Collaboration as a Form of Professional Development: Improving Learning for Faculty and Students

Abstract

One form of professional development available to faculty is the opportunity to co-teach. Studies of team teaching report increased communication between teachers and students and improved retention and achievement. This article describes a multiyear collaboration between two faculty members that began with a training relationship and expanded into co-teaching. From this experience, the authors widened their knowledge of resources, added to their teaching repertoire, and created new projects and assignments. The co-teaching relationship led to examination of processes and outcomes of their teaching and co-writing. Over time, this professional experience has grown into an exchange of roles and responsibilities. Although this collaboration did not begin as a scholarship endeavor, it has become a long-lasting one built on trust and mutual interest.

Keywords:

• collaboration
• professional development
• scholarship of teaching and learning
• teacher education