors working purposefully, regularly,
and cooperatively to help a group of students of any age learn.” (p.4). Surely, team-
teachers set goals for a course, design a syllabus, prepare individual lesson plans, teach
students, and evaluate the results. They share insights, argue with one another, and perhaps
even challenge students to decide which approach is better.
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Team can be single-discipline, interdisciplinary, or school-within-a-school teams that meet
with a common set of students over an extended period of time. New teachers may be
paired with veteran teachers. Innovations are encouraged, and modification in class size,
location, and time are permitted. Different personalities, voices, values, and approaches
spark interest, keep attention, and prevent boredom.
In conclusion, the term team-teaching has been defined by many researchers. However,
they all share the common view about team-teaching that:
(i) it involves two or more teachers within the teaching and learning environment.
(ii) it can vary along a continuum of collaboration.
(iii) it facililates a learning community by impacting on both teaching and learning.
(iv) it can be both formal and informal.
And in addition, Eisen and Tisdell (2000) declare that team-teaching often occurs in
“communities or workplaces that are not bounded by four walls or institutional structures”
(p.7)
1.2.2 Forms of team-teaching
There are various forms of team-teaching depending on the particular context. Sandholtz
(2000) has identified three configurations for team-teaching: (1) two or more teachers
loosely sharing responsibility; (2) team-planning, but individual instruction; and (3) joint
planning, instruction, and evaluation of learning experience.
Clearly, teaching partnership can function in different ways. We conceptualize team-
teaching as being part of a continuum of collaboration that varies according to levels of

coordination and shared responsibility. At the low level, collaboration (end of the scale)
would be courses planned by a group of faculty and later taught individually by members
of the group. They might plan the general content of these related courses, but would teach
and evaluate the courses separately and they would not observe each other’s classes. At the
highest level of collaboration, the courses are co-planned, co-taught and evaluated by a
pair or a group of teachers.
From many types of team-teaching defined by different scholars, it is realised that there
appear to be two basic types of team-teaching: type A and type B. In type A, two or more
teachers work together but do not always teach the same students at the same time. Some
authors call this type “team-planning”. In type B, two or more teachers teach the same stu-
dents at the same time in the classroom. Within type B, there are 4 basic instructional mod-
els: the Traditional Model, the Supportive Model, the Parallel Instruction Model and the
16



Differentiated Instruction Model. These models may be used singly or combined in any
number of ways. In Traditional Model, both teachers share the instruction of content and
skills to all students. This is not like to Supportive Model in which one teacher focuses on
content instruction while the other teacher conducts follow-up activities or works on skill
building. In the third model, the Parallel Instruction Model, students are divided into
groups and each teacher provides instruction in the same content or skills to his or her
group. In the last model, the Differentiated Instruction Model, students are divided into
groups on the basic of learning needs with each teacher providing instruction based on his
or her group’s needs. In practice, this often means dividing a class by ability to provide
enrichment activities to the high ability group and extra support to the lower functioning
group.
There is also another type and the third one is occasionally called team-teaching, but lacks
the shared responsibility and coherent structure of the first two (A and B). In this version,
one coordinator alone is responsible for course content and grading. Extensive and regular

use is made of guest lectures and panels, and the material presented in this manner is an
intergal part of the overall course design.
In short, team-teaching is open to several interpretation. Both type A and type B are be-
coming common in my college. However, type B is an experimental model for teacher de-
velopment, so for the purpose of this study, I am assuming the following: two teachers
share a class and divide instruction between them and team-members are from closely al-
lied discipline: EFL teaching.
1.2.3 Factors affecting team-teaching
Theoretically, team-teaching is a very positive model for professional development. How-
ever, the practice of team-teaching faces some factors. These concerns are revealed in the
Pritchett’s study (1997) in which the author shows some factors affecting team-teaching.
According to Pritchett, there are three important elements influencing team-teaching: (i)
roles and expectations (ii) experience and knowledge and (iii) personality and teaching
style.
The first two factors are related to “the conflict that could arise if there is uncertainty or
disagreement in the role of each team member.” (Letterman & Dugan, 2004, p.6)
The second two factors appear to be a two-edged sword: some of the team-teachers adapt a
more submissive role readily as they learn from a more experienced team-teachers, while
the others feel a need to compete for a leadership role in the partnership.
17



The last two factors are concerned with personal incompatibility and inadequate communi-
cation skills that may cause the failure of the partnership.
Other factor, mentioned by other authors, is also related to the lost of autonomy: individual
teachers may fear that the collaboration process, which involves “a curricular theme, com-
mon assignments, and readings, shared presentations, and shared expectations and grading
system for student work.” (Mc Daniel & Colarulli, 1997, p.28), will result in the sense of
losing control over their own teaching practice.

