Teaching in Teams - A Planning Guide for Successful Collaborations - No. 37 - planning guide

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Margaret

Teaching in Teams - A Planning Guide for Successful Collaborations presents team-taught courses as a structured approach to improve student learning and instructor practice. It explains how collaborative teaching can strengthen higher-order thinking, provide access to diverse expertise, and model productive teamwork across perspectives and social identities. The paper emphasizes that success is not automatic and depends on careful planning and implementation. It outlines team teaching models, highlights key features, identifies challenges, offers mitigation strategies, and includes planning and evaluation resources.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages8

Reading Time20 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Models of Team Teaching

Planning

Teaching

Testing and Evaluation

TEACHING IN TEAMS: A PLANNING GUIDE FOR SUCCESSFUL COLLABORATIONS Deborah Meizlish and Olivia Anderson Introduction Team-taught courses have the potential to enrich experiences for both students and instructors. While the exact motivations for team teaching vary, these courses often share important goals for the students who enroll in them. For example, many team-taught courses seek to promote students’development of higher-order thinking skills by enabling them to interact with instructors who have different sets of expertise and perspectives (Bacharach, Heck, & Dahlberg, 2008; Bierwert, 2011; Helms, Alvis, & Willis, 2005) . This is particularly true for educational programs intending to help students grapple with the scope and complexity of real-world challenges (Helmset al., 2005; Weinberg & Harding, 2004, Bierwert, 2011) . Other courses teach successful collaboration in part by using the instructors themselves as a model of productive teamwork, whether in general (Carpenter, Crawford & Walden, 2007; Helms et al. , 2005; Yanamandram & Noble, 2006;) or across salient social identities (Anderson & Speck, 1998; Ouellett & Fraser, 2011) . In addition to higher-order thinking and collaborative skills, team-taught courses can provide other benefits for students. For example, a team of instructors can provide students with more access to advice and help with course material (Yanamandram & Noble, 2006) . Multiple sources of instructional expertise, experiences, or identities can also help ignite interests and motivations across a broader array of students (Yanamandram & Noble, 2006) For instructors, there are benefits as well. Team teaching across subject or disciplinary boundaries enables instructors to encounter new content knowledge, as well as new perspectives on their own expertise (Bacharach et al. , 2008; Plank, 2011; Shibley, 2006) . This can lead to fresh lines of inquiry and foster innovative opportunities for collaborative research. I co-taught an introductory level course for students with a wide variety of backgrounds. Due to this variability, a team teaching approach was helpful for several reasons; 1) the instructional team brought a broader perspective to the materials presented; 2) the collaborative nature of deciding on content, assessments, and mechanisms to deal with student concerns prompted us to make instructional decisions with more clarity and thought than if it had been done by one instructor; 3) team teaching gave students a variety of ways to ask for assistance, letting them discuss course materials with whichever instructor they preferred. The team teaching approach was especially helpful in deciding how to modify course objectives, content, and assessments, ensuring that decisions were made in a careful and collaborative manner. --David Bridges, School of Public Health Deborah Meizlish, PhD, is Managing Director for Educational Development and Assessment Services at the Center for Research on Learning and Teaching (CRLT) at the University of Michigan. Olivia S. Anderson, PhD, MPH, RD, is a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Nutritional Sciences at the School of Public Health. CRLT Occasional Papers No. 37 Center for Research on Learning and Teaching University of Michigan Team teaching can broaden instructors’ pedagogical skills while providing opportunities to reflect more deeply on teaching and professional practice (Bacharach et al. , 2008; Plank, 2011; Shapiro & Dempsey, 2008; Shibley, 2006) . Finally, team teaching can build important personal connections in an instructional community, providing opportunities to mentor new colleagues, lessen isolation in teaching, and build connections across disciplinary silos (Helms et al. , 2005) . Achieving these positive outcomes, whether for students or instructors, is not guaranteed. Instead, success depends on careful planning and implementation. Without attention to these elements, team-taught courses can creat

FAQs

What benefits do team-taught courses offer students and instructors?

Team-taught courses can enrich students’ higher-order thinking and collaboration by exposing them to instructors with different expertise and perspectives. They also offer instructors opportunities to expand their pedagogical skills and reflect more deeply on teaching and professional practice.

What makes successful team teaching dependent on careful planning?

Positive outcomes are not guaranteed. Without attention to planning and implementation, team-taught courses can create obstacles for both students and instructors.

What dimensions does the guide use to describe instructional collaboration?

The guide discusses multiple dimensions of collaboration, including planning, teaching, and testing/evaluation. It notes that different team teaching approaches can vary in how these responsibilities are shared and organized.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Margaret