title: JOINT DELIVERY AND TRANSNATIONAL TRENDS IN COLLABORATIVE TEACHING IN CHINA: AN INTERPRETATIVE PHENOMENOLOGICAL ANALYSIS
Creators: name: Molinero Baena, Gloria
Publisher: name: University of Liverpool Repository
Year: 2021

description: Joint Delivery (JD) emerges as a response to issues concerning pedagogical and contextual differences in transnational higher education in China. Trends in transferring skills between courses, simultaneous subject content and second language practice in where English is the medium of instruction (EMI), academic requirements and challenges in transnational environments, and the overall experience in multidisciplinary courses in learning and teaching cooperation, are some of the main questions that nurtured the JD programme. Leonardi (2015) argues that a combination of tools and strategies from approaches such as Content Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) and English for Specific Purposes (ESP) can maximise the output in tertiary education. How this combination shapes practice and impacts teaching and learning is unclear. Hence, this study explores how specialists in English for Academic Purposes (EAP) make sense of their collaborative experiences with departmental staff in JD courses. Focusing on its impacts in learning and teaching and its contribution to instruction and professional development, the research undertakes an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) approach (Smith, Flowers &amp; Larkin, 2009) utilising a reflective standpoint and the researcher’s context and field experiences. It provides a three-layer analysis of semi-structured, discussion-like interviews of 13 language specialists, held at the end of the semester to enhance the reflective factor. The analysis exhibited JD to be a complex phenomenon with a wide range of collaborative practices, teaching tactics, and means for professional development. The experiences in collaborative teaching revealed three main delivery modes: language-support, co-teaching and lecture-seminar models with variations in the departmental involvement. The characteristics of these collaborations agree with the evaluations made by Friend and Cook (2014). Yet, this study highlights three essentials that can lead to further the success of collaborations: 1) a thorough initial co-designing of the course materials; 2) a constant openness to adaptation through a share of responsibilities; and, 3) an equal exchange of expertise with a continual sense of learning at both personal and professional levels. Together with these essentials, there are optional practices that can be implemented in co-teaching such as involving the lecturers further in the JD programme, rather than having invitations for single lecture sessions; having more tasks-based and practical sessions, while transferring teacher-focused lectures to online platforms; generating hubs for co-teaching practices and exchange experiences; and, adapting policies towards equitable forms of course ownership amongst departments and centres. Ultimately, practitioners indicated through their experiences in the JD programme to have enriched not only their practice, but also their personal and professional undertakings as their courses were more transdisciplinary and their co-teaching more functional and organic, which essentially is the heart of collaborative transnational education.