An early-career lecturer and mentor walk into a lecture theatre . . . repeatedly: Developmental benefits of collaborative lecturing in political science

This article considers the benefits and pitfalls of an innovative approach to collaborative teaching designed to develop lecturing skills in early-career political science instructors. Using reflective interviews, we consider how collaborative lecturing guided the early – and continued – development of the lecturers who undertook the same novel exercise over several years. Lecturers require skills in the application of active learning, to encourage deep-learning, but are rarely trained on how to apply this in large scale lecturing. We observe the lasting impact collaboration had on developing lecture method practice and encouraging continuous reflection on instruction. We argue collaborative lecturing can help those who are unfamiliar with the application of active learning in lecture settings – lacking experience due to being at an early-career stage or having previously studied/taught in different educational systems – to acclimatise to systems where active learning is a fundamental expectation for teaching politics.