Team Teaching Is Not Just for Teachers! Student Perspectives on the Collaborative Classroom

This article outlines findings from a study of student perceptions of team teaching. The researcher surveyed students at different times during their first term of study at a private college in Japan where team teaching is applied across the curriculum. Responses were content-analysed and six major categories emerged. Team teaching was seen to improve the students' understanding of their lessons and prompt more questions from students in class. Respondents perceived themselves as co-collaborators with their teachers, having equal power to facilitate or impede the collaboration. Respondents also identified a good relationship between teaching partners as a key aspect of effective team teaching and noted that partners are better caretakers of students' needs than single teachers. Finally, there was a common belief in the complementary effect of collaboration to improve the teachers' professional development. Many of the responses align closely with results of similar teacher-focussed studies, but some of the views expressed offer unexpected insights.