Browsing by Author "Ranta, Akseli"

The aim of this thesis was to investigate classroom teachers’ experiences of the teach-er-student interaction relationship and student experience in co-teaching and alone teaching, and to compare the formation and structure of the aforementioned teaching-related phenomenon in these two different teaching methods. The aim was to find out how the class teachers felt that co-teaching and teaching alone differed from each other in their efforts to build a functioning teacher-student interaction relationship and in their efforts to build their own student knowledge of the students in their class. Previous stud-ies have examined teachers’ experiences of co-teaching, as well as the benefits and possible challenges of co-teaching. Previous studies have also brought out the im-portance of teacher-student interaction and student expertise in guaranteeing the suc-cess and quality of teaching. However, little research has been done comparing co-teaching and teaching alone. For this reason, the aim of the research is also to investi-gate how teachers have taken into account the differences between co-teaching and so-lo teaching when building a working interaction relationship with their class, as well as how the individual personalities of students are taken into account in co-teaching, and how this possibly differs from the consideration made in solo teaching. The material of the thesis consists of interviews with four classroom teachers working in Helsinki. Each interviewee has practiced both solo teaching and co-teaching during their career. The material of the thesis was collected and analyzed using a qualitative meth-od. The interviews were conducted using a semi-structured interview and the material was analyzed using a phenomenographic research sample. The results section of the thesis is based on the description categories formed in the phenomenographic analysis. According to the study, the classroom teachers noticed differences in the way they build their teacher-student interaction relationships and their student expertise, depending on whether they were practicing co-teaching or teaching alone. The classroom teachers understood the importance of teacher-pupil interaction and student knowledge in their teaching work and brought out different methods with which they strive to build their in-teraction relationships and student knowledge. In co-teaching, the class teachers brought up positive experiences, where the other teaching professional was seen to help with the student knowledge, and the work methods enabled by the second teacher helped the teachers to build more versatile teacher-student interaction relationships. However, the challenges of co-teaching emerged from the students’ point of view, the formation of a stronger interaction between only with the other teacher, which in turn challenges the construction of the interaction relationship of the other teacher with all students. The large number of students also brought its own challenges, as paying at-tention to each student requires more communication between the teachers, and even more active approach from the teachers so that each student could be taken into ac-count in everyday situations during the school day.