Collaboration in Teaching

Boice suggests that “the most efficient, effective teachers stand out for letting other people do some of their work” because they can utilize or borrow other teachers’ ideas or receive their advice about teaching. The advantages that Boice mentions are actually applicable to the collaboration of other purposes, such as writing. We can always learn something new from others when we collaborate with them. In addition to what Boice says, there is one more advantage of collaborating with others in teaching. In the articles I read about mixed composition classes, the authors of the one of the articles are teachers who coteach in a mixed composition class. The advantage of teaching collaboratively for them is that they have different areas of specialties. One is good at teaching ESL students, and the other is more familiar with teaching NES students. Thus, collaborating is not just an act of sharing responsibility. Sometimes, we do need others’ skills or knowledge to complete our responsibility.

Teachers or writers can actually benefit greatly from collaboration. But we still have to be cautious about the claim that Boice quotes: “If it isn’t all mine, all my own work, why bother?” Occasionally, people will just pass the buck to the person they collaborate with because the division of work is not clearly marked. Therefore, I think it is important to explain clearly which part of work one should be responsible for. Only when collaborators complete their assigned work will their collaboration be efficient and effective.