This is spreading throughout the department. He comes up with this idea of how to use video in the classoom, and all of a sudden you see it popping up in all sorts of courses. That's because we work together and see how its done. As a result, he has helped to change the way we teach general chemistry. We have fewer lectures and more recitations, problem-solving exercises and groups of students working on a problem.
Teaching is a relatively solitary experience.
You don't think of it that way, because you're always in front of students. But as a professional trying to figure out the most effective way to get the grand ideas of your discipline across, it can be a fairly solitary process. Team teaching helps you get out of that. It puts you in contact with your colleagues in a very specific working situation. You have that focused process where all of you try to figure out how to teach these ideas well.