Team Teaching in Educational Research: One Solution to the Problem of Teaching Qualitative Research.

Team teaching provided a model for real-world collaborative research efforts in a doctoral level course in research methodology. The instructors--one bringing extensive experience in teaching statistical methods and program evaluation; the other specializing in conducting qualitative research--used a constructivist framework for the course, building on the experiences that students brought from their own backgrounds. Problems encountered included bias toward a specific methodology and difficulties in switching from qualitative to quantitative or the reverse. Team teaching led to strategies to help students understand and value both kinds of research and provided a meaningful context and active hands-on learning. Students indicated that they felt most solid using the approach of their first course, and all insisted that qualitative research should be their first course, suggesting the importance of understanding studies encountered in background reading. Anecdotal data from students revealed that attempts to integrate qualitative methods had been less than successful in practice. Team teaching offered two ways to explain things, strengthened the instructors' teaching through collaboration, and provided students with a thorough introduction to both qualitative and quantitative methods through varied perspective and experiences. (Contains 18 references.) (ND)