Mazella, D., Heidel, L., & Ke, I. (2011). Integrating reading, information literacy, and literary studies instruction in a three-way collaboration. Learning Assistance Review (TLAR). 16(2) 41-53.
Below is my review of the article, and below my review is Telia Sherwood's review from Spring, 2012.
This article describes a successful three-way collaboration among professors from three separate disciplines to solve the problem of students not being able to master the skills needed to create an annotated bibliography. It is interesting that this successful collaboration resulted from solving a specific problem with a specific set of students. This was not a fuzzy, "let's get together to collaborate and make the class better" situation. In addition, the instructors became aware of the shortcomings of their own instruction, instead of thinking there was something wrong with the learners.
Because of this self-reflection, the instructors came to a "double-loop learning" process that can show specialists where they may have limitations in their own isolated approaches. In the article, the authors describe a typical vertical flow of information within a university discipline that compartmentalizes knowledge and inhibits the flow of ideas and insights from outside. This vertical structuring of "idea flow" inhibits a cross-discipline, and potentially extremely fruitful, horizontal "idea flow."
Once again, as in other readings on collaboration, space or the environment is mentioned as a support or barrier. In universities, the physical separation of one discipline from another, creates chasms across which it is difficult for in-real-world professors to cross. One would think that with the presence of virtual worlds and virtual campuses, these chasms would disappear. But collaboration within virtual spaces is not yet common in higher education. The authors identify a problem with in-virtual-world experiences: an academic bias against out-of-classroom, out-of-university "informal" learning which is associated with anything that happens within a virtual space.
The article includes a detailed explanation of the techniques used to teach the annotated bibliography skill and attributes the success of the class to collaboration. "We believe that this teaching model helped to achieve results that could not have been accomplished using the traditional, one-shot presentation" (p. 52).
Because of this self-reflection, the instructors came to a "double-loop learning" process that can show specialists where they may have limitations in their own isolated approaches. In the article, the authors describe a typical vertical flow of information within a university discipline that compartmentalizes knowledge and inhibits the flow of ideas and insights from outside. This vertical structuring of "idea flow" inhibits a cross-discipline, and potentially extremely fruitful, horizontal "idea flow."
Once again, as in other readings on collaboration, space or the environment is mentioned as a support or barrier. In universities, the physical separation of one discipline from another, creates chasms across which it is difficult for in-real-world professors to cross. One would think that with the presence of virtual worlds and virtual campuses, these chasms would disappear. But collaboration within virtual spaces is not yet common in higher education. The authors identify a problem with in-virtual-world experiences: an academic bias against out-of-classroom, out-of-university "informal" learning which is associated with anything that happens within a virtual space.
The article includes a detailed explanation of the techniques used to teach the annotated bibliography skill and attributes the success of the class to collaboration. "We believe that this teaching model helped to achieve results that could not have been accomplished using the traditional, one-shot presentation" (p. 52).
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This article explores how three professionals came together to help college students through the in depth process of an annotated bibliography. An English teacher, a librarian and a learning strategies counselor came together to create a series of presentations to help the students. This article is unique because it uses a three way collaboration model in higher education. Many of the disciplines do not collaborate with each other, and when they do, rarely more than two individuals are involved. What I found interesting was the element of team teaching in this scenario. All three teachers had something to bring to the table, so the meshed their skills to give the best education to the students.
-- Telia Sherwood, Spring, 2012
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