Collaborative teaching
Collaborative teaching at Georgian College involves one teacher teaching the first six weeks of a course, and another teacher teaching the next eight weeks.
Becoming part of a teaching team can be an exciting and rewarding experience. However, it requires planning, flexibility and teamwork. Teaching teams should set aside time to plan before the start of the course.
Georgian College has established some guidelines for meetings between teachers involved in collaborative teaching. It is expected that faculty will, at minimum, meet for the following:
- one-hour planning meeting prior to semester start
- one-hour planning mid-semester for smooth transition
Planning tips
Planning time should be devoted to several things. Click a section title below to learn more.
One of the challenges of collaborative teaching is that you will likely be working with an individual whose teaching style and philosophy differ from your own. Success is less dependent on similar philosophies and more dependent on an open mind and willingness to compromise. If you are in a collaborative partnership with someone who views learning and teaching differently, make sure to talk about it. Look at it as a chance to widen the scope of your practice by incorporating multiple styles into your teaching.
Additional resources
The University of Toronto has a resource to support the development of a teaching philosophy statement. This might be a good exercise for you to go through with your co-teacher as you prepare for your course.
This resources describes several different teaching styles, including direct instruction, inquiry-based learning, and co-operative learning.
Good communication makes for a good team. Identifying a communication strategy between faculty for planning and collaborating on documents is helpful. Office 365 has a number of products that support collaboration and are available to all Georgian faculty (link to resource below).
It is also important to consider how faculty and students will communicate with each other. Faculty may have preferences for different types of communication; while consistency is desirable, differences are sure to occur. Faculty should ensure that expectations are communicated clearly to students to prevent frustration.
Consider office hours, use of email, faculty availability outside of class/office hours, and use of Blackboard.
Additional resources
As an employee of Georgian College, you have access to a full suite of Microsoft Office 365 products. Many of these are very useful for collaboration. Click the button to access the Office 365 training center.
CTL has developed a number of tip sheets related to Blackboard use. Follow these links to learn about various ways to communicate with students within Blackboard.
Making decisions as a team before the course starts is key to a strong partnership, but it is often an adjustment for those used to teaching alone. There are many choices to be made before the course even begins, and co-teachers should both be involved in this planning process. A good start might be to review the learning outcomes for the course, and have some general discussion about how these will be taught, reinforced, and assessed. Some points of discussion during planning sessions include:
- What topics will be included in the course, and how do these align with the learning outcomes of the course?
- What types of active learning strategies have you used, and how do these align with learning outcomes?
- How do you provide opportunities for students to practice skills necessary to perform well on assessments?
- How much work do you expect students to do during class time? Out of class?
Additional resources
CTL has created a document to help you and your co-teacher to create a course plan for the semester.
Every teacher approaches lesson planning in their own unique way, but sharing resources can help you create some consistency in approach. Click the button to access a sample lesson plan you can use as a point of discussion with your co-teacher.
You may have seen Chickering’s “˜Seven Principles of Good Practice in Undergraduate Education’ before. This website reviews what the principles are, and provides ideas for implementing them in a classroom setting.
Co-teachers are not expected to agree on everything, but it is important to present a united front to students from the outset to mitigate issues that could arise. It is not uncommon for students to pit co-teachers against each other, stating “he/she said I could,” etc. Having both teachers present on the first day of class to introduce the course, as well as co-developing the syllabus and assessments will demonstrate to students that you are committed to working together.
The first day of class can be a stressful time for students and faculty alike. Students may be anxious when meeting one teacher let alone two. Add to this the complexity of students who are not accustom to co or team teaching and it could become an uncertain/uncomfortable environment. The goal is clearly communicate the plan for the semester and to have students come away with the impression that the course is off to a good start.
Additional resources
CTL has created a script you may wish to use and share with your students on the first day.
Carnegie Mellon University has compiled a list of good practices for the first day including; positive first impressions, clarifying learning objectives and expectations and, setting the tone for the course.
