Paula Wilson, Peter White, Karen Smith, Tamara Kelly

Team Teaching as an Agent for Change

Introduction

Team teaching as an agent for change. Explore team teaching's role as a change agent in university and college science courses. This report synthesizes insights from a WCSE panel on how teaching teams impact learning and innovation.

Abstract

While the traditional image of the university or college course is often one professor delivering lectures and other course elements alone, many science courses involve team instruction. At the 2017 WCSE, we convened a panel to explore the ways in which team teaching can act as an agent of change. Panel members reflected on their own experiences as members of different types of teaching teams, and stimulated a broad and lively exchange with the audience, gathering and synthesizing different perspectives on teams in the context of change: how teams can stimulate positive change, how they may serve to inhibit change, and finally how to ensure a successful team that generates an improved teaching and learning experience. In this report we describe the major outcomes of that discussion.

Review

This paper reports on a panel discussion convened at the 2017 WCSE, addressing the pertinent topic of "Team Teaching as an Agent for Change" within university and college science courses. Recognizing the prevalence of team instruction in these fields, the panel and audience explored the multifaceted role of team teaching in stimulating or inhibiting pedagogical change. The abstract indicates a synthesis of diverse perspectives on fostering successful teams and improving teaching and learning experiences. Overall, the premise of examining team teaching's impact on educational evolution is highly relevant to contemporary higher education practices and offers a valuable qualitative contribution to the discourse on instructional design and faculty development. A significant strength of this work lies in its direct engagement with practitioners' experiences, gathering insights from both panel members and a broad audience regarding the dynamics of teaching teams. The abstract promises an exploration of both the positive potential of teams to drive change and their capacity to serve as inhibitors, which is crucial for a balanced understanding. Furthermore, the focus on ensuring successful teams for improved outcomes is a practical and highly desirable aspect for educators. However, the nature of this contribution as a "report" on a "discussion" means it primarily offers synthesized perspectives rather than empirical data or a developed theoretical framework. While this approach has its own merits, the abstract could benefit from providing a clearer indication of the methodology used for synthesizing these "major outcomes" and what specific, actionable insights or overarching themes emerged from the exchange. In conclusion, this report addresses a timely and significant aspect of modern higher education pedagogy. While it represents a qualitative synthesis of shared experiences and discussions rather than a research study, its value lies in capturing the collective wisdom and varied viewpoints of active educators. Such insights are instrumental for practitioners and administrators seeking to optimize team-teaching models and leverage them effectively for positive educational change. Provided the full report effectively details the synthesized outcomes and offers clear takeaways, it would be a valuable addition to the literature. I recommend this paper for publication, with a minor suggestion that authors might consider briefly outlining the method of synthesis more explicitly within the introduction of the full text to set reader expectations appropriately.

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