Same Course, Different Teaching? Exploring ‘Collaborative Teaching’ of Academic Writing at Higher Education through Reciprocal Journaling
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Abstract
This study examines collaborative teaching through the thematic analysis of reciprocal journals kept by the researchers of this study. The researchers were instructors for a graduate-level academic writing course taught to different groups of international students at a university in Singapore. The journal entries were written on a shared Google word file throughout the semester (12 weeks). The scope of the journal was kept broad, in that the instructors could reflect on any issue pertinent to the classes they taught. This was to ensure that the notion of collaboration can be comprehensively understood, as a classroom setting involves multiple entities. The thematic analysis was grounded in our aim to understand collaboration. Different themes that were identified are a common goal, realization of issues, different (pedagogical approaches) for the same goal, and collaboration with students. These themes indicate that collaboration can be achieved implicitly in different class settings, that is, the mutual acceptance of diverse teaching principles and practice relevant to his or her own teaching and learning environment, but geared towards the same goal. Based on these themes, other pertinent issues are also discussed, such as the role of students and the teaching of English in higher education. Implications for pedagogy and research are also provided.
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References
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