The Road Less Travelled: Student Success through Team Teaching Jodi Clark-Miller & Nora Way (Faculty) Division of Arts Education & Business March 14, 2017

Team Members NORA JODI Education Education Teaching experience Semi-retired Part-time faculty Education Teaching experience Full Time Faculty Cross disciplinary appointment

Where in the world is Medicine Hat? Google, 2017

Saamis Teepee (Peters, n.d)

Welcome to Medicine Hat College Medicine Hat College provides education that prepares students for further studies, careers and life. Our people are passionate about unleashing the potential of every student- intellectually, emotionally, spiritually, and socially. Through every encounter we have with students- and all that we do- we seek to recognize and encourage their potential as learners, workers and global citizens. Flickr.com, 2017

Welcome to Medicine Hat College Opportunities to Learn Degrees in partnership with Alberta universities University transfer allowing students to start degrees here Certificate, diploma, and applied degree programs for careers and employment College preparation Apprenticeship trades Continuing studies for career enhancement and recruitment Conservatory of Music and Dance English as a Second Language Campuses in Medicine Hat and Brooks

Our Situation University Transfer Sociology Course: Current Social Issues Students: 1st and 2nd year University Transfer Students (Arts, Sciences, and Education) Diploma students – Addictions Counselling, Social Work, Child and Youth Care Counsellor, Occupational/Physical Therapist Assistant, and Speech- Language Pathologist Assistant.

Team Teaching: Operational Definitions Co-teaching “Two or more instructors are teaching the same students at the same time within the same classroom” (Goetz, 2000). “The instructors work together but do not necessarily teach the same groups of students nor necessarily teach at the same time” (Goetz, 2000). Our experience has been a combination of team and co-teaching. We are presently teaching this course for the 3rd time.

Faculty Perspective Positives Challenges Breadth of experiences Educational Professional Personal Interdisciplinary Reciprocity of mentoring Innovation in evaluation Brainstorming Affirmation/Validation Open Communication Sharing successes and frustrations Commitment Time Trust * Availability Workload Triangulation

Students – Review of Literature Challenges Positives Confusion Decreases focus Less substantive and rigorous (Bucci and Trantham, 2014) Different perspectives – encourages deeper engagement (Woods, 2007) Expanded critical thinking (Hoare, et. al., 2008) Collective dialogue (Game and Metcalfe, 2009)

Student Perspective Diversity and experiences make the topics and classroom interesting Styles are different but have not created confusion in expectations Assignment and grading expectations are clearly communicated Rarely do we communicate with a student without including the other instructor Students have adapted to different styles The students understand that we are a team Students know our schedule and we stress contact format

Lessons Learned Outline topics Outline schedule Design evaluation methods Agree on rigor Meet often prior to course Communicate frequently Equity in workload Have fun and encourage each other

References Bucci, L. & Trantham, S. (2014). Children and violence: An undergraduate course model of interdisciplinary co-teaching. International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education. 26(1), 122-131. Flickr.com. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.bing.com/images/search?view=detailV2&ccid=CgoF2gLE&id=7E5AA3974670DDFB2594E0E4A2B2CAAC67A918CB&q=medicine+hat+college+image&simid=608031529277129075&selectedIndex=4&qpvt=medicine+hat+college+image&ajaxhist=0 Goetz, K. (2000). Perspectives on Team Teaching: A Semester I Independent Inquiry. Retrieved from http://people.ucalgary.ca/~egallery/goetz.html Google. (2017). Retrieved from https://www.mapcustomizer.com/ Hoare, A., Cornell, S., Bertram, C., Gallager, K., Herslop, S., Lievan, N., & Wilmore, C. (2008). Teaching against the grain: Multi-disciplinary teamwork effectively delivers a successful undergraduate unit in sustainable development. Environmental Educational Research, 14(4), 469-481. Peters, H. (n.d.). The Saamis Teepee. Retrieved from http://hammersonpeters.com/?p=500 Woods, C. (2007) Researching and developing interdisciplinary teaching: Towards a conceptual framework for classroom communication. Higher Education, 54(6), 853-866.