Co-Teaching Instruction at the Tertiary Level in Thailand: Students’ Achievement Leading to Teachers’ Professional Development
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Abstract
In the Thai context, co-teaching instruction, where two teachers are collaboratively delivering instruction in a classroom, has been implemented mostly in bilingual or international school settings. It is believed that this instruction has twofold benefits of student’ learning outcomes and teacher’s professional development. Despite its mutual potentials, there seems to be a lack of empirical evidence of its implementation and thorough investigation at the tertiary level. This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of a co-teaching approach on students’ English language achievement and explore how it could professionally develop teachers’ teaching practice. Mixed-methods design research was employed, using a pre-test and post-test design to collect students’ English proficiency and teachers’ reflective accounts as evidence of their professional growth. The findings yielded positive and significant outcomes for students’ English proficiency. A paired-samples t-test revealed that the post-test mean score (x̄ = 44.89, SD = 7.55) was significantly higher than the pre-test mean score (x̄ = 38.30, SD = 7.04), t (99) = -7.509, p < .001, indicating a statistically significant improvement in students’ English proficiency. Through the design of Collaborative and Coaching (CO2) Instruction, this study provides an alternative approach that possibly caters to students’ different learning needs and significantly contributes to teachers’ professional growth and wellbeing. Furthermore, the findings present noteworthy pedagogical insights and highlight valuable directions for future research regarding co-teaching implementation in Thai higher education.
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