Furthermore, several studies (Buckley, 1998; Timothy & Bill, 2005) identify that a poor
relationship between two team-teachers may lead to a breakdown in this relationships.
This could occur because team-teaching involves interpersonal relationships (Buckley,
1998). This relationship is not inherently beneficial because, to some extent, it can under-
mine trust and openness which are of great importance to the establishment and the main-
tenance of a real collaborative culture.
Another factor is that team-teaching requires enormous investment of time, money, effort
and resources (Pritchett, 1997; Bill Perry & Timothy Steward, 2005; Goetz, 2005). Con-
cerning time, a group of studies (Davis, 1995; Sandholtz, 2000) showed that it was a criti-
cal factor for the effectiveness of team-teaching.
In short, it is obvious that team-teaching is a beneficial approach for teachers’ professional
development, but it needs further research into how to overcome its barriers.
1.3 Why team-teaching as a valuable means for professional development?
The study of team-teaching as a viable alternative to traditional teaching as a way to in-
crease students’ outcomes has a long history, dating back to the mid 1950’s. Bunyan of
Calgary (1965) see the teacher as an important factor in team-teaching. He sees this initia-
tive as a way to promote better teacher professional development and, therefore, to pro-
vide a better opportunity for students to learn. He feels that teachers co-operating effective-
ly would need training and preparation in order to effectively deal with the psychological
impact of team-teachers. He does not question the benefits of team-teaching as he feels
they are many and widely accepted. Instead, he warns that we should not undermine its
effectiveness with poor teacher training and planning. Johnson and Hunt (1968) see team-
teaching as a way for teachers to come out from under the sometimes-crippling effects of
threat upon their practice and free themselves up to better teachers. They feel that teachers
who work in an environment of collaboration, constantly getting new ideas and feedback
from others, will become more perspective and lose the fear that has so often blocked im-
18

provement. They see team-teaching as a way for teachers to become more efficient and
more effective than their traditional, isolated teaching counterparts. They feel that dignity
and integrity are implied in a teaching team and that they are given more freedom to work,
not constrained by arbitrary schedules and routines.
Similarly, Edmonds in “Teaming for teachers” (1973) writes that the essential concern of
team-teaching is that of professional sharing. He contends that team-teaching provides a
good platform for teachers to engage in professional discourse and to get and give advice
about teaching practice without judgement. This, he sees, is a step towards better teacher
practice.
In recent studies, Davis (2005); Steward & Sandholtz (2000); Anthony Bynom (2000) as-
sert that team-teaching in ESP (English for Special Purpose) or interdisciplinary can be an
effective forms for professional development.
In summary, once again, the issue of teacher isolation is identified as one factor that con-
tributes to the repression of professional development and teacher growth. Because teach-
ers spend so much time isolated in their classrooms, they have little or no opportunity to
observe and learn from others. Teachers avoid seeking advice from others in this type of
structure because it is seen as a sign of weakness and others resisted giving advice so as
not to insult their colleagues. Teacher should be supported to try new things, and they be-
come more effective and more enthusiatic. The collective power of the group made them
stronger.
Teachers can surely enhance their professional development because team-teaching cer-
tainly “requires planning, skilled management, willingness to risk change and even failure,
humility, and open-mindedness, imagination and creativity”.(Buckley, 2000, p.11)

Literature revealed that team-teaching has enormous potential to bring about professional
growth for teachers. Although there have been factors affecting team-teaching, with ap-
propriate understanding of team-teaching, it has emerged as an effective tool for profes-
sional development. The literature review of previous studies in the field has provided the
background in the field of team-teaching research and can be considered as basic for the
investigation of team-teaching in the context of a Teacher Training College located in

NgheAn.
However, the emergence of team-teaching as a tool for professional development has not
been paid due attention in Vietnam. Moreover, there has been almost no research into the
19



field of team-teaching in the context of the Vietnamese education system, except for an ar-
ticle by Le Thi Anh Phuong in Teacher’s Edition. No study exists that examines the pres-
ence and benefits of team-teaching in terms of teacher growth. Therefore, this study fills
the gap by investigating the team-teachers’ point of views and attitudes towards their
team-teaching experience as a tool for professional development.

