Libraries and Learning Services

Getting it right: An investigation into the effects of the team teaching pedagogy in Doctoral Skills academic literacy workshops

LIANZA 2016 Research SIG - New Zealand Research by Librarians, for Librarians Symposium (RLL1)

Neda Zdravkovic, Learning Services Librarian

27 May 2016

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The Doctoral Skills Programme at University of Auckland

Library Component

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- 14 different workshop titles - 140 sessions per year - taught by 35 Subject Librarians - attended by 1500 doctoral candidates

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The Bright Idea:

Introduce Team Teaching Pedagogy in ALL academic & information literacy (Library) Doctoral Skills Programme workshops at University of Auckland.

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Did it work?

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My research focus: a) Presenters (in their teaching) b) Doctoral candidates (in their learning)

How did it affect

Time period: 2014 – 2015Who: 20 Subject Librarians 160 doctoral students who attended DSP workshops in this period

What is really happening on the classroom floor and beyond?

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Students PresentersFosters student engagement Refinement of teaching skills

Provides of a variety of teaching voices, styles and viewpoints in one class

Professional relationship building & cross-departmental collaboration

Value in added expertise and multi-disciplinary support

Shared expertise

Enables stronger attention to individual students’ queries and learning needs

Mutual support in class management, shared workload and responsibility

Creates dynamic learning environment and application of the open form of the Socratic dialogue.

Exchange of innovative ideas, teaching styles & techniques

Facilitates social dimension of knowledge construction

Success dependent upon the teaching team partnership

What is already known – Team teaching/ benefits:

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What is not quite known:Two published studies (Alfonzo & Batson, 2014; Secker & Macrae-Gibson, 2010) specifically discuss the application of team teaching pedagogy in AIL face-to-face workshops designed and offered as part of a generic doctoral programme.

Does team teaching pedagogy truly enables AIL (Library) presenters to effectively address learning and research

support needs of doctoral candidates in DSP AIL workshops?

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Tapping into the core knowledge:

Do we have enough understanding about learning, pedagogical and research support needs of doctoral candidates and researchers, in order to effectively support them in their journey towards independent scholarship?

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Methodology – mixed method approach - 2 surveys (SurveyMonkey) - 2 focus groups (n=5) – Sony audio, transcripts +notetaking

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The questions we asked – survey: Doctoral candidates (160/37) Library presenters (19/11)Was team teaching disruptive? New to team teaching?Did you feel freer to participate? What was preferred practice for you?

Beneficial for your learning? What is your preferred team teaching model?

Your preferred pedagogy/approach? Support?

Your recommendations? Your recommendations?

The reality…

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The questions we asked – focus groups: Doctoral candidates (5) Library presenters/ subject librarians

(5)Engagement: Do you find team-taught doctoral skills workshops engaging and interactive? If yes – in what way? If not – why not?

Effect on teaching practice/ development: Has the participation in team teaching within the Doctoral Programme and AIL workshops you have co-taught affected your approach to teaching practice?

Learning style: Do you prefer team taught workshops vs the ones presented by sole presenter and if so – why, and if not – why not?

Positives of team teaching practice: What were the positive elements (or events) of being part of a DSP AIL workshop teaching team?

Social situated learning: In which of these workshops did you feel better sense of collaboration among doctoral candidates (if any)?

Challenges of team teaching practice: Were there any challenges in being part of the DSP teaching team? If yes – what were they?

Learning preferences: Were there any elements of team taught DSP AIL workshops that made you feel unpleasant, preventing you to take part in activities and class discussions?

Support & preparation: Selection of co-presenter, development of teaching skills, preferred teaching preparation support needed.

Preferred pedagogy: What kind of teaching approach would you prefer to experience in doctoral skills workshops in future?

Recommendations & preferences?

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FINDINGS – The effects

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Presenters Doctoral candidates

Challenges: 1.Time management becomes a priority. 2. Adjustment to different teaching styles. 3. Teaching preparation commitment 4. The necessity for teaching practice to take

place between co –presenters prior to each session, regardless of levels of their teaching experience or expertise to date.

Challenges: The team teaching pedagogy applied in DSP AIL workshops is not effective (is disruptive) if it doesn’t accommodate reflective, peer-learning environment allowing the time and space for DCs, as adult learners, to reflect, think about and ask follow up questions.

Benefits: Overall beneficial - professional development and collaboration.

Benefits: Overall, students find that having more than one presenter is engaging.

Preferences: Team-teaching preferred over solo teaching, except in purely ‘how-to’ sessions (Thesis formatting).

Preferences: Preference is towards team-taught workshops due to more dynamic, lively atmosphere and shared expertise between presenters. • The successful engagement with the class and the material/ topic/ content is

dependent on the nature of the collaboration/ choreography between co-presenters.

• In relation to skills-based/ hands-on “how to” instruction, preference is towards sessions facilitated by a solo presenter & one rover

• Social engagement with peers preferred over learning new skills in AIL DSP workshops.

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FINDINGS – Two perspectives

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Presenters Doctoral candidatesTeam teaching pedagogy works well. The team teaching pedagogy is not effective in DSP AIL workshops if it

doesn’t accommodate reflective, peer-learning environment allowing the time and space for DCs, as adult learners, to reflect, share and exchange experiences and ask follow-up questions.

The learning of the new “skill” is important to DCs who attend AIL DSP workshops. The teaching pedagogy is strongly dependent on the nature of the content of each workshop.

Yes, but….

Significance of providing shared expertise. Significance of provided shared and discipline-specific expertise.

DCs require individual attention in AIL DSP workshops. Having rovers to provide individual attention to DCs in each session important.

Strong need is for social interaction/ experience sharing and forming the ‘community of learners’– almost a priority. - In the skills –based workshops, I remember coming away and going: “Well I wish I could have had some time talking to the people around me, because they would have been able to put things in different ways that presenters did, that might have made a better sense to me. And I went out of my way to talk to the people beside me, and each time we’d make a little conversation like “How are you going with this and that, etc…?” I really like that, but it wasn’t encouraged.

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FINDINGS – Preferred pedagogies

Preferences and recommendations

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Presenters Doctoral candidatesImportance of creating peer-groups (or pairing students up) at the start of the class. Small group work facilitation.

Work-in-pairs & group activities “Small group activities where we work on relatively simple tasks to give us also time to talk to and get to know each other and exchange questions, where we are at, and how we think/ feel about what is being taught/ discussed in the session so far.”

Activities for the participants with minimal interference or authoritarianism from the presenter.

Opportunities for peer-learning and reflection“I think many of us have similar problems regarding skills, research, library access, etc. and often solutions and ideas come from other students rather than teachers.”

Implementing discussion-based activities Peer-teaching“What I mean here is that PhD students in their 2nd/3rd/4th years can teach in the DSP because they have the experience in doing PhD, they can tell their personal methods and own lessons to others.”Flipped classroom approach, where tasks are assigned one week before session is due for DCs to complete before attending the session and then follow up during the class.

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So what?

“I am learning” - Formation of two independent communities of learners: 1. DSP AIL presenters 2. Doctoral candidates ‘Communities of Practice’: - doctoral candidates are practitioners

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XWMAteuaks