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Interdisciplinary Teaching and Expanding Horizons

• Spend time overcoming the boundaries of your academic expertise. College teachers are trained to be experts on a very few subjects. The result is often feigned ignorance on everything outside of one's area of expertise. The truth is that only a handful of teachers are true experts and most know far more about other subjects than they admit. Effective teams learn to get over their shyness about what they know and don't know. They learn not to say "excuse me" when they step onto a colleague's turf. Perhaps the most valuable expertise brought by a teacher to an interdisciplinary course is expertise as a learner, something to be shared with other teachers and modeled for students.

• Strive for continuous improvement. Never miss a chance to discuss what was weak or strong about a particular class session. Create a climate where it is natural to engage in self-criticism to foster improvement. Bolster strengths and master weaknesses. Learn to laugh when a class was truly miserable, but try not to let it happen again.

• Take time to be a team. Get off task occasionally and share what's happening at home or in the department. Be frank about blown assignments, tensions, disagreements, bruised egos, and burnout. Put the issues on the table and resolve them respectfully as a team. Smoldering embers may set the whole forest on fire.

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