Co-teachers should make every effort to create consistency in assessment of student learning. Colleagues should work together to create an evaluation plan that reflects balance and equity- while it may not always be possible to have 50% of course work complete by the midpoint of the semester, consideration should be given to approaching 50% where possible. It will not always be possible for you and your co-teacher to agree on assessment approaches- be open to compromise, and whatever decisions you and your co-teacher make, ensure that you are clearly communicating your expectations to students.
Here are some points of discussion for you and your co-teacher:
- What types of assessment do you consider important?
- Do these align with the learning outcomes in the course?
- How many assessments will be used in the course?
- How will students submit assessments (Blackboard, hard copies, etc.)?
- What will our policy be for submitting assignments late or allowing extensions?
- How will assignments/tests be evaluated (i.e. can you use common rubrics for consistency)?
This will likely be the area of collaborative teaching most likely to lead to frustration for students if you and your co-teacher are very far apart in terms of your approaches. Calibration is a process that helps faculty develop a shared understanding and consistency with assessments. While faculty will have some differences in approach, a common understanding of the learning outcomes and assessment activities will enable faculty to evaluate student work in a more consistent manner, thus reducing student anxiety and uncertainty. Research has shown that the use of calibration among faculty significantly improves scoring accuracy and consistency (Cash, Hamre, Pianta, & Myers, 2012; Ricker-Pedley, 2011).
Calibration exercises can simply be a sample evaluation/assessment whereby faculty discuss how they would evaluate the work. For example, faculty can discuss how they may award marks from a rubric-scoring matrix. Complex calibration activities could involve watching and scoring standardized videos then comparing and discussing the results.
Ultimately, it is important for faculty to discuss expectations around evaluation during the planning stages.
Additional resources
CTL has created a document to help you and your co-teacher plan for assessment throughout the semester.
Review the course outline for the course learning objectives. The course outline sets the framework, and legal commitment to the students, for the delivery of a particular course (and all its sections), as distinguished from another particular course within the curriculum of a program or the college. It will be important for the team to review together to ensure both are interpreting the learning outcomes similarly.
The syllabus is a required supplement to a course outline, setting forth in specific detail the teacher’s expectations for the students enrolled in this section of the course and must be consistent with the course outline. The syllabus provides students with a “map”, or path of the course in this section: what they will be doing, when they will be doing it, how they will be doing it, when and how their performance will be assessed. It can also provide guidance on how the classes will be conducted; what the “rules of the road” are; expectations for attendance, as well as the rules for late assignments and missed tests. As a team, this needs to be consistent between the faculty. The syllabus also provides students with information about the teacher’s name, office location, phone and voice-mail numbers, e-mail address, hours of availability.
Additional resources
When teaching collaboratively the Blackboard shell can be a powerful tool. For many, the Blackboard shell is an extension of the classroom. Consider how you and your co-teacher will utilize Blackboard (will you have consistent announcements? Will assignments be submitted in class or in Blackboard?). The first decision to make is how you want your shell set up.
Note: You are not required to report your Blackboard shell setup choice to anyone. Faculty who are teaching collaboratively will decide which setup scenario works best for their situation and make the shells available as appropriate.
Scenario 1 – The course will have a main shell – and two breakout shells
- The main shell will house the syllabus, course outline and marks for both faculty
- Then there will be two breakout shells – to house each faculty’s curriculum.
- Both faculty will have access to the main shell and this is where marks will be entered.
- Each faculty will only have access to their own break out shell.
- The student will see the main shell and faculty #1 shell in the first seven weeks and in the final 7 weeks the student will see main shell and faculty #2 shell.
Scenario 2 – The course will have a main shell
- The main shell will house the syllabus, course outline, student marks and each faculty’s curriculum.
- It is the choice of the faculty to determine which Blackboard scenario they will use.
It is recommended that however you set up your Blackboard shell to keep the communication, assignment submissions and what will be housed in the main shell (or breakout shells) consistent.
Additional resources
Announcements within Blackboard are a quick way to provide information to your students. Announcements can be agreed upon between both teachers and set up prior to the course start. This tip sheet from CTL can help you get started with announcements.
If you decide to have assignments submitted to Blackboard rather than submitted in class, you will have a digital record of students work and marks that can be shared between teachers. The tip sheet below from CTL walks you through creating and marking assignments in Blackboard.