Toward an Ideal Model of Teacher Collaboration: a Focus on Listening Instruction of 5th Grade Classes in Taiwan: 中外師協同教學之效率: 以英語聽力教學為例

One type of teacher collaboration termed co-teaching has been gaining popularity in many Asian educational contexts such as Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan. The benefits and problems of the co-teaching between a native-English-speaking teacher (NEST) and non-native-English-speaking teacher (NNEST) have been extensively documented in research (e.g., Carless & Walker, 2006; Copland, Davis, Garton, and Mann, 2016). Still, this current study identified research gaps. First, the actual effectiveness of co-teaching as measured by student achievement seemed rare. Second, a quantitative analysis of how two important factors, co-teaching style and co-planning time, actually influenced student achievement during co-teaching was scarce. Third, a detailed qualitative classroom description of how the teachers specifically utilized their strengths in co-teaching practices had not been documented. This study recruited 27 teachers (NESTs and NNESTs) and 270 5th graders in Taiwan. It was found that students’ listening improved after being co-taught for 1 year. In addition, the co-teaching style and the co-planning time influenced students’ listening proficiency differently. Lastly, both qualitative and quantitative results showed that the joint-led teaching style with teachers who co-planned between 2–4 h provided the best results in students’ listening proficiency.