Multiple teachers for each subject

[theophilus]

Daughter in Year 8; had 2 teachers for Science last year; this year 2 teachers for each of Science,Maths,History and German. One of her friends has 4 teachers sharing her Maths tuition this year.This would appear to be a growing trend. I'm unfamiliar with this approach; it doesn't strike me as ideal. But before judgement , wondered if others are encountering similar and what their thoughts are?

Sounds a bit odd, except if the science was divided into biol/chem/physics with a specialist teacher for each.
Can't think of any reason except to make timetabling easier.

Could well be due to timetabling issues and fitting in with part time teachers.

No, not ideal. I am an English teacher and sometimes teach split classes as a result of timetabling constraints. it works as long as the staff communicate well about the class. There can be advantages in that the students may find one style more suited to them.

This is called team teaching and can be good practice.

I would imagine that the school are doing this in Year 8 with so many subjects because that is what fits on the timetable.

It is fairly standard later on (ie in sixth form) to share the teaching between two teachers, each doing their own modules.

The key thing for your DD is how they are implementing team teaching. Are the two teachers in each subject teaching separate materials, or are they following on from one another in one topic?

Schools have to make a lot of compromises to make it work for everyone. However, they should make the absolute best of any non-ideal situations, by adopting validated teaching methods.

Haven't come across this till recently when DS started sixth form, and each of the four subjects are shared between two teachers

DS really likes it, as it helps keep lessons fresh if they're not listening to the same teacher "droning on" (his words not mine) for hours on end which otherwise would happen (one day he has 3 hours of History, another 3 hours of Chemistry on the trot.)

MindtheGappp - that's not team teaching. Team teaching is when you have more than one teacher in the room at the same time, working as a team to teach the class. Tricky to get right, but brilliant if done well. The OP's situation is simply split classes - works well sometimes, but not others. I currently have two Yr 9 split classes (Performing Arts) and it works well because the other teacher and I communicate effectively at the end of each lesson. If teachers don't communicate, it can be problematic, but assuming they do, it's fine. I agree it's not ideal - though I do prefer it for VI Form groups. I expect it's a timetabling issue.

That might be your understanding of team teaching, EvilTwins, but that is a mere subset of team teaching.

DS has 4 teachers for English Lit! They specialise 1 for coursework, 1 for Poetry etc. He likes it.

"Team teaching is when two or more teachers plan to teach a class together for some reason, for a lesson, or more than a lesson."

Don't be so bloody patroning, MindtheGappp - it's not "my understanding" of what teach teaching is, it's what team teaching is. You can't team teach on your own.

OOps. Team teaching, not teach teaching [hblush]

It is getting more and more common and is usually to do with timetabling issues. It can be because of part-time teachers, members of senior leadership teaching in the dept (they have reduced timetabled hours), often it's because the timetable is just tight and has to fit in around other subjects. It works well at 6th form but I don't like it lower down the school, especially at KS3 where I think the kids need consistency and firm boundaries. We had 3 hrs of teaching for each KS3 class a week and splitting between teachers meant 2 hrs with one teacher and 1 hr with another. The kids struggled with exercise books, remembering homeworks, where they sat.....

I don't think I was the one that was being patronising. Touché.

Also see here

and here

Mindthegappp riled me - hence my excess of posts.

It works well in sixth form - it gives twice as many faces to see and to be interested in the welfare of the student.

At KS3, it is fine, IMO, in core subjects, where there are several hours of lessons a week. I am uneasy for subjects that might be just an hour or two per week.

I would say that the school does not enter into this lightly but should be able to mitigate any weakness in their timetabling. If they can't, I would be worried.

I agree it works well in sixth form - I am teaching a sixth form class alone this year, whereas last year I shared it with a colleague. Much preferred last year's arrangement - as did the students.

I really can't be bothered to click on your links. I am pretty sure I could also post links supporting my point of view.

Go attack someone else, and leave me to reassure the OP.

I don't see how you saying "it's called team teaching" is reassuring the OP at all. Nor do I see how me saying "no it's not, team teaching is something else" going to worry her.

Other than the terminology issue, I have agreed with you mindthegappp about how this split-class approach is quite common, and not likely to cause any damage as long as it is done well.

And if you can find anything to say that team teaching doesn't involve teachers teaching together, at the same time, in the same room, I would be very interested to read it.

I would have thought it would happen in

Science - Biology, Chemistry, Physics
English - Laguage and Literature
Maths - Pure and Statistics
Technology - Electronics and Engineering

That was the way our classes were split

However, I would have thought the split would happen later in schools, for GCSE eg.

Science teacher here - definitly a GOOD thing for science - your child will be getting a specialist teacher for at least 2 thirds of their science teaching (all science teachers qualified to teach all 3 sciences, but will have have a specialist area).

Never known secondary science lessons that arent rotated between 3 or even 4 teachers (bio and human bio are not the same thing)

Maths is often split between 2 teachers.

Not so for English - usually 1 teacher.

Tech - specialist teachers for textiles, food, electronics, graphics, Res mats , prod des.... some teachers may have two specialities.

Mind the Gapp sorry but during my PGCE team teaching was definitely more than one teacher in the class at once. More than one teacher teaching a given class is just timetabling, it can work well, especially if the subject is easy to divide etc. (eg. 3 science teachers is quite common).