Emily St.Denny, Political Science
Abstract
Enhancing team-teaching in Political Science at UCPH
Effective team-teaching (TT) is associated with a range of pedagogical benefits for students and professional benefits for participating teachers. It also presents a range of challenges that need to be taken into account in order to ensure effective learning. This project therefore develops a TT process-tool to improve an existing 15 ECTS political science course on gender and politics by synthesizing insights from the scholarship and elements of best-practice. It does so by first auditing team-teaching in the political science department to identify the range and depth of experience, then surveying 25 team teachers about their experiences, and finally interviewing 4 experienced colleagues. The research reveals (1) that TT is prevalent, well-institutionalised, and generally valued in the Department, (2) that most teachers experience similar challenges, mostly concerning logistics and ensuring coherence, and (3) there are four broad principles which are associated with effective TT. The project ends by translating these four principles into a concrete process tool to be piloted in the fall of 2024.