Teamteaching in der Basisstufe. Kooperative Unterrichtsorganisation in der altersgemischten Klasse

Within the new Swiss foundation stage the so called Basisstufe - children from four to eight years are taught by two teachers, a kindergarten teacher and a primary teacher, in a mixed age setting. The mixed methods study involving 55 teachers provides a multi-case description of teachers strategies for teaching and cooperation. In order to capture their use of team-teaching in relation to grouping and tasks, teachers provided a detailed report of a week. Teachers views were also taken into account using video based focussed interviews. The results were analysed searching for patterns of team-teaching. Five types were identified, ranging from teams conserving professional boundaries and teaching children according to year groups to teams overcoming professional boundaries and teaching children according to their individual level. Finally, the potential of these types for a constructive way of meeting children s heterogeneous learning needs is discussed.