Developing Students' Autonomy And Self-Regulation Through A Co-Teaching Research Methods Experience

The College of Human Sciences at Oklahoma State University (OSU) and Universidad Popular Autonoma del Estado de Puebla (UPAEP) decided to offer Pedagogy Doctoral students from Mexico a 3 week co-teaching research methods experience. Two professors, one from each institution (OSU and UPAEP), designed the syllabus to offer a co-teaching experience in the United States. The objective of the course was to enhance students’ success in their research dissertation project, contributing to develop students’ autonomy and self-regulation while offering Mexican students an international experience at OSU and at the same time allowing students to access OSU facilities, including the library databases and different research software. Two evaluations were conducted to assess the effectiveness of the course and the impact in the students’ autonomous learning. The first assessment was conducted at the end of the course through a semi-structured personal interview. The second evaluation was conducted six months after concluding the experience and included one on-line survey. During both evaluations the students agreed that a co-teaching experience was beneficial because the course combined two kinds of expertise and the teaching styles of both professors. The study concluded that co-teaching experience was useful in the students’ journey to become autonomous learners and the level of understanding of the topics studied, the students’ self-directed and self-regulated process and the achievement of the students’ expectations.