Theoretical and Practical Issues in Team Teaching a Large Undergraduate Class

Folker Hanusch; L Obijiofor; Z Volcic

Back

Theoretical and Practical Issues in Team Teaching a Large Undergraduate Class

Journal article

Open access

Peer reviewed

Theoretical and Practical Issues in Team Teaching a Large Undergraduate Class

Folker Hanusch, L Obijiofor and Z Volcic

International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, Vol.21(1), pp.66-74

2009

Files and links (2)

pdf

PDF - Published Version (Open Access)104.91 kBDownload View

Published VersionPDF - Published Version (Open Access)CC BY-ND V3.0, Open Access

url

http://www.isetl.org/ijtlhe/pdf/IJTLHE564.pdfView

Webpage

Abstract

Education Systems

Curriculum and Pedagogy

higher education

undergraduate teaching

journalism

Attempts by universities to provide an improved learning environment to students have led to an increase in team-teaching approaches in higher education. While the definitions of team-teaching differ slightly, the benefits of team-teaching have been cited widely in the higher education literature. By tapping the specialist knowledge of a variety of staff members, students are exposed to current and emerging knowledge in different fields and topic areas; students are also able to understand concepts from a variety of viewpoints. However, while there is some evidence of the usefulness of team-teaching, there is patchy empirical support to underpin how well students appreciate and adapt to team-teaching approaches. This paper reports on the team-teaching approaches adopted in the delivery of an introductory journalism and communication course at the University of Queensland. The success of the approaches is examined against the background of quantitative and qualitative data. The study found that team-teaching is generally very well received by undergraduate students because they value the diverse expertise and teaching styles they are exposed to. Despite the positive feedback, students also complained about problems of continuity and cohesiveness.

Details

Title: Theoretical and Practical Issues in Team Teaching a Large Undergraduate Class
Authors: Folker Hanusch (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast - Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
L Obijiofor (Author) - University of Queensland
Z Volcic (Author) - University of Queensland
Publication details: International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, Vol.21(1), pp.66-74
Publisher: International Society for Exploring Teaching and Learning (I S E T L)
Date published: 2009
ISSN: 1812-9129
Copyright note: Copyright © 2009 The Authors. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/3.0/deed.en_US) which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Organisation Unit: University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland
Language: English
Record Identifier: 99449699502621
Output Type: Journal article

Metrics

141 File views/ downloads

720 Record Views