It Takes Two: Reflections on a Decade of Team Teaching

Abstract

More often than not, a team‐taught course is divided among two or more faculty, such that each instructor is solely responsible for a subset of classes. We have co‐developed and team‐taught an introductory laboratory course in experimental biology targeted at first‐year undergraduate students and an interactive lecture course in animal physiology with both undergraduate and graduate students. Both of these courses were designed using evidence‐based pedagogical approaches to engage students in active learning. We combined our unique experiences, expertise, and creativity to design these courses and actively participated in co‐teaching throughout the semester. For example, one instructor took the lead in organizing the course structure and content and the other took the lead in developing laboratory and classroom activities. We also created assessments together or shared assessments that we had used in our other courses. Sharing the grading promoted a more objective evaluation of student work as well as helped us catch each other’s mistakes. Students greatly benefitted as they did not have to adjust to different styles of teaching and assessment midway through a course as would be the case with traditional team teaching. Having two instructors circulating among groups in the lab or in the classroom helped ensure that all teams received the attention they needed during the allotted time. Our students have given us much positive feedback, suggesting that the synergism resulting from sharing a course among more than one instructor has led to better instruction and a more successful learning environment than what they would have experienced in a course with a single instructor or with two or more instructors teaching back‐to‐back. Here we share some of our strategies for intentionally designing a team‐taught course and describe a few lessons we have learned along the way in over a decade of collaborative teaching. All protocols were approved by Rice University IRB (Protocol FY2017‐294).