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Introduction

The team of Charles University, Department of Andragogy and Management of the Faculty of Pedagogy is working on a research project on the method of virtual co-teaching. This new method has promising potential and a wide possible application in education. The purpose of our article is to introduce the new didactic method of virtual co-teaching and outline its potential. Experimental research on the effectiveness of this method began in 2020 and continues until 2022. The result of the entire project should be not only a developed methodology for the introduction and use of virtual co-teaching, but also model examples of the use of the method in educational organizations.

Main part

Didactic methods are the basic means of educational goals. Their beginnings probably go back to the origin of man and develop together with his history. Currently, we could categorize methods in many ways. For example, Mojžíšek (1988, p.90-93) appropriately categorized them into methods:

  1. motivational (directing interest);
  2. expository (mediation of the curriculum);
  3. fixation (consolidating the subject matter – repetition and practice);
  4. diagnostic and classification (control, assessment).

Maňák (2003, p. 49) continued Mojžíšek and categorized the methods into: 1. Classic teaching methods

  • Verbal methods: Narration. Explanation. Lecture. Working with text. Interview.
  • Illustrative-demonstration methods: Demonstration and observation. Work with the image. Briefing.
  • Skill-practical methods: Imitation. Manipulation, laboratory and experimentation. Building skills. Production methods.

2. Activating methods

  • Discussion methods.
  • Heuristic methods, problem solving.
  • Situational methods.
  • Staging methods.
  • Didactic games.

3. Comprehensive teaching methods

  • Frontal teaching.
  • Group teaching.
  • Partner teaching.
  • Individual and individualized teaching, independent work of pupils.
  • Critical thinking.
  • Brainstorming.
  • Project teaching.
  • Learning through drama.
  • Open learning.
  • Learning in life situations.
  • Television teaching.
  • Computer-supported teaching.
  • Suggestopedia and superlearning.
  • Hypnopedia.

We would like to present the didactic method of virtual co-teaching, which in Maňák's concept is part of a complex teaching method and can be included in face-to-face teaching with multiple teachers, where at least one of them is in a virtual environment (it can only be a mediated transfer of a physical teacher using ICT or a real virtual teacher). Virtual co-teaching is based on classic co-teaching, the effectiveness of which has been proven many times over. Classical co-teaching is based on techniques well described by Friend and Cook (2010):

  1. One teaches, the other observes. One teacher conducts instruction in a large group while the other collects academic, behavioral, or social data on specific students or groups.- Group instruction. The lesson is divided into three non-sequential parts and the students are also divided into three groups. These groups rotate between three places within the classroom, in two places they are taught by teachers and in the third they work independently. - Parallel teaching. Two teachers teach in parallel, each with half the class. Both groups of students are presented with the same curriculum with the primary purpose of differentiating the teaching and achieving greater student engagement. - Alternative teaching. One teacher works with the majority of students, while the other works only with a small group for better explanation, enrichment of teaching, self-evaluation, more vivid demonstration, correction of knowledge or for another purpose. - Team teaching. Both teachers teach in a large group and both are lecturers. They can represent opposing views in a debate or complement each other, illustrate different ways of solving problems and use other teaching techniques in pairs. - One teaches, the other assists. One teacher leads the class, while another circulates among the students offering individual help, assistance or special access.

The co-teaching models are shown in Figure 1. The difference between the individual contexts is clearly visible here. The situation is similar in virtual co-teaching. It can be implemented in the same ways as classic co-teaching.

Figure 1: Co-teaching models according to Friend and Bursuck (2009, p. 92).

Zdroj: Friend a Bursuck (2009, s. 92)

However, it is necessary to underline the basic premises that are necessary for the correct implementation of virtual co-teaching, and they are:

  1. Well-secured technical background (sufficient camera resolution, speed and quality of transmission, microphones with the possibility of noise removal, powerful data projector or large television, etc.).
  2. The correct position of the virtual teacher in the space (visibility for all students; permanent visibility for the teacher who is physically present; the possibility of zoom).

