Co-teaching: Towards a New Model for Teacher Preparation in Foreign Language Teacher Education

Abstract

This overview article focuses on the co-teaching model, an innovative and comprehensive model for student teaching experiences that provides opportunities to foreign language preservice teachers to develop their knowledge base about teaching and learning foreign languages while gaining in other areas: autonomy, collaboration, and agency. The article begins with a brief history and description of co-teaching, a comprehensive literature review that highlights successful elements of the co-teaching model, as well as an analysis of benefits and challenges of its implementation based on prior research in other content areas. We then discuss how the co-teaching model is aligned with the 2013 ACTFL/CAEP’s Program Standards for the Preparation of Foreign Language Teachers and offer guidelines to implement the proposed co-teaching model in Foreign Language teacher preparation programs. Concluding remarks include final reflections and future research directions.