Rationale for the research

Collaborative teaching is indeed the essential basis of the programme. It has a general educational value and can be considered as a useful and valuable experience (Bodóczky

& Malderez, 1994; Medgyes & Malderez, 1996). Working in pairs is extremely relevant at any stage of the teaching practice but is especially important at the earlier stages when student teachers need more confidence and support. Working with a partner helps to handle the psychological stresses, uncertainties and anxieties in the new situation.

Consequently, as the teaching experience progresses, the bonds of partnership become less tight (Medgyes & Nyilasi, 1997). This tendency for looser collaboration in the long run is seen as a sign of gaining self-confidence as well as a shift toward more independent work. The main purpose now is to turn to my experience and ultimately illustrate how I became involved in the process of teacher education and my research on the topic of cooperation in TEFL.

has been largely beneficial as well as has had an impact of enormous importance on my teaching experience, but also on my current work as a teacher trainer.

I have been involved in teacher training at the Centre for English Teacher Training at Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest for fourteen years. Up to the present, I have worked with 60 student teachers. My work as a teacher trainer is highly relevant to me and has led me into new areas of knowledge and skills. The teaching practice is a common phenomenon in teacher education, however, it can be looked at as the management of a complex scheme and appropriately addressed are its aims, structure, content and roles of participants involved. It is difficult to put in a nutshell the teaching and learning process represented by an extended teaching practice. The entire period of teaching practice is really too great a manifestation of hard work, effort, interest, enthusiasm and emotions. However, it is not only the hard work and effort that are the great attraction but the professional and human growth of the people involved. It must be stressed that all this effort and learning apply to both the trainer and the trainees. By interacting continuously with student teachers we allow both them and ourselves to move forward towards greater and greater personal and professional unfolding.

We all have our energy inside us; nevertheless, each person is different and unfolds in a different way. My perception is that mentoring should help people who are learning to teach to release the potential which is locked within every individual. It is also a long process and the importance throughout is to know how to foster it. This awareness also appeals to the fact that there are routines and conscious actions in teacher training which are difficult to measure. In our work there are concrete points and others which belong to an emotional sphere.

My experience as a teacher trainer over the years has proved that although the concept of teaching practice is simple, in reality, the interaction between participants creates a complex situation. Thus emerges the need for fruitful cooperation in order to sustain the system of teaching practice. My experience underlines the need for each professional person to communicate ideas and information simply and effectively to the other person, which is the foundation for all interpersonal relationships. Communication can be interpreted as sharing; therefore, one cannot communicate unless one has something to share. My interest in this area resulted in research on the positive effects of team teaching in the training of Hungarian teachers of English (Barócsi, 1998). The research was a part of the M.Ed. program run by the University in Manchester (1995-1998). The conclusion was that cooperation in the teaching practice is a valuable experience. What the study touched upon was cooperation in the teaching profession.

The involvement in the research process as well as the insights into my daily practice as a school-based teacher trainer have made me particularly interested in the notion of cooperation. With regard to the teacher trainer who is the researcher in this particular situation, the knowledge and understanding of the process of cooperation of pre-service and in-service teachers is crucial. My work in recent years has led me to explore this phenomenon. The current study attempts to serve this purpose. It involves my previous work on the validation of the long qualitative interview schedule (Barócsi, 2005a) and most recently a pilot study on the role of cooperation in pre-service teacher education and teacher development (Barócsi, 2005b; 2006). The findings of these studies had implications for the further exploration of the topic leading to the dissertation research on the area of my interest.

My considerable experience and positive attitude toward team work possess a lot to bear on the perception of the role of cooperation in pre-service teacher education and in-service teacher development. However, I have made every effort to be completely without bias. The conscious attempt to look at the research as objectively as possible is organized around the following concerns.

First, planning, was regarded an essential element of research (Seliger & Shohamy, 1989). This was also justified by the complexity and breadth of the area of the study and the particular need to structure and organize the research. My considerations and ideas were compiled to outline research designs for both the pilot study and the dissertation research (see section 3.2). Second, prior to these phases, in order to ensure the reliability and validity of the study, the instrument for data collection was validated (Barócsi, 2005a). Planning received due attention in the process of validation as well (see section 3.2.2 and Appendix A). Third, with the purpose to find out about the effectiveness of the method used, a pilot study was carried out before the main project.

Fourth, with the intention to support the research findings, triangulation, particularly data triangulation was used (Mc Groarty & Zhu, 1997). The main underlying principle was to view the area from different aspects.

Finally, it was considered plausible to examine the drawbacks of mutual work identified by the participants. In order to highlight problems that might arise in cooperation, investigations looked far beyond the positive sides of working together. The ultimate aim was to give special attention to both the strengths and weaknesses of the process of cooperation and its description. Taking into account the importance of objectivity, an effort was made to describe and interpret and not evaluate the data. On the basis of the

above attempts, it is believed that the meaningful investigations and objective explanations overweighed my perceptions to draw a realistic picture of the topic of the study.