Primary school classrooms are managed in a new way when team teaching is implemented. Some schools may choose to have a lead teacher who is responsible for establishing rules, adjusting students' behavior and resolving conflicts, while the other teachers on the team oversee another aspect of the classroom, such as grading papers. Schools also have the option of giving all the teachers on a teaching team the same level of classroom management authority, which means students will have two or more teachers to obey orders from.
Each instructor on a teaching team brings her own strengths when it comes to education, and it is advantageous for primary schools to utilize teachers' strengths to benefit the students. When teachers join forces to work as a team they must establish their roles and responsibilities so that they can keep lesson plans organized and avoid duplicating the work. In this dynamic, one teacher -- the lead -- may be responsible for giving the lectures, while the other teachers are responsible for assisting each subgroup of students as they work on projects. Another option is for all of the teachers to present different material to the student subgroups, who go from one teacher to another in a rotation. For instance, one teacher may give students a science lesson while another teacher gives the students a math lesson. Then, the two groups would switch after the lesson is over.
In order for team teaching to be pulled off successfully, instructors must possess some essential traits, such as communication skills and the ability to work well with others. If teachers do not communicate or have difficulty working as a group towards a unified goal, students will pick up on it and their model will serve as a poor example of what teamwork should look like.
Team teaching is beneficial to students and teachers. Students gain the benefit of more individualized attention because it is no longer 25 or 30 students to one teacher. As such, primary school students have an improved learning experience that allows them to learn more effectively. In a team teaching environment, teachers can share the workload and be free of some of the stress and pressure that comes with teaching 25 to 30 students in one classroom. Consequently, teachers are freed up to grade papers and homework more efficiently and respond promptly to student inquiries.
With more than one teacher in a classroom, students may gravitate towards the friendliest instructor and tune out from the others. If the educators have different teaching styles and theories, it can cause conflict amongst the group or create an imbalance for the students, who may be used to one style of teaching but not another.