READY TO BE PART OF TEAMS?

TEACHING
EFFECTIVELY
AT
MIDDLE
SCHOOLS
RESULTS OF SURVEY EDU601
KIM COOPER SPRING 2017
TEACHING 411
Currently, at the school I teach in, there are two types of grade level infra-structure.
Two grade levels, 6th & 7th, are arranged in teams: 2/3 man in 6th, 4-man in 7th.
Eighth grade is departmentalized as English, Math, Social Studies, & Science.
A team at my school is defined as:
2, 3, or 4 teachers that teach a specific content-area in their own classrooms within a team
Set number of students for each team
ENQUIRING MIND
Since I have been a member of both configurations, I wondered which set-up teachers
felt provided greater efficacy for them.
Questions to consider are:
1) What are local middle school teachers opinions as to the
efficacy of various instructional practices?
2) Do teacher demographics affect these teachers opinions?
Demographics include: gender, teaching experience, team-teaching experience.
AVAILABLE RESOURCES
Research has provided insight into various aspects of team teaching.
Meyer stated in The Middle, that some middle schools were working, yet what works was
the elusive question.
In What Makes Interdisciplinary Teams Effective?, the authors stated that common planning
time was critical to team success; teachers must focus on other factors; so what are those
factors?
And, ultimately, does team-teaching positively affect student success and achievement? A paper
presented at an education research conference, Teaming Up for Student Success, conducted a
study that explored teaming and instructional practices on student achievement.
METHOD USED
Focused on what teachers perceived as self-efficacy, the researcher utilized questions that
could be easily answered by their level of agreement. The researcher purposefully included
some questions that addressed opposing opinions to team teaching.
The survey instrument was: paper-based, hand-delivered, with twenty-three questions.
Answers were assigned a point value of 1 to 5. Handout 1
Data was collected from 30 surveys. Each response was recorded by number (1-30) and
tallied.
Demographic Results: Gender = Females 22/Males 8; Teaching Experience = 3/16/11; and
Team-Teaching Experience = 5 with 0-3 years, 25 with 4+years
SURVEY SAYSRESULTS
Gender Plus: Summary Table of Results - Handout 2

When reviewing the chart for results based on Gender:

Q5 showed women more significantly believe that
team teaching enhances their teaching styles.
Q18 also showed a significant difference when
reflecting if team teaching inhibits their teaching styles.
Again, women believed it more so.
SURVEY ALSO SAYS
Team Teaching Experience
When reviewing the chart for results
based on Team Teaching Experience:
Q19 showed that those with 4+ years
experience believed team teaching
increased their level of professionalism
more than those with fewer years.
TEAMS - NOW WHAT?
Within the group of local, centralized teachers that were surveyed, teachers believed
they were MOST effective when teaching on a team. Teachers PREFERRED to be part of
a team and believed that it was beneficial to them and to their students.
Q1= Teachers believed Team Teaching Often/Always provided Teacher Benefits
Q22 = Teachers Often/Always Understood their Role as a Team Teacher
Next, the researcher would survey teachers outside of the immediate school, state, region,
and to other parts of the country. There are approximately 15,000 middle schools in the US.