Below is a list of teaching methodologies that will continue to grow over time.
What is Team Teaching?
Team teaching is an approach to instruction that involves two or more instructors teaching in the same unit or course. There are different approaches to team teaching with various terms used to describe them. An overview of the more common approaches is provided below.
Co-facilitative approach – All instructors in the team collaborate across all aspects of the unit, including design, teaching and assessment. Students can contact any member of the team for feedback/advice.
Tag-team / breakout approach – All instructors in the team collaborate across all aspects of the unit (including design, teaching and assessment), but implement aspects of the unit within their own designated group of students or section. Instructors only assess their own students’ work and provide feedback/advice only to their own students. Instructors engage in frequent collaborative meetings with teaching team to debrief, discuss how the unit is progressing, problems and student feedback.
Specialty approach – All instructors in the team collaborate across all aspects of the unit (including design, teaching and assessment), but team members are not delegated to teach particular whole sections or classes. Instead, certain team members may teach a segment/topic, or facilitate an activity, within a class in the unit (because it falls under their expertise area). Specialty instructors typically only assess work produced from the sections they have taught, and interact with students involved in those sections.
Basic approach – Involves two or more instructors collaborating to design the foundation or basic structure of a unit they are co-teaching, but then are delegated to take complete ownership of their ‘piece’ of the unit, including design, modalities, texts, assessment design. Instructors only assess their own students’ work and provide feedback/advice only to their own students. Students direct their questions and feedback to the instructor responsible that that section of the unit. Teaching team meets occasionally to discuss how their respective sections are progressing according to the collaboratively basic structure.
What is Involved in Team Teaching?
- A breakdown of all the academic and administrative tasks relevant to the unit or course and the estimated amount of time taken to undertake these tasks.
- High levels of organisation, planning, scheduling, and delegation
- A communication protocol, for all team members to keep in touch with each other.
- Positive rapport between teaching team members (to enable collaboration to take place)
- Regular team ‘check-ins’ to keep track of unit administration and milestones
How do I plan for teach teaching?
The figure below lays out the stages for planning and carrying out team teaching. You can adapt these tasks as required.
References
- Meizlish, D., & Anderson, O. (2018). Teaching in Teams: A Planning Guide for Successful Collaborations. CRLT Occasional Paper No. 37. Center for Research on Learning and Teaching.
Peer review is evaluation, by colleagues or peers, of all teaching-related activities for either formative (for development) or summative (for personnel decision) purposes. Because there are different purposes for each type of evaluation, the processes may be conducted independently of each other. Components of either type of review may include unit materials, student evaluations, teaching portfolios, documentation of teaching philosophy, teacher self-assessments, classroom observations, and other activities that may be appropriate to a discipline.
Peer review of teaching is not intended to replace student evaluations. Experts indicate that although students are the most appropriate judges of day-to-day teacher behaviours and attitudes in the classroom, they are not the most appropriate judges of the accuracy of course content, use of acceptable teaching strategies in the discipline, and the like. For these kinds of judgments, peers are the most appropriate source of information.
Based on a review of the literature on peer review of learning and teaching, Peer Review of Learning and Teaching in Higher Education (2014) colleagues can reliably evaluate:
- Commitment to teaching and concern for student learning;
- Selection of unit and learning activity content;
- Mastery of unit or learning activity content;
- Unit or learning activity organisation;
- Appropriateness of unit or learning activity outcomes;
- Appropriateness of educational materials (such as readings, media, visual aids);
- Appropriateness of evaluation devices;
- Appropriateness of teaching methodology;
- Student achievement, based on performance on assessment; and
- Support of departmental educational efforts.
The revised Higher Education Standards Framework (2015) from January 1st 2017 requires all higher education institutions to undertake external referencing and/or peer review of all aspects of academic programs, from approval to curriculum design to delivery, to assure that quality and standards are being upheld.
To learn more about the Peer Review approach recommended for the Faculty of Arts, visit https://peerreviewofteaching.net/ .