First Faculty Forum Examines Team Teaching


by Anne Dolan

Strategies, strengths and pitfalls of team teaching is the 
topic of the first Faculty Forum of the season, Monday, Sept. 
18. The topic was suggested several times last year by forum 
participants, according to Steve Richardson, director of the 
Center for Teaching Excellence, which sponsors the series.

Richardson has invited Jim Noxon and Larry Genalo to begin 
the discussion with summaries of their own team teaching 
experiences.

Noxon, professor of veterinary clinical sciences, coordinates 
a "tag-team" teaching effort of five to six faculty for a 
semester-long course in clinical medicine. Each participating 
faculty member has expertise in a specific area and leads the 
course for several weeks. 

The challenge, Noxon said, is to make the process more user-
friendly to students, particularly for exams. Students prefer 
to learn a teacher's testing style and adjust to it during a 
semester or year. Over time, he said, the faculty members 
have improved the consistency of exams from component to 
component.

Another difficulty, he noted, is that no faculty member feels 
he or she receives enough time in the semester and crams a 
lot of information into the time allotted.

Yet another consideration, Noxon said, is that the course 
falls in a sequence when students are expected to be moving 
from simply regurgitating lecture information to learning 
critical thinking and problem solving.

"I don't feel we have it down to an art. We hope to find some 
ways to improve the team teaching," Noxon said. Due to their 
other teaching and clinic responsibilities, however, it 
remains the most acceptable option to the participating 
faculty, he said.

Genalo, associate professor of engineering fundamentals and 
multidisciplinary design, will highlight efforts in his 
department to remain consistent across multiple sections of a 
required course in engineering problems. Twelve faculty 
members teach the course. He said that team effort includes 
weekly meetings of the faculty to discuss computer lessons 
and text coverage, exam committees that write each of three 
exams, one syllabus for all and comparable lab projects.

"While we'd like to think this is a finely honed machine, we 
also recognize that we need to be changing all the time," 
Genalo said. "The faculty group is very cooperative and 
interested in making this the best course it can."

The dinner portion of the evening begins at 6 p.m. in the 
Memorial Union Campanile Room. A cash bar precedes it at 5:30 
p.m. Dinner reservations should be made by 5 p.m. Friday, 
Sept. 15, with Jane Henning, 4-2906 or njhenni@iastate.edu. 
The team teaching discussion will begin at approximately 6:45 
p.m. Those who are unable to come for dinner are welcome to 
attend the discussion.

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contact:  Anne Dolan, Internal Communications, (515) 294-7065
updated:  9-15-95