CHAPTER II: METHODOLOGY
This chapter includes five small parts: (i) The setting of the study; (ii) The research ques-
tions; (iii) The participants; (iv) Data collection instrument; (v) Data-collection proce-
dures; and (vi) Data analysis.
20




2.1 The setting of the study
The study was conducted at Foreign Languages Department of NgheAn Teacher Training
College located in Vinh city, Nghe An province.
The Foreign Language Department of Nghe An Teacher Training College has 37 teachers
including English major and non-English major teachers. In fact, nearly of all the teachers
are young, active and energetic with teaching experience ranging from 3 to 12 years. There
are only 4 old teachers who have been teaching for over 20 years. All teachers have good
attitude to English teaching and they are always willing to enhance their teaching skills.
To do this, they spend their time on class observation, self-evaluation, portfolio collection,
peer-observation, peer-coaching, action research Especially, they also team-teach to im-
prove their teaching skills and learn together. Besides, there are annual workshops for pro-
fessional development so teachers have good chances to exchange their experience and
contribute many good ideas for professional growth.
In recent years in Vietnam, volunteers from organizations such as Volunteer Service Over-
sea (VSO) and Volunteer In Asia (VIA) have been sent to different Teacher Training Col-
leges to help with instruction and to promote the relationship between these organizations
and the Teacher Training Colleges.
Nghe An Teacher Training College started to receive help from VSO in 1998. Some vo-
lunteers have been working here for a long time. These volunteers typically teach a work-

load of 16 periods or more as assigned in the contracts between the college and the organi-
zation. However, at first they often taught independently, with little preperation or consul-
tation with other colleagues in the Section or Department. A similar situation exists among
their Vietnamese colleagues, who often taught independently as well, rather than preparing
lessons together. For instance, the subject British Studies was taught by a Vietnamese
teacher, instead of by a British volunteer who may has been in a better situation to do so.
As a result, the course was sometimes taught more like reading comprehension class, and
no good use was made of the expertise and knowledge of the native speaker teachers (Brit-
ish teachers). This to me is not a desirable situation!
Reflecting on such situations, we see that the present way of cooperating among teachers
in my college does not maximize the benefits of working context and much more could be
done to aid both teachers’ professional development and students’ language development.
21



To address this issue, we have tried team-teaching with the aim of developing the advan-
tages of our situation, that is: working with British VSO volunteers. From then on, some
Vietnamese colleagues are also asked to work closely with the volunteers to exchange ex-
perience and so they can take over the subjects when the volunteers leave (i.e. British Stu-
dies or English Literature).
When other British volunteers arrived in 2007, the Dean of Foreign Languages Depart-
ment and the Head of English Section decided that a closer cooperation between the volun-
teers and the Vietnamese teachers, especially in classroom, could make our work more
useful to teachers and students as well. This suggestion was welcomed by both Vietnamese
teachers and British volunteers and we started team-teaching between not only British vo-
lunteers and Vietnamese teachers but Vietnamese and Vietnamese teachers .
To be honest, our attempts at team-teaching were mainly experimental-to find out whether
team-teaching could work in our environment, and what benefits as well as barriers it
might bring to our teaching and learning context.

2.2 The research questions
The research questions that guided the study mainly focused on the following issues:
1.To what extent, can team-teaching help enhance professional development, as per-
ceived by both English volunteer teachers and Vietnamese teachers?
2.What are the barriers to team-teaching, as perceived by team-teachers (both English vo-
lunteer teachers and Vietnamese teachers)?
2.3 The Participants
The study involved 5 pairs of team-teachers (9 team-teachers). Teachers’s ages ranged
from 21 to 55 years-old with an average age of 38. They all taught English for English-
major students. The first pair of team-teachers (Mai Anh & Nguyên) were teaching Inte-
grating Skills for the first year students. The second two pairs were teaching Speaking Skill
(James & Hiển) and Writing Skill (Thanh & Vân) for the second year students; and the last
two pairs were teaching British Studies (Chris & Châu) and English Literature (Chris &
Liên) for the third year students. The number of female teachers is higher than that of male
teachers as seen in the Table 1. These teachers have been teaching English for 2 to 25 years
and they have some experience with team-teaching. Among these teachers, two are from
England.
Chris Staples-aged 55- is an English volunteer from VSO. He arrived in Nghe An in 2004.
He before had a long time for volunteering in some Asian countries such as: China, Korea,
22



