Introduction
Education is essential for the progress and development of a country. It is necessary that knowledge is delivered from generation to generation to provide people with an understanding of all aspects of nature. For this sacred duty, the most intelligent minds are hired to deliver education to the blooming flowers of the nation by presenting them with content, understanding, and examples of nature to help them understand these concepts. The profession of teaching is thousands of years old, and it has been respected since humans started civilizing. The learning process started when humans started interacting with their environment and became curious about answers to naturally occurring phenomena. In modern teaching, a concept of collaborative teaching has been introduced in which students help each other understand the concepts of the class. In this essay, I will describe the concept of co-teaching, provide my personal opinion about it, and provide reasons for my rationale. I will also describe the concept of pedagogy and my beliefs about learning.
Discussion
Collaborative teaching or co-teaching was introduced in our education system when multiple disciplines were introduced and students were taught these advanced subjects. Not every student has the capability to understand each and every concept taught in class, and for this, they need additional help. The ideal approach for teaching is that the teacher should be able to describe the concepts in detail to every student irrespective of the student’s learning ability and mental competence. However, the learning ability of all students is not the same, and teachers can only provide enough attention to every student as time is limited and a large amount of course material is to be covered. This creates a problem in that some concepts are not understood by some students, and they need some other source to understand these concepts.
In collaborative teaching or co-teaching, one teacher is accompanied by another teacher who helps the main teacher in various ways. The co-teacher can be used to observe and assist the students, teach side by side with the main teacher, teach two separate groups, teach by taking turns, or participate in team teaching, in which both teach as one unit. The co-teaching concept is beneficial in various ways. This method works best in individualized teaching when the main teacher can focus on the lecture while the co-teacher can provide attention to every student individually (Friend et al., 2010). Also, it can help students understand the concepts that the main teacher was unable to teach or that were not fully understood by the students.
While co-teaching has many benefits, it can be problematic for some teachers as well (Cook & Friend, 1995). My opinion is against co-teaching because of my personal experiences. In my service, I have observed that every teacher assigned as a co-teacher to me tries to take over the class rather than being of help. This kind of behavior decreases my confidence and the respect students have for me, as they may think that their main teacher is incompetent. Another negative thing about co-teaching is the process of shifting to co-teaching. There is a need for a lot of preparation and planning before the actual delivery of a lecture to students. The environment and setup of the class are changed, and teachers have to prepare their parts and distribute tasks, which can sometimes be conflicting. Though it has many positive sides, it also has some negatives, which I have experienced in my service, and therefore, I am against this kind of teaching.
The importance of content in teaching cannot be denied in any educational environment, as it is the basis for the learning program that is about to be delivered to the students. The content is the compilation of knowledge, skills, and processes that will be required for teaching the students about the subjects. It is the very first and most important step of teaching, which describes the whole process formulated for the class and the end goal of the whole course. This content governs how the students will be provided with all the concepts of the course and the method of their evaluation. It also includes the schedule and timely distribution of each lecture and the content of the lecture.
The content of teaching is devised by analyzing the whole class that will be taught the course. It is organized based on the learning ability, interest, and level of education of each student. Every student has different levels of interest and learning ability in a specific subject. Because they differ in these factors, some students will have previous knowledge and interest in the subject, while others will have less understanding of the content as well as less interest in the subject; therefore, there is a need to set the content by analyzing these factors for every student. Many strategies are available to include differentiation in teaching, and they are currently applied in almost every education system in the world.
Conclusion
In short, the process of learning is the most important part of the self-development process of any individual and needs to be done with proper care. Teachers face a lot of difficulties when in-class collaborative teaching occurs, and it hinders students’ learning of the subject in the class. The main aim of every class is to deliver knowledge to every student in the class, and for this purpose, teachers will have to adopt new strategies of differentiation and formulate their content according to the requirements of the course and the personal factors of each student. Ensuring that no collaborative teaching occurs and students are taught by incorporating their differences will finally lead to the best education delivery to the students and help us improve the quality of our education.
References
Friend, M., Cook, L., Hurley-Chamberlain, D., & Shamberger, C. (2010). Co-teaching: An illustration of the complexity of collaboration in special education. Journal of Educational and Psychological Consultation, 20(1), 9–27. https://doi.org/10.1080/10474410903535380
Cook, L., & Friend, M. (1995). Co-teaching: Guidelines for creating effective practices. Focus on Exceptional Children, 28(3), 1–16. https://doi.org/10.17161/foec.v28i3.6852
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