Trial by Fire: New Librarians as Team Teachers
Interesting article from Academic Exchange Quarterly, blogged by Michael Lorenzen, about team teaching in library instruction settings. The authors found that working as a team over multiple instruction sessions helped them reduce the stress of learning how to teach in the library setting.
Trial by Fire: New Librarians as Team Teachers
Trial by Fire: New Librarians as Team Teachers
posted by David at 3:38 PM
5 Comments:
How do others feel about team teaching? I know some of you don't have this luxury (if you want to call it that), but would you want it? I prefer a one-woman show but don't mind at all if anyone observes. Just wondering about the rest of you...
I'm writing as a faculty member (in Information Studies, in the UK) rather than a librarian. I must say I really like team teaching - I have learnt the most about teaching through working with others, seeing how they teach etc. It also does reduce stress levels, for me. It has encouraged me to be more adventurous in designing student-centred and student-led teaching. For "real" team teaching, though, it needs to be with people who you trust and who want to be part of the team. It can be a negative experience if the person you are "team teaching" with sees it as a competitive exercise rather than a supportive and collaborative activity. (I had both these experiences, positive and negative, at a former institution...)
Sheila Webber
I really don't mind team teaching at all. I've enjoyed the couple of Faculty Development Day sessions that I've done w/ other librarians. I think it mixes things up a bit. Of course that could just be because I'm one of those w/o the "luxury" of doing it on any kind of regular basis. I've also done some sessions where the instructor and I team teach research skills. I like those too as it adds a different perspective to the library stuff.
And I really like the idea in the article about having new librarians (or librarians who aren't as experienced w/ teaching) team teach. I know I could have definitely used a mentor or collaborator when I was first learning about teaching. But again, is there really the luxury of being able to do that most places?
I agree that pairing up new librarians (or librarians new to teaching) sounds like a fantastic practice, as I've talked to quite a few librarians who claim they're not and don't want to be in the teaching biz. There's no way around it, though, so perhaps team-teaching is the answer for them. It's just not my favorite.
David, you team teach with the class instructor? Sounds like team-teaching I could get interested in.
Excuse my 2-month delay in responding to the team teaching article. I like teams, I like committees. I used to be a go-it-alone person and as time goes by I find I do better if I feel support around me. If I know others are working with me, I can take on nearly anything. Team teaching isn't a competition. It's a reflection of different personalities and styles. The more ideas that are contributed, the richer the classroom experience.
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