Thailand, Japan At first, he taught British Studies and English Literature independently.
Then, with the suggestion from the Dean of Department and the Head of English Section,
he team-taught with two Vietnamese teachers (Châu & Liên) so the Vietnamese teachers
could take over the subjects when the volunteer left.
James Edwards, the second volunteer from VSO, is a quite young English “teacher” (aged
21). He almost had very little teaching experience and he arrived in Vietnam for the first
time. He was asked to team-teach with some Vietnamese teachers for skill subjects (such

as: Speaking or Writing) or Pronunciation. He left Nghe An Teacher Training College in
2009. The interviews with these volunteers were conducted last year for other study of
mine at college-level. I still kept the records and transcripts of these interviews and used
for this study.
Of the Vietnamese teachers interviewed, Mai Anh, Hiển, Thanh, Vân, Liên, Châu are vet-
eran teachers while Nguyên is an inexperiened teacher. They were asked to team-teach
together. Their background details can be seen in Table 1.

Table 1-The Participants’ Information
No.
Name
Gender
Country
Age
Subject
Team-teaching
experience
1.

2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
Chris

Liên

Châu
Vân
Thanh
Mai Anh
Nguyên
Hiển
James
male

female
female
female
female
female
female
female
male
England

Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam
England
55

34

34
40
36
34
23
34
21
British Studies &
English Literature
English Literature
British Studies
Writing
Writing
Integrating skills
Integrating skills
Speaking
Speaking
1 year

1 year
1 year
1 year
1 year
1 year
5 months
1 year
5 months

2.4 Data-collection instruments
Adopting an interview-based qualitative method, two data-collection instruments were em-

ployed for this study. In-depth interview technique is used as the main method to collect
data for the study in order to achieve a holistic understanding of the team-teachers’point of
23



views, perspectives and attitudes towards team-teaching as a tool for professional growth.
Besides, classroom observation is also used to triangulate the data.
2.4.1 In-depth interview
There are many kinds of interviews. Hitchcock (1989:79) lists 8 types: structured inter-
view, survey interview, counselling interview, diary interview, life history interview, eth-
nographic interview, informal/unstructured interview and conversational interview. Cohen
and Manion (1994:273), however, prefers to group interviews into 4 types including the
structured interview, the unstructured interview, the non-directive interview, and the fo-
cused interview. Some other researchers only name 3 main types of interviews: structured
interview, semi-structured interview and unstructured interview.
According to many qualitative researchers, in-depth interviews are useful when the re-
searcher wants detailed information about a person’s thoughts and behaviours or want to
explore issues in depth. “The primary advantage of in-depth interviews is that they provide
much more detailed information that what is available through other data collection me-
thods, such as survey. They also may provide a more relaxed atmosphere in which to col-
lect information-people may feel comfortable having a conversation with researcher to
share their ideas” (Prairie Research Associates, 2001, p.12).
The semi-structured interviews were designed with open-ended questions. There were
three main questions for all interviews: (i) the benefits of team-teaching in terms of profes-
sional development; (ii) the barriers to team-teaching and (iii) suggestions for improve-
ment towards team-teaching. When the researcher interviewed the English volunteers and
Vietnamese teachers, their background (university major and teaching experience ) was
also investigated to enrich the interviewing information. Each interview lasted around 1
hour. All the interviews were conducted both in English (for British volunteers) and in Vi-

etnamese (for Vietnamese teachers) then were recorded by audio-taped and translated and
transcribed for the purpose of analysis. (For the guiding questions for in-depth interviews,
see Appendix 1; for the in-depth interview transcript, see Appendix 2)
2.4.2 Classroom observation
To support and check the reliability of the data collected from in-depth interviews, class-
room observations were also employed. The purpose of classroom observations is to obtain
information on teachers’ actual team-teaching practice as well as the atmosphere in the
classroom; their partnership and the role of each teacher in the team-teaching classes. Be-
sides, this technique can help researcher observe the students’ feelings, attitudes, and be-
24



