2013 Fiscal Year Research-status Report
Constructing an educational model for collaborative team teaching
| Project/Area Number |
25370731
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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| Research Institution | Tokai University |
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Principal Investigator |
コリンズ ピーター 東海大学, 教育研究所, 准教授 (10307241)
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| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
ファイン ゲーリー 東海大学, 教育研究所, 准教授 (70515022)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2013-04-01 – 2016-03-31
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| Keywords | Team teaching / Curriculum design / Teacher collegiality / Nativeness / Non-nativeness / Ownership of English / EFL vs. EIL |
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| Research Abstract |
We have observed a relatively ideal model of team teaching as it is conducted at some of Japan’s private high schools by Japanese teachers of English (JTEs) and assistant language teachers (ALTs). To ascertain how team teaching is being used as an educational tool in MEXT’s new Course of Study, we visited one team’s Communication English I and English Conversation classes eight times each. Classes were videotaped and teacher materials and samples of student writing were collected. Each visit included interviews with the JTE and ALT about sequenced topics including 1) JTE-ALT collegiality, 2) team teaching relationships, 3) English as mediation and 4) student outcomes. We also conducted interviews with other JTEs and ALTs at the school about these and other aspects of team teaching. We have concluded that two dichotomies inherent in the most recent Course of Study are being perpetuated, namely 1) between the goals and practices of four skills classes and those of conversation classes and 2) between ALT roles within conversation classes and in English education overall. We broadened and deepened our own understanding of these issues by conducting an extensive literature review as well as by including team teaching as a key aspect in professional presentations and lectures. This process helped us contextualize team teaching within global perceptions of “nativeness” and the “ownership” of English, and reaffirmed the need to establish a concrete, yet flexible, framework that clarifies JTE and ALT strengths and roles, even in more challenging teaching situations.
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| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
3: Progress in research has been slightly delayed.
Reason
Tokai University’s Research Institute of Educational Development (RIED) was dedicated to supporting and advising teachers at secondary schools within the Tokai Educational System. While we enjoyed a long-standing rapport with administrators, teachers, and students at Tokai-attached schools, gaining access to stakeholders in English education at public schools is quite challenging for most researchers. In 2012 we were optimistic about working with a public high school in Saitama, and had met with the principal, himself an English teacher and SELHi Project veteran. Unfortunately, when he was transferred, we lost our strongest ally at the school, and the pair of team teachers we were planning to work with changed their minds. Additionally, the news came that 2013 would be RIED’s last year; closing the institute required an unexpected, extraordinary commitment of time and energy. In spite of these setbacks, we were able to go to our back-up plan: to work with team teachers at a Tokai-attached school. This allowed us to become familiar with the new Course of Study and MEXT-approved textbooks, to ascertain whether they have had an impact on the goals and practices of team teaching, and to begin constructing a framework that may help integrate four skills and conversation classes at schools that offer both in their curriculum.
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| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
We have contacted English teachers at two public schools: Yamato Nishi High School in Kanagawa Prefecture, and Tokyo Toritsu Higashi High School. Both teachers have approached their principals about the possibility of cooperating with our research and have received positive responses. Formal proposals are now being written and initial visits will take place in the spring; classroom visits will begin in the fall semester. In addition, we will be hiring an assistant to transcribe the 2013 classes and interviews as preparation for writing a follow-up to our literature review. Now affiliated with Tokai University’s Foreign Language Center, we have access to a large population of university students who experienced team teaching; surveying and interviewing them will provide valuable insights into the lasting impact team teaching has had on their communication skills and attitudes. We have also contacted professors currently teaching pre-service JTEs in five different programs in Japan; we plan to interview them and some of their students to investigate whether and how perspectives toward JTE-ALT team teaching are evolving. To further contextualize team teaching within global perspectives, we also plan to visit classes and interview team teachers in other countries; we are currently in correspondence with teachers in Cambodia, Spain, Taiwan, and Vietnam. We expect this fieldwork to inform our construction of a framework for team teaching that reflects current perspectives on global English and its users as well as the everyday realities in Japan’s public high schools.
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| Expenditure Plans for the Next FY Research Funding |
Difficulty of using the money exactly.
We will apply this amount to our 2014 research, for example to buy resources, pay an assistant for transcription.
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