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Team teaching

Team teaching

Introduction

Research results on whether team teaching improves student satisfaction and performance are mixed. Nevertheless, evidence suggests a number of tangible and intangible benefits to students, faculty, and institutions that engage in team teaching (Wadkins, Miller, and Wozniak, 2006). Based on a literature review of team teaching literature, this report provides an overview of team teaching, summarizes some of its benefits, identifies some challenges, provides suggestions for best practices, and makes recommendations for supporting and engaging in team teaching.

Definition of Team Teaching

Davis (1995) provides this succinct definition of team teaching: “All arrangements that include two or more faculty in some level of collaboration in the planning and delivery of a course” (p. 8).

Types of Team Teaching

Team teaching includes a number of different approaches. Some of the more common are

• Interactive team teaching – two faculty members present in front of the class simultaneously.
• Rotational format team teaching – faculty alternate teaching the class. This rotational format has a number of variations depending on the subject matter and the number of faculty involved.
• Participant-observer team teaching – all participating faculty are present for all the classes, but only one is “teaching” at a time. Roles that the other teachers could play as participating observer(s) are model learner, observer, panel member, or resource (Klein, 1990).
• Team coordination – faculty arrange and integrate a curriculum so as to maximize learning and connections using paired or linked courses, an integrated cluster of independent courses, or freshman interest groups (McDaniels and Colarulli, 1997). Though not necessarily team teaching per se, this curriculum-level approach to interdisciplinarity can help to achieve some of the expected gains of team teaching.

Benefits Team Teaching Provides for Students

Students also appear to benefit from team-taught courses (Benjamin, 2000; Harris and Watson, 1997; Johnson, Johnson, Smith, 2000; Smith, 1994). The literature suggests that team teaching can

• Deepen students’ analytical abilities
• Help to build bridges of understanding across disciplines for both faculty and students
• Build greater curricular coherence for students
• Create a greater sense of academic community
• Provide explicit structures for academic and social engagement (this is particularly necessary at commuter campuses)
• Improve student-teacher relationships
• Make classes more interesting and challenging because of the novelty
• Improve student learning outcomes, retention rates, interpersonal skills, communication skills, analysis and judgment, and diversity

Conclusion

In summary, successful team teaching requires the active institutional and faculty commitment of time, resources, and careful planning. By so doing, team teaching can enhance the teaching and learning experiences of students and faculty and fulfill the purposes of university education by helping participants integrate disparate disciplines and perspectives.

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