Teaching with a Colleague….Triumph or Terror?
By Mariela Giuliano and Mandy Frake-Mistak
Teaching does not need to take place in isolation. In recognizing the added value of teaching or facilitating with a colleague, we do a lot of co-facilitation of courses and workshops at the Teaching Commons. Although here, facilitators are often Educational Developers, we frequently pair with those outside of the Teaching Commons. This blog offers an insiders perspective on some of the benefits, challenges, and overall reflections of so doing.
A few months ago I invited a colleague from the Faculty/Department of Psychology to co-facilitate the Instructional Skills Workshop (ISW) with me. Mariela Giuliano is a trained facilitator of this course and has too, been a participant. When I approached her about sharing her thoughts through the TC Blog here is what she shared with me:
When Mandy gave me the opportunity to co-facilitate the ISW with her, I was thrilled. I envisioned the room with my colleagues, the lessons, the materials and all the fun we were going to have. This was going to be a wonderful learning experience and I just couldn’t wait! But as months went by and the date was getting closer, I started to feel slightly nervous. I had never done this before…what was going to happen if I made a mistake? I soon realized that (1) I made more than one mistake, and (2) Mandy was there to support, mentor and also learn from the experience herself. We were able to build a relationship of trust where we felt completely comfortable discussing not only lessons to be included in the workshop or pedagogical tools to be explored, but also our own strengths and areas to further develop as educators.
While this was Mariela’s first ISW, she is by no means new to teaching or teaching with a colleague. She has co-taught an undergraduate course in the psychology department and explained that similarly to the ISW, she was also nervous at having her colleagues observe her lectures. She shared:
Again, same as before, we were able to complement each other and work in a team that openly reflected on our weekly teaching experience. We all felt comfortable voicing our opinions and we all understood that we needed to compromise once in a while.
Co-facilitation seems to be growing in popularity as it brings many advantages for educators and students. Through this process, we can gain discipline-specific knowledge and have the opportunity to observe a colleague, borrow fun ideas and, overall, improve our teaching skills. We were all learners before, we all have preferences and personal experiences that shape our views on education. Co-facilitation provides a unique opportunity to share our knowledge, discuss our perspectives and learn from others.
Another great advantage is that we can consult with each other regarding pedagogical decisions. As in any teaching/learning situation, we need to make constant changes to ensure we follow our participants/students’ lead as we meet the learning outcomes. Having the opportunity to share our plans with a colleague becomes a great advantage to ensure we minimize biases and consider other perspectives that may have been ignored otherwise.
Last and arguably the most important, it is also beneficial for students as they learn from different instructors who bring a varying range of experiences and teaching styles. It allows for a wider range of examples and pedagogical techniques that make classes/workshops more dynamic and engaging for all.
Of course, there are a few challenges. If we are used to working alone, including somebody else in the teaching process may be difficult at the beginning. We now have to consult with the team before big decisions can be made: student wants an extension of the extension (not that rare!); is asking for higher grades; or is experiencing conflict with another student; and so on. These everyday aspects of our teaching work now need to be discussed. However, a lot is gained by discussing different viewpoints, being understanding and open minded. The more we are able to understand and collaborate with our colleagues, the easier it will be to understand and collaborate with our own students.
Co-facilitation requires some prep work. For the ISW, we had several Skype meetings to discuss the structure of the workshop and cooperatively decide on what lessons to include (based on our participants’ interests and needs). Once these decisions were made, we worked separately on specific lessons. During the workshop, we were both present as one was facilitating and the other one observing. This arrangement was very helpful to encourage collaboration during the preparation stages, independent lesson planning and facilitation, and collaborative team reflection on the results and decisions on news steps to follow.
We learned how to do our job better! We learned about our different teaching styles, different perspectives and different ways to solve a problem. We learned the value of supporting each other and having fun in what we do. This was also a reminder that we all think and learn in different ways and our students are the exact same way. As a new facilitator and instructor in higher education, I have gained a lot of confidence in a short period of time. Co-teaching is a great lesson in understanding others and this can be applied to numerous environments inside and outside the classroom. In our view, facilitating together took the terror out of teaching.