Transcript Application of Team-Teaching Techniques to Teacher Training

A Case Study of Application of TBLT
to Teacher Training
Presenters:
Affiliation:
Address:
Hiromasa Tanaka ([email protected])
Yoshifumi Fukada ([email protected])
Meisei university
2-1-1 Hodokubo Hino-city Tokyo 191-8506 Japan
Issues in the teaching practicum courses at
Meisei university
 Strong anxiety for taking practice teaching

Insufficient English knowledge
Solution of the issue

Establishing a task-based teacher training project named Meisei
Summer School Project (MSSP)

One target task:
to teach English to students at risk.

Three pedagogical tasks to accomplish:
(1) discussing how to manage their classes including the
size of class and teaching styles to use
(2) developing class curriculum/lesson plans
(3) peer monitoring and evaluation in rehearsals
Participants of the project

Teachers: The Meisei university students
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
Students

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
Undergraduates from the first to fourth year
Graduate students (Masters degree)
International volunteers (2005~)
Elementary school students: 4th grade (2005~); 5th / 6th grades (2004~)
Junior high school students: 1st / 2nd grades (2002~); 3rd grade (2003~)
Adults (2005~)
Two faculty members


Hiromasa Tanaka (Initiator of the project)
Yoshifumi Fukada
Ethnography of the Task-Based Teacher
Training Project (MSSP)

Foci of this ethnographic study
1.
how the participants learned through preparation
process
how the participants learned in actual teaching
period
what the participants learned throughout the
whole project
2.
3.
The data collection period for
the ethnographic study

1st MSSP (6 days: July 28 – August 2, 2002)
Preparation period (About 2 months: Late May – July 27)

2nd MSSP (6 days: July 28 – August 2, 2003)
Preparation period (About 2 months: Late May – July 27)

3rd MSSP (6 days: August 2 – August 7, 2004)
Preparation period (About 2 months: Late May –August 1)

4th MSSP (6 days: August 1 – August 6, 2005)
Preparation period (About 2 months: Late May – July 31)
Research techniques used for the data
collection
 Observation:
1.General meetings
2.Teaching-teams’ group work at the university
3.Their lessons (Videotaped)
 Informal interview:
1.During their group work
2.During the individual meetings with each teaching team
 Questionnaire:
1.During both the first and second MSSP.
Triangulation
1st Pedagogical task:
Discuss how to manage their classes

Adoption of Team-Teaching (T.T.)
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Formation of teaching groups:
 3~5 undergraduates/graduate Ss in each group
 1 main teacher + Teaching Assistants (TAs)
Teaching based on collaboration .
2nd Pedagogical Task: Collaborative development
of curriculum / lesson plans in groups

About two months of preparation for their lessons

Each group of students started to work seriously on it about
16 days before their classes started.

Each student spent 17 hours and 51 minutes on average for
group meetings on campus during the last 2 weeks of
preparation.
* In the 4th MSSP, Meisei Ss started working with the int.
volunteers on July 24.
Topics discussed in group meetings
(1) The flow of lessons:
“We talked about lesson plans. We tried not to have gaps between lessons.
We tried creating lesson plans which are consistent with each others.”
(Miki)
“…we talked a lot about the way of proceeding the lessons and the time
allocation for each activity.” (Yoshihei)
(2) The content of class activities:
“Teaching materials / games we use in the class.” (Risa)
“The goal of the lessons and their contents. Rules of the lessons.” (Hiroto)
(3) Pedagogy to be used in their lessons:
“We discussed how we can give lucid explanations to students, or which
points we should spend more time with when teaching a class.” (Risa)
“We discussed teaching techniques to entertain students, and to catch their
attentions to the lessons.” (Yuka)
They `developed class curriculum together` and `created teaching materials
together` in the meetings.
3rd Pedagogical task: Monitoring and
Evaluating lessons in rehearsals

1st / 2nd MSSP: Encouraged Ss to rehearse their
lessons at least one time.

3rd MSSP: Imposed all Ss on rehearsing their
lessons at least one time.

