Synergistic Team Teaching for Professional Development: A Case Study Approach

This study proposes an innovative approach for English professors who lack the time to engage in professional development (PD) programs, believe such programs are conducted in a decontextualized manner, or regard them as too expensive. Based on a qualitative case study performed from January to September 2018, this study addresses the following question: How can team teaching promote PD for mid-career English as a foreign language university professors? It investigates the types of PD that emerged when two English professors at the University of Costa Rica engaged in synergistic team teaching. The participants team taught a course for students newly admitted into the English-teaching major. In this study, synergistic team teaching is understood as a method in which two professors share classroom space and teaching practices and engage in planning discussions together. To understand what the participants learned when practicing team teaching, data were collected through semi-structured interviews and coded following Creswell and Poth’s (2018) data analysis spiral. The coding was developed in light of the conceptualization of PD 1 Magíster en la Enseñanza del Inglés como Lengua Extranjera por la Universidad de Costa Rica, Costa Rica. Doctoranda en Literacy, Culture, and Language Education en Indiana University, Bloomington, Estados Unidos. Correo electrónico: neramire@iu.edu 66 Revista Pensamiento Actual Vol 20 No. 35 2020 Universidad de Costa Rica Sede de Occidente developed by Guskey (2002), Sparks (2002), and Johnson (2006). Accordingly, this study identifies instances (during the interview or during the classroom observation) that can be interpreted as change of the classroom practices, change in the attitudes and beliefs of the professors (Guskey, 2002), continuous improvement of teaching and learning (Sparks, 2002), and teacher’s knowledge transformed into practice (Johnson, 2006). This study shows how team teaching offers professors a community of practice in which they can share, discuss, and implement new teaching knowledge. Through team teaching, teachers receive PD benefits that match their classroom context perfectly, enabling them to engage in authentic, fully contextualized learning opportunities.