haviour in team-teaching lessons. Thus, classroom observations can also help the research-
er give conduct effective post-observation interviews with appropriate questions.
The classroom observations were carried out in three stages: before the class, during the
class, and after the class. In before-class stage, the researcher focused on making contact
with team-teachers to know the teachers’ teaching objectives, the class size and the subject.
In during-class stage, the observations were aimed at the team-teachers’ teaching interac-
tion, the teaching skills that teachers had learned from team-teaching were transfered into
their classroom as well as the attitudes of students. During the classroom observations, ex-
tensive field notes were made of all the observed events in the classroom In after-class
stage, the researcher concentrated on interviewing the critical issues arising from the ob-
served lessons, as well as the issues related to team-teaching .( For the classroom observa-
tion checklist, see Appendix 3)
2.5 Data-collection procedures
Firstly, the researcher contacted with team-teachers who had the most experience in team-
teaching to ask for the permission to conduct the classroom observations and in-depth in-
terviews.
As mentioned above, the interviews with two volunteers from VSO and their team-mates

were conducted last year for other study of hers at college-level. The researcher still kept
the interview transcripts and used for this study.
The other interviews and classroom observations were carried out during the second term
of the school year of 2009-2010.
Each pair of team-teachers were observed three times (three lessons per pair). The teachers
were not comfortable with their lessons beings video or audio recorded and so extensive
field-notes were made of all the observed events in the classroom. After each classroom
observation, the interviewees were invited to go into the lab and have face-to-face inter-
view. The semi-structured interviews lasted around one hour and were recorded. They fo-
cused on critical issues arising from classroom observations as well as issues related to
team teaching as a means for teacher development. These teachers had class once a week.
At the end, the researcher had total 15 class observations field-notes and 15 records of in-
depth interviews. These records were then transcribed for data analysis. The data tran-
scripts consisted of 15 pages for field notes and 50 pages for interviews.
2.6. Data analysis
25



Once the researcher had obtained all the data transcripts from field-notes of 15 class obser-
vations and in-depth interviews, she had them typed on separate papers. The researcher
then read all information carefully, coded the different topics. The data was repeatly read
and important topics were grouped; then some ways by which teachers improved their
professional growth gradually took shape. Lastly, the researcher generalized all the most
important themes emerging from the data. These themes were presented in order of sa-
lience based on the number of mentions in the data. The researcher has attempted, as far as
possible, to use the words of the team-teachers in the discussion rather than trying to in-
terpret underlying intentions. In other words, the researcher’s aim has been to let the team-
teachers speak for themselves.

In summary, in this chapter the setting of the study, the participants, the data-collection
instruments, the data-collection procedures and data-analysis have been described and the
research questions have also given.













CHAPTER III: FINDINGS, DISCUSSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
This chapter presents the majors findings of the study and discussion and proposes some
recommendations for both administrators and team-teachers.
3.1 Major Findings
26



Together with classroom observations, the transcripts of in-depth interviews were analysed
and two salient themes emerged from this data.
3.1.1 Teachers’ professional development enhanced through team-teaching
Ways in which teachers developed or improved were varied and numerous, depend on “the
teachers’ own desire and motivation to continue learning” (Head & Taylor, 1997).
To make the findings clear, the researcher will divide the first finding into two sections: (i)

Teachers’professional development enhanced through team-teaching between English vo-
lunteer teachers and Vietnamese teachers, and (ii) Teachers’ professional development fos-
tered through team-teaching between Vietnamese and Vietnamese teachers.
3.1.1.1 Teachers’ professional development enhanced through team-teaching between
English volunteer teachers and Vietnamese teachers
Despite the differences among the teachers in age, culture and experience, and even teach-
ing styles, all were united by a desire to implement the team-teaching effectively. The 6
domains of second language teacher education, identified by Richards (1998) were taken
into consideration when finalizing the areas of professional development of team-teachers.
Five areas of professional development were generated by analyzing 15 transcripts of field-
notes from classroom observations and in-depth interviews from 9 team-teachers as fol-
lows:
► Experience-sharing and knowledge-widening
► Improved teaching skills
► Enhanced communicative skills
► Developed cooperative-teaching
► Language improvement
However, these generated professional development areas might overlap with each other
because teachers’ professionalism today consists of various factors that cannot be clearly
delineated, partly due to what an American educational philosopher Cremin (1989) calls
“politicizing education”.
Experience-sharing and knowledge-widening
Sharing experience and widening the knowledge (including knowledge of subject matter,
culture, beliefs and institution ) seemed to be the most popular ways in which teachers
from different ethnic backgrounds strove to further their professional development. This is
illustrated by the following quotes from team-teachers:
27

