Interdisciplinary teaching by teams of diverse faculty is highly effective in providing students with intellectual tools for creating innovative solutions to 21st century problems. This article examines the effective practices for interdisciplinary teaching used by a five-membered, disciplinarily diverse faculty team with expertise in chemistry,…

Four cycles of a value creation conceptual framework including: immediate value; potential value; applied value; and realized value, were used to analyze the role of social capital in the creation of experienced and aspired value in collaborative learning. Students' narratives on team development dynamics in a Team Lecture Hybrid (TLH)…

Co-planning is considered an integral part of a successful co-teaching relationship in which both teachers have parity and use their individual expertise to benefit all students. However, the literature has not discussed adequately how co-planning is achieved within the parameters of the already full schedules of two teachers. This column shares…

Most professional development activities focus on individual teachers, such as mentoring or the use of portfolios. However, new developments in higher education require teachers to work together in teams more often. Due to these changes, there is a growing need for professional development activities focusing on teams. Therefore, this review study…

Recent research suggests that personal and institutional constraints often limit the degree to which professional development impacts teaching practice. Darling-Hammond suggests that one of those constraints is time in schools for collaborative planning. She cites high performing schools in Europe and Asia that have three to four times more…

As a model for learning to teach, coteaching places two or more student teachers and cooperating teachers in a classroom. Effective coteaching requires coplanning, and this case study examines how six coteachers planned instruction for three environmental science classes. Using sociocultural theory, the study provides insight into the complexity…

This study presents our emerging understanding of the meaning of collaborative self-study as one of the mechanisms that facilitates effective, productive collaboration. Stemming from our experience of collaborative professional life over eight years, we explore the crisis we confronted as a professional learning community, the tensions underlying…

Purpose: The aim of this study is to explore whether and to what degree community development of teacher teams takes place and how community development comes about, that is, what community-building efforts teacher teams undertake. Design/methodology/approach: Using a multi method approach, quantitative and qualitative data were gathered from…

One middle school recently adopted a team teaching model as a result of principal directive in order to improve staff communication and better serve students. Because seventh and eighth grade teachers had never been teamed in this particular middle school, research was needed to investigate how teaming was implemented and how these teachers…

The introduction of middle schooling in Australia has brought about changes to the working conditions of many teachers including finding themselves in teacher teams. The formation of such teams has been identified as critical to Australian middle school reform with teacher teams underpinning several of the fundamental components of a middle school…

Successful graduates in today's competitive business environments must possess sound interpersonal skills and the ability to work effectively in team situations within, and across, disciplines. However, developing these skills within the higher education curriculum is fraught with organisational and pedagogical difficulties, with many teachers not…

Maintains that interdisciplinary teaming in middle schools has not reached its full potential, with teams spending too much time on minor problems and housekeeping duties. Suggests ways to: improve the foundations of teaming; demonstrate greater discipline during team meetings; improve the team's ability to make decisions, solve problems, and…

The theory of object relations is applied to the group dynamics of the Open University's course development and instruction teams and to several other situations, including the relationship between the Open University and the BBC, staff support in summer schools, manpower planning, and staff development. (MSE)

This study examined how professional learning communities develop, using cross-subject teams within the context of HUMANITAS, a program designed to promote teachers' professional growth and effectiveness by creating a voluntary "community of learners" for teachers and students. Data were gathered from teacher interviews, team…

This paper is based on a reexamination of data from implementation in 1993-94 of the "Connections" program, a voluntary interdisciplinary program option for ninth-grade students in Cedar City (Ohio). Data gathered from the four teachers (representing English, Physical Science, World History, and Learning Disabilities) and 80 students (including 10…