Data Presentation
Two major themes were derived from the data addressing the research questions in section 1 above. The group solidarity theme relates to research question 1 on student responsibility for learning and is represented at two levels: solidarity of the class as a whole and solidarity of the coteaching group. The students language learning theme addresses research question 2 and includes both peer learners’ learning and coteachers’ learning. Both group solidarity and language learning were explored to analyse the impact of coteaching on students’ learning.
Group Solidarity
The first level of the group solidarity was referred to as the relationship between coteachers and the peer learners whom they taught. This group solidarity in the Chinese class encouraged students as coteachers to take the responsibility for peer learners’ learning. When they knew that they were going to teach their fellow peers, they felt they would have to master the teaching content. ‘Having to teach the material gives you an extra responsibility and I felt like I had to know the material well in order to teach my peers, therefore I made sure to know it very well!’ (Nolan: week 2)1. Peer learners were aware that they and the coteachers belonged to the same class. As a result, they wanted coteachers to perform well and tried their best to help coteachers to deliver successful coteaching sessions by taking proactive participation in coteaching sessions. ‘To a huge extent, there was a sense of camaraderie in the [co]teaching scenario, as fellow student[s] one wished them to do well, supported them and the class as a whole, made an extra effort to listen/participate in their activities’ (Group 5). Peer learners’ proactive participation in coteaching sessions was also associated with their appreciation for coteachers’ hard work. They understood that coteachers had put a lot of effort into their preparation for coteaching. ‘We wanted to be “good students” for our fellow classmates who were teaching us. Since they had made the effort to come up with a plan for the lesson and made worksheets, etc.’ (Group
4).
In terms of intra-coteacher solidarity, according to the coteachers’ feedback, the positive relationship among coteachers within coteaching groups played an important role in helping them to conduct coteaching sessions and achieve their teaching objectives. As they pointed out, the preparation for coteaching made them aware that they were all part of the coteaching groups and responsible to contribute to the group tasks. They worked together on their teaching plans and shared workload with each other in order to deliver successful coteaching sessions. ‘The fact that we were teaching in groups, we felt that we had a duty to the other three in our [co]teaching team to be well prepared. We had to know our topics very well in order to teach them, so it motivated us to work harder’ (Group 1).
These two levels of group solidarity were complementary to each other and together helped students to participate in coteaching or being cotaught, and, at the same time, benefit from their involvement as both coteachers and peer learners. As students indicated, when they had opportunities to act as both coteachers and peer learners, they were unified as a team. The class was glued together and a team spirit was fostered. ‘We noticed that [coteaching] increased the sense of solidarity between learners and this was found to be motivating by everyone in the [class]’ (Group 2). [1]
- [1] Students’ names in this chapter are all pseudonyms.
