Collaborative teaching for collaborative learning

In Group Research, groups of students work together on a topic of their choice and produce a group report at the end of the semester. Each group has a supervisor with whom they meet regularly but who is not necessarily skilled in the area of the group's topic. Throughout the semester, all students are exposed to various services offered by the University as part of the support system to help them work and think as scientists. Such services include Academic Skills (specifically for writing skills), Student Services (for time and team management skills), the library (for information literacy) and the various service organisations interact to fulfil the brief of the Group Research subjects.

The paper will examine the team approach taken by the academics in Group Research and the way in which this approach supports the development in student skills. It will compare the outcomes observed so far in terms of skills acquired by student groups with the requirements sought by scientific disciplines and illustrate the success of the collaborative approach to teaching.