4th MSSP: Imposed all Ss on rehearsing their
lessons at least two times.
Feedback Ss received from other Ss
and faculty members in the rehearsals
(1) About appropriate ways of talking / attitude as a teacher:
“You had better talk a little bit more friendly. Be more confident”
(Takuto)
“Talk louder, with appropriate tempo/speed.” (Shigeyuki)
(2) About the pedagogy / teaching techniques used in the practice
teachings:
“It’s better to include pattern practice more.”(Hiroto)
“The teaching should not be one-way, but interactive. Have more
conversations with students.”(Takeshi)
These comments they received were concrete and particular.
 These comments were helpful to improve their lessons /
teaching techniques.

The target task: Teach / manage their
classes

Four types of T.T. techniques frequently used by S
groups:
Type1: Covering main teacher’s insufficiency in teaching
experience and English skills/competence
Example1.
Kenji (Main T.):
Noboru (T.A.):
(Writing on the blackboard) Oh, I forgot
the spelling of `statue`. (puzzled face)
(Standing by the blackboard, he
immediately write the word down for him).
Type2: Creating lively environment in a classroom
Example2:
Yuta (S1):
Yoshihei (T.A.):
(Hesitating to answer a question
from the main T.)
Ok, you can do it, Yuta!
Example3:
Akiyoshi (T.A.1), Rie (T.A.2), Mami (T.A.3): (Give big
applause every time when students could write down a correct
answer on the board.)
Type 3: Maintaining the environment where students can
concentrate on their study in the classroom
Example 4.
To make space for playing a game, the main T., all T.A.s, and some
Ss spontaneously moved desks and chairs to the wall.
Example 5.
S1:
(He tells the main T.,Yoshihei that he cannot
see the board with reflection of sun light)
Yoshihei (Main T.):
Sorry, you cannot see the board with
reflection of light.
Mutsumi (T.A.1):
(Being attentive to the Main T./the S, she goes
to the window to close a curtain)
S1:
(He can see the board clearly, and starts
concentrating on the class)
Type 4: Giving intensive support to the weak students in the classroom
Example 6:
Yoshihei (T.A.1): (While doing an activity, he asks a question for a student
sitting next to him) Teacher, he (the S) created one question,
but where should he write it down on the handout?
Example 7:
Hiromi (Main T.): (Checking on the answers of a practice quiz) S1, what’s the
answer of this question?
S1:
(Looking at the question, she tries but is having a trouble with
getting the correct answer.
Yoshihei (T.A.1): (He, who was standing by the S1, comes to her and gives her
some advice.)
S1:
(With the support from Yoshihei, she got the correct answer.)
What Ss have acquired through the taskbased teacher training project
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Growth as teacher
Knowledge of English
Sense of responsibility
Sense of empathy
Self-esteem
Communication skills
Intercultural communication skills
(1) Growth as teacher: Acquisition of knowledge
and skills required to become teachers
Realization of students’ diversity in a classroom:
“All students in a classroom are different. Some students have
high English skills, but others don’t. Some students are
very talkative and talk about things which are unrelated to
class activities, but others are very quite. Every student is
so much different…” (Serika: Questionnaire)
Realization of the way of dealing with the diversity:
“Because each student’s personality is different, I learned how
to improve/elicit his/her good points. In fact, some
students were very quiet the first two days, but they started
to talk a lot with enthusiasm when I talked to them from my
side. I felt so happy when their attitude changed.” (Nami:
Questionnaire)
Teaching techniques acquired through the teaching of classes:
“Before calling on each student, I flung the whole class a question, and had them think
the answer.” (Hiroto: Questionnaire)
“I explained each grammatical point not using grammatical terminologies.” (Yukiko:
Questionnaire)
“I used oral approach (pattern practice) and some other techniques in my class.”
(Naoto: Questionnaire)
“I learned that the words used in example sentences should be all common to Ss. I also
learned that Ss won’t be able to understand terminologies such as be-verb and thirdperson, so I need to paraphrase them with other basic words. (Mutsumi:
Questionnaire)
“I learned that praising on Ss leads them to get confidence / enthusiasm in learning
English. I also learned that, even if our lessons did not proceed as we scheduled,
we would be able to deal with it by preparing some extra class activities.” (Yukiko:
Questionnaire)
(2) Knowledge of English
Vocabulary/Expressions:
