Effective practices for team teaching
I like this piece because it includes different team teaching scenarios with the accompanying recommendations. The attention to mutual respect and support is a valuable center of gravity for collaborative teaching teams.
Collaborative instruction, like any team project, can pose its challenges. Sumbleen Ali, PhD, an assistant professor of human ecology at the State University of New York Oneonta, co-teaches a consumer resource management class with two non-psychology professors. While each of the three instructors lends a unique expertise to the course, the team was concerned about student perception as well as potential conflict among themselves based on status.
“We didn’t want factors like a professor’s gender, race, age, and seniority to interfere with student learning, so we made sure we all sat together in class and referenced one another’s lectures in real time,” said Ali. “We all helped each other develop credibility among students through mutual respect.”
This atmosphere of mutual respect allows the team to help each other grow as instructors. Ali’s teaching team meets regularly to discuss how the classes are going (though, to save time, the group never meets synchronously when something can be accomplished via email). They regularly share constructive criticism about lectures and course content, which allows them to both improve their class and learn from one another’s expertise. They believe this approach is helping them all become more well-rounded teachers in the process.
In cross-disciplinary courses, professors may have different views based on their academic background, leading to differences of opinion. This is another reason mutual respect is so important. When Moore teaches with history and philosophy professors, it is not unusual for them to disagree during discussions. “Students sometimes arrive in these cross-disciplinary courses feeling like there’s no room for different ways of thinking,” said Moore. “Watching two professors who have been in their fields a long time disagree shows the students that knowledge is not set in stone, which encourages critical thinking.” Moore recommends working with a colleague you get along with to ensure productive exchanges even amid differing views