Case study on teacher teams in whole class ensembles

The study aims to help understand how general music teachers and instrumental instructors collaborate in whole class ensemble settings in Austrian secondary schools. These whole class ensemble settings are commonly known as band, choir, or string classes. There have been some studies in Germany, where researchers investigated aspects of collaboration and co-teaching as part of broader inquiries, but there has not yet been similar research conducted in Austrian contexts. To add to the originality of the design, the research will include a one year long professional development program for the participating educators. The study will focus on the participants individual views and perceptions of working together in a team during planning of lessons as well as actual classroom action. The objective is to find out, if and how these perceptions and views change over the course of the school year, and whether that subsequently leads to changes in team-work generally, or teacher actions during the whole class ensemble lessons more specifically. That might help to identify potentially effective factors of the professional development program, which might be transferable to other contexts in the future. Participants will consist of four teams, each including a general music teacher and an instrumental/voice instructor, who team-teach whole ensemble classes and take part in the 60-hour training together. The professional development program will be lead by two external facilitators, and the content of the program will be developed jointly by the facilitators and the researcher. The training days will include important topics with regard to collaboration, lesson planning and evaluation; but there will also be ample room for participants to talk about their own classroom settings, their needs and wishes as they surface. The methods used for the investigation will be mostly qualitative, including interviews with each participant, focus groups , audio recorded planning meetings and video recorded classroom lessons before, during and after the professional development program. All participants, including the students in the whole class ensemble classes, will fill out a short questionnaire at different timepoints in the schoolyear, and a few additional student interviews will be conducted to find out if they perceive changes in the classroom actions and co-teaching over the course of the schoolyear. The interviews and recorded video/audio material will be transcribed and analyzed using software and analyses will follow the guidelines of Grounded Theory Methodology. As one outcome, the study will allow to condense the views and perceptions of the individual educators into in-depth case descriptions. The research will add to knowledge about the impact of professional development programs for in-service teachers in music education, and thereby help to develop future in-service as well as pre-service teacher training.

The qualitative study examined the attitudes, perspectives, experiences, and expectations of music teachers regarding team-teaching. The teams consisted of pre-service teachers who, over a period of six months, jointly planned, taught, and reflected music lessons at a secondary school. The participants in the study took part in a professional development program that gave them the opportunity to learn more about the prerequisites and different forms of team teaching and allowed them to exchange ideas about their experiences together. Individual interviews were conducted before the start and after the end of the team-teaching phase; in addition, group interviews, video and audio recordings, and written reflections were collected and included in the analysis. The study participants experienced teaching together as a significant opportunity and felt relieved in terms of lesson planning and classroom design. They particularly emphasized the wide range of possibilities that team-teaching offers for providing more individualized support to students and for observing them more closely. The shared responsibility for students' learning was repeatedly highlighted as a great help. Especially in terms of lesson organization, collaboration was seen as a major strength. The observation of one's teaching partners was also perceived as highly beneficial: participants were able to appreciate different personalities teaching in front of the class, benefit from the strengths and styles of others, and gain the confidence to experiment more themselves. Particularly within the challenging context of an inner city middle school, where the study was conducted, participants felt better supported and more resilient when teaching as a team. The teaching profession is still shaped today by the notion that independent (autonomous) decision-making is a key factor and a perceived advantage of the job. In this regard, participants noted that working in a team can only be successful if teachers are willing to compromise, provide honest feedback, and communicate well with one another on a personal level. On the one hand, differing approaches and teaching styles can be enriching and foster professional growth. On the other hand, if pedagogical views on teaching, education, and the aims of music education differ too widely, participants felt that successful team-teaching becomes difficult to achieve. While participants acknowledged that preparing lessons as a team initially requires significantly more time, they expected a reduction in workload once the team is well established. From their perspective, this also implies that team-teaching should be understood as a long-term endeavor. Based on the results of the study, it can be concluded that entering the profession through team-teaching, when carefully supported, can be a major source of support and enrichment for music education. Therefore, a broader range of professional development opportunities in this area should be offered, enabling teachers to further develop their competencies in team-teaching.