“When I ask questions to Ss about pictures I show, I need to say, “What is this?”, not
“Who is this?”” (Itsuko: Questionnaire)
“I could enrich my English vocabulary.” (Sayaka: Questionnaire)
English Grammar:
“I learned why we write the word, “I” in a capital letter all the time.” (Serika:
Questionnaire)
“I figured out the rules for the way of changing verbs into past tense or ing form.”
(Sayaka: Questionnaire)
“I could increase the knowledge of prepositions.” (Yoshihei: Questionnaire)
“I learned a lot about articles.” (Yukiko: Questionnaire)
“I learned the rules of changing nouns into plural forms.” (Nanae: Questionnaire)
Pronunciation:
“I learned the significance of pronunciation. I hadn’t paid much attention to
pronunciation, but I noticed its importance through the preparation of the lessons.”
(Naomi: Questionnaire)
“I learned the significance of pronunciation...” (Naoto: Questionnaire)
(3) Sense of responsibility
“I decided to participate in the project just because it
sounded fun to teach classes, but now, I realized that
how much responsibility I had as a teacher on the
project. I felt I had to complete my tasks as a teacher
steadily.” (Sayaka: Questionnaire)
“I could acquire strong courage to complete tasks on my
own responsibility no matter how difficult they are to
complete.” (Yukiko: Questionnaire)
(4) Sense of empathy: The ability to feel, think, act,
and perceive the world from the other person’s
point of view (Tamura, 1992)
“I noticed that if a teacher feels qualms about his/her
own teaching, students also become uneasy. I felt I
needed to be more confident in myself.” (Serika:
Questionnaire)
“I became able to take things from the students’
viewpoints. I noticed that when I explain things in
my lessons, I need to do it in the way my students
can understand.” (Aya: Questionnaire)
Shota (a student) won an English game in Akiyoshi (the main
teacher)’s class. Akiyoshi promised him to bring some takoyaki food
as a prize the last day of the class. However, Shota had a fever and
could not attend on the class the last day. When preparing for the
closing ceremony, Akiyoshi and other undergraduates in the teamteaching group came to the faculty members and said that they would
like to hand over the takoyaki food and a diploma of MSSP to him.
Akiyoshi said, “Shota would be pleased if we bring him the takoyaki
because he was very looking forward to eating them.”
When the faculty members agreed with the idea, they spontaneously
called the Shota’s mother and went to see him by train after the closing
ceremony.
(Fieldnotes)
(5) Self-esteem
“I found that if I take actions, things march up. I realized I also
can do it. I found that there was something that I can do.”
(Hiroto: Questionnaire)
“I got confidence in myself. I felt so happy when students
learned things from my lessons. It was so nice to be able to
contribute to the students.” (Nami: Questionnaire)
“Tsugumi (her team member) has changed. She is so much
different, now. She grew up.” (Motoko: Fieldnotes)
(6) Communication skills to build good
relationships with others
Communication skills required to establish good
relationships with other team members:
“I became able to work on a project collaborating with
other members.” (Hiromi: Questionnaire)
“I found that we can get various new ideas through the
talks with other team members.” (Katsumi:
Questionnaire)
Communication skills required to establish good relationships
with their students:
“Each child is different, so we need to know each student’s
character well. Through the contact with various types of
children, I acquired good interaction skills. (Tatsuki:
Questionnaire)
“I learned how to communicate with my students. By having a
lot of conversations with them, they would trust and like us.
Students would get confidence and also get enthusiasm by
praising them. … Understanding each student’s personality,
specialty, and interest would be the key to establish close
relationships with students. Many children in their age are
assertive. By listening to each student’s assertion, we would
be able to get trust from them.” (Yukiko: Questionnaire)
(7) Intercultural communication skills
The meisei university students had many opportunities
to communicate with international volunteers invited
from various countries in the process of preparing and
teaching their lessons.
Implications of the project

Incorporating a task-based teacher training project like
MSSP into a teaching practicum course will help students
fix what they have learned in the classroom and acquire
skills/characters indispensable for becoming teachers.

In case students feel anxious about their knowledge and
teaching skills, adoption of T.T. would be effective.