Determinación de la influencia de sistemas de cultivos con pitahaya y té

At Waratah High, three teachers conduct a class of 50 students in year seven to ten. This is supposed to allow for inter-age mentoring and collaborative learning to occur naturally, as students from years seven through to year twelve are based in the same house for their six years of secondary schooling. However, because the school‘s new buildings can cater

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for both collaborative and independent learning, these class groups can break off into groups of seventeen with one teacher. This is an attempt by Waratah High to align the teaching and learning at the school with the organisational practices necessary to ‗engage young adolescents in relevant, meaningful and challenging learning‘ (MYSA, 2008, p. 1), as outlined in MYSA‘s (2008) position paper. The school‘s house and class structures appear to be an attempt to adhere to the middle-schooling elements of ‗small learning communities that provide students with sustained individual attention in a safe and healthy school environment … [and place] emphasis on strong teacher–student

relationships through extended contact with a small number of teachers and a consistent student cohort‘ (p. 1). However, there can be difficulties in aligning practice with intent. The example below demonstrates that continuity of house leadership teams has been an issue within the team teaching model:

Ms O: … that was part of that deliberate planning too, that you’d be in a house and supposedly that the teams and the leadership teams would remain constant. Of course, that hasn’t been the case. I think S [the principal, is] trying to get that set, so at least she’s going to have maybe three years of leadership teams not moving. Because then at least there’s the consistency in the house. You’d get to be teaching kids in your house, and you will be following them from seven to twelve. So, a small school if you like … with three hundred kids, the idea should be that all staff will know all the kids and they will know us.

The collaborative model of Waratah High (having classes of 50 students and three teachers) aims to adhere to the MYSA‘s (2008) ‗small learning communities‘ (p. 1). Some of the goals of these collaborative classrooms and some concerns are described by one head-of-house staff member:

Interviewer: What do you think that the students pick up on with regards to social skills?

Ms O: I think because we’ve got that collaborative model here [at Waratah], where you’ve got three teachers in a class of 50, some kids are going to get lost. Now they possibly would have got lost in a one to 25 anyway. Perhaps there’s less chance of getting lost if you’ve got three to 50, because you’ve got—effectively divide one staff with seventeen kids ideally.

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However, there appeared to be some concerns from young people about having 50 students in a classroom.

Female 1: The classes get wild.

Interviewer: Okay, why are you wilder in year seven than you were in primary school?

Female 1: Now there’s more people in class, like 50. Interviewer: Is that too many people in class? Female 1: Yes.

Female 2: There’s too many. (WH11) Interviewer: Smaller classes?

Male 1: Smaller classes, you learn more.

Interviewer: Do you think you do? Why do you think that is?

Male 1: Because you have lots of turns. Because if there’s 50 kids, you can’t get your turn. (WH9)

One of the problems seen with team teaching from a teachers‘ perspective is the need for effective planning. This was reiterated in a newly graduated, or beginning, teacher‘s comments about team teaching and his experience of it.

Interviewer: So do you think perhaps it might be better if we team taught?

Mr O: Yeah. I’ve done it before at another school. It’s really good when it works. When all the teachers have enough time to prepare quality lessons that can be taught together, it works really well. I’ve seen it work well here as well.

Interviewer: So you think it would be a better opportunity for kids to sort of see teachers modelling? I see team teaching at Waratah High, which is where I am also doing [research].

Mr O: Yeah they do. The only problem with Waratah though is that the teachers want to do what they’ve always done, and they want to separate the classes

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because it’s easier. But I think it can work really well, but there’s no time to organise that kind of stuff.

Interviewer: What sort of quality? When you are talking about quality lessons, what are you talking about? The quality of the subject matter or the quality of the delivery?

Mr O: No, I mean the quality of the way it’s delivered and with 50 kids in the classroom, and three teachers, it’s really hard. You can’t teach that whole—it’s really hard to teach the whole group at the same time with three teachers up the front. But I guess the best way would be to kind of have rotating groups or conversations between—like panel conversations. Discussing what work they have and each student has their own individual plan between different groups. The teachers kind of rotate between them.

Interviewer: So is this what you’ve seen in another school?

Mr O: No, well that’s the only way that I can think of team teaching working as a team, instead of three teachers being in the same room. Like, we’d go over and talk to each other and see what was going on. But then we’d split back off to see or own groups and teach to our own students. The students don’t see any discussion between teachers.

According to Scruggs et al.‘s (2007) meta-analysis of published qualitative research, team teachers, or those teaching together, generally support team teaching. Teachers

interviewed in this research agreed, but the ‗how to‘ is expressed as a problem as can be seen from the following interview excerpts:

Ms O: Because the staff have to work collaboratively, there should be—the kids should be seeing professional interaction between staff, sharing of resources, a bit of humour as someone’s doing something or other else. There’s a bit of—so they should see a bit of banter going on. That things should be calm and pleasant, and we always talk to each other with respect.

Now I know that hasn’t happened in all classes, and there’s been some issues where staff have been really rude to other staff members publicly, in front of the kids. Condemning the model we’re in, that this is rubbish, out loud in the

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classroom: completely and utterly inappropriate. There’s work going on in that regard, and I’m mentoring this particular person. Because no matter how much you disagree with what you’re working in, it is what we’re working in. So, the reality is draw the line [and] move on. The other thing is, working with that, you can disagree all you like and you might have—you might dislike this person for a whole lot of reasons. That’s fine, but you must work professionally. You have to collaborate.

