Dear Francine,
I wonder what would happen if you graded each team with their respective
suggested grade distribution, or at least that insisting team? They asked
for it. But I also remember Larry saying in his book that he allows teams to
choose the distribution within the confines of a minimum and maximum
percentage allowed to be given to each of the individual and group grade.
Cheers
Michael Gholam
Lebanon
-----Original Message-----
From: Team Learning Discussion List [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf Of Francine Glazer
Sent: Wednesday, January 24, 2007 12:09 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: teams won't reach consensus on percentages for activities - please
help!
Hello,
I'm teaching undergraduate genetics (junior-level majors) using TBL for
the second time. My class has gotten stuck at the activity where they
decide on percentages for individual/team/team maintenance activities.
Three of the 5 teams seem willing to compromise extensively, a fourth
team is willing to compromise within reason (i.e. they don't want to
move too far from their starting position, but are willing to move
some), and the fifth team... ahh, the fifth team!
The fifth team started with a position dramatically different from the
other teams (only 15% individual vs. 40, 40, 45, and 55 for the other
teams) and is absolutely refusing to give. Their delegate was taking a
'steamroller' approach and locked heads with team 4's delegate so that I
sent all the delegates back to their teams and requested that they
choose someone else.
Now team 5 has a new delegate who at least is letting the other
delegates have their say, but team 5 is stonewalling the process by
refusing to compromise - even though it is clear that the rest of the
class is all in accord.
When we ran out of time, I said we will continue negotiations at our
next class, but that I'd like the issue to be settled within about 20
minutes, so we can move on to the first iRAT. I suggested that the
teams each confer within their private discussion boards on WebCT and
decide where/how much they are willing to give 'for the good of the
class.' (Yes, I also spoke individually with each team to that effect.)
I see on the discussion board that teams 1-4 are indeed deciding on
where they can yield. Team 5, on the other hand, remains as intractable
as ever.
Help! All advice welcomed; I'm not sure what to do if they don't reach
consensus.
thanks,
Fran
--
Francine S. Glazer, Ph.D.
Professor, Biological Sciences
Kean University
Union NJ 07083
Ph: 908-737-3661
Fx: 908-737-3666
http://www.kean.edu/~fglazer
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