Editorial Notebook: Are Two Heads Better Than One?

You might have noticed that your classes were a little more crowded than usual this last shopping period. But it wasn't just the hordes of students lined up outside of the door that were making the air stuffy inside Sever 213; it was the multiple faces behind the podium. Multiple professors are teaching some of the most popular classes this semester.

The most notorious of the co-taught classes is Religion 1045: "Thinking About Thinking," which is taught by Frankfurter Professor of Law Alan M. Dershowitz, Thomas Professor of Divinity Harvey G. Cox and Agassiz Professor of Zoology and Professor of Geology Stephen J. Gould. This class, which only accepted 30 students from the College this semester, is host to one of the most competitive lotteries in Harvard history.

Granted, each of these professors could have drawn a full crowd his their own--Gould's Science B-16: "History of Life" is generally held in one of the large Science Center auditoriums. Their collaboration is hardly a result of low self-esteem. That, in fact, seems to be the problem. Have co-taught classes such as these become excuses for posturing by prominent professors? Have they diverged from their well-intentioned beginnings?

Professors teaching together is a nice concept. Students benefit from watching great minds duke it out over contemporary and academic issues, often hearing first-hand the opposing positions of an academic debate. According to the Chair of the Economics Department, Professor Jeffrey Williamson, co-taught classes actually encourage professors to perfect their teaching styles. Williamson said that junior faculty especially benefit from co-teaching courses with senior faculty members.

At a research institution like Harvard, where faculty mentoring is almost non-existent, co-taught classes provide valuable feedback and partnerships for professors. Students then benefit from professors who have honed their lecturing skills in the crucible of a co-taught class.

But, as with every class, the quality depends on the teaching, and too many professors use co-taught classes as a forum for their own personal debates rather than for a teaching experience. As Williamson admits, "There's good teaching and there's bad teaching." Courses where the team-teaching experience becomes more of ego trip than a class may attract students, but they do not ultimately add anything to a liberal arts education.

Team-teaching can be the best of all possible worlds. It can in fact encourage teachers not to "slack-off" for fear that their colleagues will be there watching. There is little opportunity to come unprepared to lecture when a professor knows peers will be on hand to observe.

But at Harvard, where course loads are already incredibly light for most professors, team-teaching may encourage professors to offer fewer courses if they are teaching more together. While there is no set system across all departments to evaluate the course credit a professor receives for a team-taught course, both Dean of the College Harry R. Lewis '68 and Professor Williamson say that many team-taught courses are only given half of the credit towards professors' course load. This should, in theory, prevent professors from doing half the work and getting all the teaching credit. One hopes, for instance, that the four professors co-teaching Economics 1410 "Public Sector Economics" will not be receiving a full teaching credit for the course this semester. It would be kind of like a student getting full-credit for taking a course and dropping it at the add/drop deadline after writing one response paper.

Of course, the most important thing (at least for us) is the effect this trend has on students. Co-taught classes are popular, for the most part, because they are better than other courses. They have better teaching, more varied viewpoints and provide valuable mentoring for junior faculty. However, students should not be drawn in by classes co-taught by multiple faculty "stars". These classes can be poorly prepared and poorly taught, with the professors relying simply on their star power to draw in students.

As Williamson said, co-taught classes don't, "give any Faculty member the license to slack off."

If, by add-drop deadline, you find that your co-taught class, despite the high-powered professors and catchy title, isn't living up to your expectations, if you find that the professors are talking more to each other than to the audience, and that the lecture resembles one of those endless abstract discussions you have with your roommates late at night, you may want to reconsider. After all, those discussions are always more fun when you get to participate. Professors should become stars for their teaching ability, not for their publications or pontifications. Make sure you get your money's worth.