Team teaching as a strategy for enhancing teaching about theory-into-practice

ABSTRACT

Integrating theory-into-practice is an important skill for professionals to master during their university education; however, students and educators find learning and teaching about theory-into-practice challenging. To address these difficulties ‘Transition Workshops’ were implemented within a Bachelor of Occupational Therapy. A mixed methods evaluation was conducted using pre- and post-workshop surveys and focus groups. Qualitative findings, the focus of this paper, were that team teaching helped educators feel more confident in teaching theory-into-practice as it was more enlivening than solo teaching, it provided opportunity for professional development, it enabled better understanding of the whole curriculum, and it modelled a consolidated professional identity. Team teaching assisted students by providing them with multiple role-models. This study highlighted that some of the challenge in supporting students to learn how to integrate theory-into-practice may be addressed using team teaching.

KEYWORDS:

• theory-into-practice
• team teaching
• pedagogy
• occupational therapy
• co-teaching

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank all of the staff and students in the Bachelor of Occupational Therapy at Griffith University who participated in this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by a Health Group 2018 Teaching and Learning Grant at Griffith University;

Notes on contributors

Melanie Roberts

Melanie Roberts is a Senior Lecturer (Occupational Therapy) in the School of Health Sciences and Social Work at Griffith University. Melanie has over ten years’ experience as an educator and has received teaching citations, awards and grants in recognition of her teaching and learning practice. Melanie’s research aims to improve discipline and interprofessional approaches to higher education.

Dr Michelle Bissett is a Senior Lecturer (Occupational Therapy) in the School of Health Sciences and Social Work at Griffith University. Michelle has 20 years of experience as an educator and has received teaching awards in recognition of her authentic teaching approaches. She is a National Programme Assessor for the Occupational Therapy Council (Australia and New Zealand) which requires her to complete accreditation evaluations of occupational therapy programmes in Australian universities.

Dr Clare Wilding is Research Consultant at Knowledge Moves and Research Fellow in Ageing and Subacute Care jointly at Albury Wodonga Health and La Trobe University. Clare is a highly experienced occupational therapist with broad interests in occupational therapy theory and evidence, occupational science, knowledge exchange, and communities of practice.