When the basic premises are met, virtual co-teaching can be confidently included among effective teaching methods at the same level of effectiveness as classic co-teaching. An experiment investigating the real effectiveness of co-teaching is being conducted by the Charles University, Department of Management and Education within the TAČR1 project. The research will probably bring promising results and virtual co-teaching could develop very quickly in the future and bring completely new possibilities. We would like to point out the hidden potential that co-teaching has in itself and that could be the driving force that will lead to the mass expansion of this method in our education system. Its potential can be described in the following aspects:

  1. The method removes the barriers of distance (the virtual teacher can be from another city, district, school, or even from abroad - here, for example, a native speaker is offered when teaching languages).
  2. The method makes it possible to include non-teaching professions, e.g. experts from practice, scientists, practitioners or students, into frontal teaching as second teachers, which leads to an easy blending of theory and practice.
  3. The method enables full support of teaching methods that are better implemented in two or more teachers and that these teachers can effectively use together (drama learning, support of critical thinking through the confrontation of two teachers, learning based on multiple perspectives on one problem, situational learning, etc.).
  4. The method allows students or pupils wider opportunities for discussion, which is caused by the involvement of two or more teachers who can respond more quickly to their suggestions and complement each other.
  5. In principle, the method reduces the effect of "boring frontal teaching". If the lesson is well prepared, in the scenario of two or more teachers, "something is still happening".
  6. The method is very powerful in controlling the state of alertness of students and pupils. In contrast to distance learning, the element of the physically present teacher is a differentiating factor, which ensures an immediate response to changes in concentration, alertness, and interest of all students.
  7. The method is potentially possible even with a virtual teacher running from the recording, if necessary, it is possible to simply record the entire virtual folder for future use.
  8. The method is less expensive than classic co-teaching, which in terms of efficiency gives it a competitive advantage for future use in education.
  9. The virtual component of the method is constantly improving during the development of current ICT - the quality of the image and voice of the virtual teacher; capture of movement in the classroom as feedback for the virtual teacher - possibilities of using, for example, sports cameras when capturing images, recording quality, zooming, etc.)
  10. Virtual co-teaching is capable of supporting fully virtual teachers in the future, i.e. robots adapted as educational assistants.

It is appropriate to mention some of the shortcomings of virtual co-teaching, such as the higher cost compared to classic face-to-face teaching with one teacher. Furthermore, there are mainly time constraints, problematic planning or the impossibility, in many cases, of permanent virtual co-teaching, and thus rather its ad-hoc use. Nevertheless, we all think that virtual co-teaching has great potential and will be developed in the future thanks to the combination of its dominant advantages for students, pupils and teachers. Virtual co-teaching can also become a more effective link between theory and practice in many schools or educational organizations. Last but not least, it can be the difference attractor when choosing schools by the future students themselves, especially in secondary and higher education.

Conclusion

The experimental research of the virtual co-teaching method has the second part of the work ahead of it, which is without a doubt the evaluation of all the experiments that have already taken place, the confirmation or refutation of hypotheses about the effectiveness of this method and the preparation of a comprehensive methodology for the introduction and use of virtual co-teaching. We will inform readers about the results in subsequent articles.

Author: PhDr. Martin Kursch, Ph.D. The author has published publications devoted to talent management and the use of ICT in education.

List of bibliographic references

FRIEND, M.P. and W.D. BURSUCK, 2009. Including Students with Special Needs: A Practical Guide for Classroom Teachers: MyEducationLab Series. Pearson. ISBN 9780205571062. Also available from: https://books.google.de/books?id=3GcjSgAACAAJ. FRIEND, Marylin and Lynne COOK, 2010. Interactions: Collaboration skills for school professionals (6th ed.). Columbus. Merrill: OH. ISBN 978-0137152056. MAŇÁK, Josef, 1990. Outline of didactics. 1st ed. Brno: PdF MU. ISNB 80-210-0210-7. MOJŽÍŠEK, Lubomír, 1988. Didactics: theory of education and teaching. Didactics: theory of education and teaching / Lubomír Mojžíšek; J.E. University Purkyně in Brno, Faculty of Philosophy [online]. [cit. 2021-02-05]. VETEŠKA, Jaroslav., KURSCH, Martin., SVOBODOVÁ, Zuzana., TURECKIOVÁ, Michaela and PAULOVČÁKOVÁ, Lucie, 2020. Longitudinal co-teaching projects – scoping review. 17th International Conference On Cognition And Exploratory Learning In Digital Age. pp. 115-123. ISBN 978-989-8704-22-1.

1KAMV research team within the project TAČR – New method of education for the 21st century: Virtual-Co-Teaching, no. project TL03000133. More Veteška et al. (2020).