Tandem teaching

More benefits of tandem teaching
Method of tandem teaching is used in many vocational colleges in Europe. In this context it means that two teachers are parallel teaching one group of students. They might have different subjects to teach, for example language teacher working together with vocational teacher in training kitchen or when hybrid teaching is used, one teacher on-site in the classroom and another assisting online. The method is also used in workshops where teacher and assistant teacher are together teaching vocational subjects.

The benefits of tandem teaching are huge, when the teaching groups are large, students are on different level or from different backgrounds, the group has on-site and online students at the same time, or groups are studying the same subject in different countries at the same time.

Teachers usually find tandem teaching useful and pleasant. Colleagues help supporting each other with content and sharing technical responsibilities is usually warmly accepted. The competence of a colleague can also be an emotional support for another teacher.  Identifying different roles for teachers reduces multitasking during the lessons.

However, teachers might also find tandem teaching to be a burden. Agreeing on timetables can be challenging and there may be differences in working methods. Adapting general studies into vocational workshop can be either stressful or very effective and working life based depending on teachers’ personal teaching styles, number of students, timetables and other circumstances. Anyway, it is worth of trying in any case.