Team-Teaching of Math and Physics

Morgan Besson and Robert Styer

Villanova University

Confucius says...

“Give me any two people at random, and I can learn from them.” (Analects)

1947 Commentary in the Amer. Math. Monthly

“...One of the great weaknesses of American universities is their intense departmentalization. Nature does not recognize the fine distinction between what belongs to mathematics, what to physics, and what to chemistry…. What could be more natural than a combination course of basic physics and calculus?...

Caveat on Team Teaching Literature

“Because of the number of factors that interact in a collaborative setting, a contingency approach is needed to understand what variables contribute to successful collaboration under what circumstances.” (Austin/Baldwin pg. 56) (i.e., we don’t know much!)

Areas and Degree of Collaboration [Davis.p 20]

Degree of Collaboration: Professors’ Expectations/Prof. Evaluation/Student Eval.

Planning: High, High, Medium Content Integration: High, Medium,

Low Teaching: Medium, Low, Low Evaluation: Low, Low, Low

(Davis, Chapter 5)

Satisfying Aspects for Profs Intellectual stimulus! gain teaching insights new friends in other departments renew or redirect career

(Davis page 119)

Perhaps the most surprising finding from these interviews is that the dissatisfactions are so few and the satisfactions are elaborated with such gusto….even with this identified bias toward “participants,” such a positive bottom line is surprising, especially with all the demands that team

teaching makes on faculty.

Frustrating Aspects for Profs lack of administration appreciation must give up autonomy less flexibility hard to blend teaching styles difficult to find one’s niche big time sink!

(Davis Chapter 5)

Timing and Content integration is difficult first time through. Morgan discussed electric field due to a

charged ring, then the field due to a disc:

I then interjected: asymptotics as x grows! That took the rest of class. The next day Morgan did asymptotics as r grows, leading to the infinite charged plate, then to capacitors, his goal.

1 2 2

xr x

(Davis pg. 47)

When faculty members join a team…they find themselves immersed in a collaborative process with other people from other disciplines who also don’t know what they are doing. What they all bring to the process is their disciplinary perspective and very often their anxieties about coverage. Coverage becomes a problem in team-taught courses….

Satisfying Aspects for Students Interconnectedness of knowledge varied pedagogical approaches receive more attention Hawthorne effect---better teaching!

Frustrating Aspects for Students often seems disjointed, repetitive,

uneven must adjust to different teaching

styles

(Austin and Baldwin, pp. 41-45)

Administrative Difficulties with Team-Taught MathPhys advanced placement credit transfers, withdrawals “faculty productivity” lower student evaluations for

teams

Villanova experience: Does MathPhys work? Professors learned an enormous

amount from each other on comparable physics tests,

students did somewhat better than past years

student focus groups said: too much, too fast, too confusing!

Chairs happy with retention