“ Working in this way, we were able to make our lessons more effective because we
usually had “double vision”. For example, as a Vietnamese teacher, I tended to know
Vietnamese students’ needs and problems better than the volunteer, but the volunteer
provided valuable and interesting information about British life that I lacked ” (Châu,
Vietnamese teacher)
“ In English Literature, I had more understanding of the content of what we had to
teach. Chris was really an expert in this field, he had a lot of teaching materials and
sources of information and he shared with me. When I found difficult in undestanding
some concepts, I could consult him. We exchanged, discussed and by that way, I learnt
more and more ” (Liên, Vietnamese teacher)
“ As a non-native English speaking teacher I felt more confident when I worked with a
native speaker in the course of British Studies. This was because he could act as a more
reliable resource for knowledge about culture and linguistics aspects of this subject ”
(Châu, Vietnamese teacher)
“ Another area where Vietnamese teachers have the upper hand is in their knowledge
of institutional culture and goals. They are familiar with the administrative framework.
They know what to expect from and how to deal with management, colleagues, and
students. They understand the system of examinations which may be different from my
country’s. This awareness of norms not only enables them to analyse students’ needs
better but also helps me to avoid the kind of institutional culture shock ” (Chris,
English volunteer teacher)
Thus, a better understanding to students might lead to a better teaching method, and the
frequent exchange of experience between colleagues in cross-cultural context enriched the
knowledge and skills of both teachers.
“ My Vietnamese teacher and I met after each class to evaluate the lesson. After
teaching a section, we talked on the way home about what had seemed to work well and
what had not. We commented on the parts that students had seemed to understand well
and parts in which they had not done satisfactory. Then we talked about neccessary
changes for the following lessons. At the end of the course, we both assessed the
students and exchanged ideas about the outcomes of the course ” (James, English

volunteer teacher)
And other English volunteer teacher commented:
28



“ I sometimes had challenge in explaining difficult concepts for students to
understand. My Vietnamese team-mates could have different ways of explaining things
which made it easier for students to understand, or even could translate them into
Vietnamese. This is particilarly useful in British Studies and English Literature, in
which some of the material was quite complex ” (Chris, English volunteer teacher)
Improved teaching skills
According to Richards (1998), one of the domains of teacher’s professional development is
“teaching skills and methods” including such skills and knowledge as: (i) to master teach-
ing skills (i.e. questioning skills, classroom management, lesson planning ); (ii) to devel-
op competence in using one or more language teaching methods (i.e. communication lan-
guage teaching method ); and (iii) to be able to adapt teaching skills and approaches to
new situations (p.15). Surely, for teachers who often work alone or teach independently,
team-teaching provides a supportive environment that overcomes the isolation of working
in self-contained or departmentalized class-rooms. Being exposed to the subject expertise
of colleagues, to open critique, to different styles of planning and organization as well as
methods of class presentation, teacher can develop their approaches to teaching and ac-
quire a greater depth of understanding of the subject matter of the unit or module. This is
illustrated by the following quotes from the excerpts:
“ Team-teaching helps me integrate various teaching methods and make good use of
them to motivate the students in classes ” (Châu, Vietnamese teacher)
“ The shared responsibility and action helped me as a Westerner understand more
about Vietnamese students’ needs, culture and previous learning experiences, and thus
to know why some ideas worked and other did not. For example, they were used to
students who could work very independently and often not prepared the lessons for that

fact that Vietnamese students tend to need a lot more teachers’ guidance. Working with
a Vietnamese teacher made me aware of this, so she could make suitable preparations
and plan more guided activities ” (Chris, English volunteer teacher)
“ Other thing that was beneficial about it was that it was able to work with different
teacher in the same classroom. The class was easily controlled and there was time for
us to meet with individual students, especially when I’m a “stranger” here ”(James,
English volunteer teacher)