I’m going to team meetings with them to make sure that they keep themselves nice, which is a concern because you would think we’re dealing with adults here. Some of these people are quite senior. But I suppose it’s personality, isn’t it? So what you would hope would be the kids are seeing positive role modelling, positive interactions, appropriate language is being used in the classroom. Staff don’t swear, we’re keeping calm, not losing our temper. One of the things I’m really keen on is staff should not be yelling at the kids. It does nothing. I know sometimes it makes you feel better. I’ve done it myself. There are times when the kid just pushes your buttons and you just lose it. You just think, why have I done that? The kid’s won here.

So that’s what you’re hoping that the kids are picking up on. That when things don’t go right, we don’t scream. We don’t rant. We don’t rave. We don’t have a hissy fit. We work through and try build up some resilience, and that’s a challenge.

But I think most staff are very positive. Initially, there was a lot of negativity. It depends very much too on who you’ve got in your team. If you’ve got people who have a similar mindset and similar dedication to the job, I think you’re home and hosed. But if you’re with someone who’s grumpy, grumpy, grumpy … I think it would be very challenging. I’ve been in both. I’ve been in really successful teams, where it’s been fun. You’re looking forward to going to class because you’re having a bit of fun and the kids see silly [jokes] going on between the three of you. We’re all laughing. We make mistakes. It was all great. The other one’s where it’s all like, oh, I don’t want to be here. The kids don’t want to be here. Because it’s just not working.

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Ms O: I think it does. The kids pick up on it. The kids pick up on staff who are thrown in and teaching materials that they are not particularly comfortable with.

Among the deliberate architectural design features of Waratah High are open-plan learning spaces and the use of many windows in classes, offices and staffrooms. The school principal and leaders say that this allows working teams and individuals to be observed. This design feature provides more opportunity for students to see teachers modelling social skills as expressed in the interview excerpt below:

Interviewer: What do you think the students pick up on with regards to social skills?

Ms O: Yeah, I think the kids are watching all the time. One of the reasons why this place has been designed as such with all windows is that students can see you working. You can also see them working. Because we should be modelling that behaviour all the time … So the collaborative team I think was designed to try and mimic that little communities of learning.

A number of the students interviewed at Waratah High expressed that they had not noticed the interactions of the team teachers in their classrooms in positive ways. Despite the expense of the new architecture and the well-meaning intentions of the teams of teachers and leadership, some students interviewed do not express positive experiences of teacher collaborations and modelling of social skills. Such student sentiments should cause concern. As van Manen (1999) states, ‗no matter what teachers say their feelings and intentions really are, what seems ultimately more important is how the students

experience them‘ (p. 21). This study is about the opportunity that team teaching affords as

an opportunity for teachers to model social skills. However, some students expressed feelings of not being included in the team-teaching classroom and feelings of being sad as a result of non-inclusion in such classrooms. Producing such poor experiences and

negative feelings are surely not the intentions of teacher collaboration. The following interview excerpts demonstrate the student reactions to the arrangements made for the students to observe staff:

Interviewer: What about the open staff rooms? I think the aim of that is so that you can see how the teachers interact. Do you even watch the teachers in the staffroom?

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Female 1: No, waste of time. (WH4)

Interviewer: Do you learn anything from the way the teachers interact?

Female 2: I don’t get how teachers call each other sir, miss. Just say their name or something.

Interviewer: Oh okay, so—oh, so if teachers are in the classroom together they go, sir if they’re trying to get the attention of the …

Female 1: They say Mr this or Ms …

Interviewer: Oh, so they don’t say like Carol, John … Female 1: Yeah.

Interviewer: Do you think that’s weird? Female2: That’s stupid.

Female 1: Yeah.

Interviewer: Oh, why is it weird?

Female 1: Because usually the teachers that we had, they called each other—they don’t say sir or miss, they just say their name.

Female 2: They say Carol and stuff.

Interviewer: So, you know it’s kind of false. Female 2: Yeah.

Female 1: Yeah. (WH8)

Interviewer: Do you see the teachers interacting? Like what do you learn from the [team] teachers here at school?

Male 1: Our French teacher talks in another language. Male 2: They talk in French.

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Male 1: I said to them, why are you talking in French? He said it’s none of your business, that’s why. (WH7)

Interviewer: What about the teachers? I’ve asked this question before, but have you noticed anything more about the teachers interacting in your team-teaching environments, where you’ve got three teachers together. Do they …

Male 1: The French teachers speak a different language. Interviewer: They talk in French to each other do they? Male 1: Yeah.

Interviewer: Do you think that’s so you don’t know what they are saying? Male2: Yeah.

Male 1: Yeah, but sometimes we can get it when they’re talking about someone. Male 2: I think talking like that to say rude words.

Interviewer: So, do you think you’re talking about, you’re saying they talk about the students?

Male 2: Yeah.

Interviewer: How does that make you feel? Male 2: Sad. (WH10)

Interviewer: What do you mainly see the teachers—how do they work together? Male 1: They talk about what they are going to do next, and in French.

Female 1: They talk in French.

Male 1: … in French so we can’t understand. Interviewer: Oh, okay.

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Many student observations of teacher interactions seem to be purely of the teachers speaking together:

Interviewer: All right. Anyone else see teachers interacting? Male 1: Yeah. The teachers talk a lot.

Interviewer: Amongst themselves? Male 2: Yeah.

Male 1: They talk about heaps of things. (WH10)

Interviewer: So what you’re saying is that the teachers are talking together and distracted from the class?

Male 1: Yeah. (WH3)