5.5 TEAM TEACHING

Team teaching is comparatively a new idea in the field of education. It is one of the innovations in instructional organization to ensure optimum use of resources, interest, and expertise. It was originated in American education in 1954. It has assumed many dimensions and is now a big movement.Team teaching is a comprehensive term with many faces. In most widely applied sense, it means giving two or more teachers a joint responsibility for the education of group of pupils larger than what is generally considered a normal size of class.

TEAM TEACHING DEFINED

1. Views of Shaplin:

Shaplin has defined team teaching in the following words: "Team teaching is a type of instructional organization, involving teaching personnel and the students assigned to them, in which two or more teachers are given responsibility, of working together, for all or a significant part of the instruction of some group of students."Team teaching may also be defined to include not only organizational structure but also a highly complex philosophy of education.

2.Views of M.B. Naik:

"In a team teaching method, two or more teachers make plan of the subject or subjects co-operatively, carry it out, and always evaluate its effect on the students periodically."

This is actually a very simple version of team Team teaching is a technique of teaching the students in a collective form which makes teaching more effective and a joint venture.

3. Views of Michael J. Apter:

Professor Michael J. Apter has aptly marked, "Team involves bringing together a number of classes whose teaching is then the joint responsibility of the teachers of these classes who now constitute a team."

4. View of Caulo-Olson:

Team-teaching is an instructional situation where two or more teachers possessing complementary teaching skills cooperatively plan and implement the instruction for a single group of students using flexible scheduling and grouping techniques to meet the particular instruction.In brief, team teaching refers to the following factors or components:

• It involves more than one teacher i.e. there is a group of teachers.
• Teaching becomes a joint responsibility. This includes instructional planning and other aspects of teaching Team teaching is essentially cooperative teaching.
• It is an organization of instructional material or course of studies at all educational levels such as elementary secondary or college levels.
• The number of teachers depends upon nature and objectives of the course, the size of the class and the facilities to be used.