Team Teaching a Cross-Disciplinary Honors Course: Preparation and Development.

Abstract

Collaborative teaching is used in many col lege and university programs to foster student enthusi asm and inquiry and to promote interdisciplinary learn ing. A literature review reveals benefits and pitfalls, but it lacks sufficient information for instructing team teachers in planning collaborative courses. In this arti cle, we outline suggestions from a combination of sources, including informal written and verbal conver sations with faculty members and our own experience. Collaborators for a team-taught course should talk to experienced others, review the literature, become acquainted with one another's teaching style, open the channels for communication, and anticipate and plan for interjecting and turn-taking strategies, potential power dimensions, and sources of conflict. Teaching an undergraduate honors course can be demanding; team teaching or co-teaching an accelerated cross-disciplinary class can be even challenging for the uninitiated instructor. We took up the challenge of designing such a course for the study of gender in Margaret R. Letterman is an assistant professor in the Department of Psychology and Kimberly B. Dugan is an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work, both at Eastern Connecticut State University. the honors program at Eastern Connecti cut State University. The original idea for this class came about in a serendipitous fashion; periodically, we sat in on each other's courses because of a mutual inter est in the topics presented. It soon was apparent that the students were intrigued by the dynamic interaction between us. As Dugan presented material from the sociological perspective, Letterman occa sionally would offer a biopsychological explanation that would lead to a lively debate. This interaction, in turn, ener gized student participation and interest, which led to our consideration of using this team-teaching format for an interdis ciplinary honors class. The following discussion outlines our collaborative effort to prepare such a course. We first present recent scholarship on team teach ing to lay the foundation for the discus sion. Next, we turn to a series of issues that we identified as crucial to the effec tive planning of the course. We end with a brief summary and highlight key areas for future investigation. Why Collaborate: Potential Benefits and Problems College and university programs across the country are working to create innovative teaching formats to foster stu dent enthusiasm and inquiry and to pro mote interdisciplinary learning. Team teaching, cross-disciplinary classes, and honors courses have been principal ele ments in achieving these goals. Team teaching can be achieved with different approaches. Two or faculty mem bers can work together teaching one course, or faculty members can work together planning several classes as clus ter courses. Team-teachers typically develop a common syllabus, integrate their various perspectives, select topics, and share teaching activities and lectures (Davis 1995). According to Davis, today's acade mics must know more and about and less (1995, 35). This special

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