Collaboration and Shared Responsibility in Team Teaching: A Large-Scale Survey Study

Abstract

The practice of team teaching—how teachers deliver team teaching in the classroom—substantially determines its effect. The collaboration between the teachers and the level of shared responsibility between them are two important dimensions of the team teaching practice. To date, no instrument exists to measure these dimensions. However, in view of empirical research within the context of team teaching, such an instrument is important. Therefore, the Collaboration and Shared Responsibility in Team Teaching (CSTT) scale is developed, making it possible to assess these two important dimensions. The CSTT scale was used in a large-scale cross-sectional survey study (n = 555). Next to a validation of the scale, this study provides empirical evidence on the differences between groups of teachers regarding (a) teaching experience, (b) education type, and (c) frequency of team teaching. Results show that teachers overall report high scores on both dimensions. Further, this study indicates that there are no significant differences between the groups based on (a) teaching experience and (b) education type for both collaboration and shared responsibility. There are, however, significant differences between groups in terms of the (c) frequency of team teaching.