Merge pull request #147 from coderefinery/st-coteaching

Co-teaching episode update

content/co-teaching.md

@@ -4,51 +4,107 @@
 
 :::{objectives}
 - Get to know the principle of co-teaching: How we do it and how you can too.
+- Learn the team teaching concept and how to tailor it to your situation.
 :::
 
 :::{instructor-note}
-- Teaching: ? min
-- Exercises: ? min
+- Teaching: 15 min
+- Exercises: 10 min
+- Discussion: 5 min
 :::
 
-Why teach together?
--------------------
 
-It has been said **a lot**, especially in areas such as code development or scientific research, about the value of collaboration.
-Yet still today, the effort of teaching is made alone far too often: a person decides to share their knowledge (or gets assigned a study module) and starts building the actual teaching material basically from scratch.
-It seems much more logical, in the age of FAIR science and open knowledge, to release, develop, iterate, and maintain teaching material -- including the contact sessions -- **collaboratively** as well.
+## Overview
 
-Ways to teach together
-----------------------
+CodeRefinery lessons benefit from the application of the concepts of **co-teaching**.
 
-* Develop materials together - avoid duplication.
-* Present the materials together ("proper" co-teaching, see [Team teaching section](https://coderefinery.github.io/manuals/team-teaching/) on the CR manual).
-* Use helpers extensively to tackle specific tasks commonly arising in online teaching process.
-* Involve your learners too, e.g. using collaborative document (such as HackMD) for parallel and mass answers.
+:::{admonition} Co-teaching
+[Co-teaching](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Co-teaching) can be defined as "the division of labor between educators to plan, organize, instruct and make assessments on the same group of students, generally in a common classroom, and often with a strong focus on those teaching as a team complementing one another's particular skills or other strengths".
+:::
+
+Co-teaching can be used in various forms, some of which are present in our workshops:
+- **Teaching + support**, e.g. one of the teachers leading instruction while the other watches over and maintains the collaborative document (HackMD/HedgeDoc/...).
+- Another similar example is **remote learning groups** that watch the streamed CodeRefinery lessons guided by the local instructors.
+- Having open-source material and planning jointly allows **multiple instances** of a lesson to be held by multiple teachers:
+   - *parallel teaching*, to different audiences at the same time,
+   - *alternative teaching*, to different audiences at the same or different time, with potential content adjustments (for example, different installation procedures).
+- **Team teaching**, where the lesson is presented by multiple (in most cases, two) teachers who actively engage in conversation with each other. The team-teaching concept is explained in more detail in the [CodeRefinery manual](https://coderefinery.github.io/manuals/team-teaching/).
+
+In reality, different forms are very often mixed or fused together, even within a single lesson.
+
+Co-teaching is not an online-only concept. However, it is very practical in online teaching due to larger number of instructors and learners potentially available to join a teaching session.
+
+
+## Co-teaching and team teaching benefits
+
+- It **saves preparation time**. Co-teachers can rely on each other's strengths while creating/ revising the material as well as in unexpected situations during the lesson.
+- It **helps with onboarding new instructors**. One of the co-teachers can be learning at the same time, either the subtleties of the material taught (in this case literally being the "voice of the audience") or the teaching process itself.
+- Team teaching **looks more interactive and engaging** to the audience in many cases, without forcing the learners to speak up if they can't or don't want to do so.
+- It also **ensures responsive feedback and less workload** by having more active minds.
+
+
+### Are there any downsides?
+
+Not every learner and not every instructor might like the team-teaching approach.
+- It might seem **less structured**, unprepared, and chaotic, even with preparation.
+   - It might create situations where instructors accidentally talk over each other or "interrupt" and change the flow of the lesson.
+   - For some instructors it can be stressful to not know in advance what questions they get asked from the co-instructor.
+   - Sometimes when an unexpected question is asked that throws the other instructor off, it can add to the feeling of chaos and unpreparedness.
+- It can be interactive and engaging but it can also end up awkward if the co-teachers don't have a good synergy.
+   - Can sound awkward: Main instructor talking all the time and at the end asking co-instructor whether everything is clear and co-instructor only saying "yes".
+   - Possibly more engaging: Co-instructor asking questions which help with the flow and a common understanding of the material.
+
+
+## Team teaching specifics
+
+- For successful team teaching, additional **coordination** is needed, first of all to agree on the teaching model (see below) and the person in control (the **director**) for the lesson or its parts.
+- It's useful to keep track of the **lecture plan**. The discussion is a good way to make lesson more interactive and adjust to the audience, but deviating too much will become disorienting (for example, if someone dropped their attention for a minute and now is trying to catch-up by reading lecture notes).
+- Experienced solo teacher might have a habit to keep talking (lecturing), while the co-teacher might not want to "interrupt". Therefore, it is important for the leading presenter to anticipate and **allow for remarks/ questions**, and this can be different from one's previous teaching style at first.
+
+
+## Team teaching models
+
+We propose two basic models, but of course there is a constant continuum.
+
+
+### Guide and demo-giver
+
+One person serves the role of **guide**, explaining the big picture and context of the examples.
+
+Another, the **demo-giver**, 
+- shows the typing and does the examples,
+- might take the role of a learner who is asking about what is going on, to actually explain the details, or to comment occasionally.
+
+Hands-on demos and exercises work especially well like this.
+
+
+### Presenter and interviewer
+
+In this case, one is the **presenter** who is mostly explaining (including demos or examples), and trying to move the forward through the material. 
+
+Another, the **interviewer**, 
+- serves as a learner or spotter,
+- fills in gaps by asking relevant questions,
+- tries to comment to the presenter when things are going off track.
 
-Advantages
-----------
+This can be seen as closer to classical teaching, but with a dedicated and prepared "voice of the audience".
 
-* If you need to teach anyway, combined efforts take up less time.
-* More engaging to the audience, taking some of the (sometimes daunting) expectation to "speak up" off of the students.
-* Easier on-boarding of new instructors -- one of them can be learning at the same time, either subtleties of the material or the teaching itself.
-* [Swiss-cheese](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swiss_cheese_model) principle: two "imperfect" teachers are __much__ easier to find and complement each other than the extensively-prepared, absolute expert.
 
-Challenges
-----------
+### Exercise
 
-* Additional effort needed of teacher and/or helper coordination -- including syncing up their schedules!
-* Materials might need to be (hopefully slightly) tuned to a specific target audience.
-* Using simultaneous-teaching strategies is a learned skill, not identical to the classical lecturing.
-* Online tools (HackMD, type-alongs) can potentially overload learners and teachers alike, if not used with care.
+:::{exercise} Discuss the models of team teaching (10 min)
+While in breakout rooms, discuss one of the basic team-teaching models presented here:
+- Have you already tried this or similar model in your teaching?
+- Does it seem natural to apply this model in your subject area (tell what it is)? How could it be adapted to fit best?
 
-:::{exercise}
-(What's better here -- practical exercise or discussion?)
+Write your comments in the collaborative document.
 :::
 
-(TODO: Here goes the rest of the episode sections and text)
 
+## Summary
 
 :::{keypoints}
-- Here we summarize keypoints.
+- Co-teaching focuses on complementing individual skills and strengths in teaching process.
+- Co-teaching may save time, reduce teachers' workload and make lessons more interactive/ engaging.
+- Team teaching requires some adjustments in lesson preparation and delivery.
 :::