Dear Prof. Michaelsen
Thank you for your response to my list query.
I wrote to you last year to say that I was reading your TBL book as well as
Prof. Fink's book on designing a curriculum to create significant learning
experiences. You sent a very kind reply to me. I ordered the books through
Amazon. COM and it was a very happy day when they arrived three months later
- I felt like Christmas had come early!
Here I am several months later and am implementing a course (Information
Literacy which has two modules - communications & academic skills and basic
computer skills) that I designed using Prof. Fink's taxonomy together with
Appreciative Inquiry as my change-agents. I think Prof. Fink's book is
ground-breaking (I consider myself his personal praise-singer [an African
traditional poet who extols the excellence and the virtues of a particular
person they have adopted. Normally this praise singer is dressed in a few
skins and has a knobkierie and dances and ululates as he sings praises, but
I have to forgo the outfit unfortunately as it would look extremely strange
on me!]). I particularly like the holistic approach Fink adopts to include
not only the cognitive elements, but the human, personal and caring
elements. Having decided on Fink's taxonomy for curriculum design, I then
chose TBL as the mode of delivery I would use for this new course because I
thought there would be a close fit between them. I particularly like how TBL
takes student-centred learning to the MAX! I am TBL's personal praise-singer
as well!
I chose Appreciative Inquiry because of its positive approach to
problem-solving which I saw as a major move away from the deficit model we
generally use in SA (One hears the following phrases very often: "our
students are academically illiterate, they can't read, they can't write a
proper sentence, they come from bad educational backgrounds, they can't
think, they can't..., they can't...". So, using AI I decided to look at what
works, at what they CAN do, at what their strengths are and how we can share
each others' strengths while not denying the problems that we really do face
as HE teachers and that our students face. In this area, I came to see that
epistemological access is one of the major problems facing students. Using
New Literacy studies, particularly Lillis and Yballe and Lea's work, I came
to a deeper understanding of the different discourses that my diverse
students bring to the classroom situation. I read Ausubel and Kolb and Zull
to learn more about learning and have incorporated those insights into my
course.
All of this is working towards my participatory action research Ph.D. in
education in which I hope to create and design an Appreciative Pedagogy for
the South African Higher Education context - nothing small about my dream
although they are still in their infant stage!
My classes are very small this year - 27 students in one and 12 students in
the other. (I am a part-time lecturer, so I only teach first year and 4th
year students. The latter I teach research methodology and graduate writing
skills and critical thinking.)
I am afraid that I do not quite understand what you meant by your question
"Are you (or could you be) pointing toward some sort of major integrative
problem-solving assignment?" Could you please explain further?
I have adapted your TBL a little to accommodate my students and our
circumstances. I get the students to mark the RATs by exchanging papers in
their teams. We are not as technologically advanced as you are and I had to
go on the Internet to find out what a scantron is and what clickers are.
This solved my query about your suggestion in your book that teams submit
their answers simultaneously. Also, I spent time on teaching how teams work
and drew up a team contract(which is going to be reworked by the students
themselves for next year's intake) that everyone has to sign and also taught
the students how to resolve conflict in teams. The biggest change is that I
see and use TBL as a vehicle for peer-teaching where the stronger students
teach the weaker and have based this on our African philosophy of "UBUNTU"
which says that "I am human only through the humanity of others" which means
that one has to care for and help any other member of the community who
needs or asks for help. I tell the students that each team is a community of
co-learning, and that as a class we together are a community of co-learners
as I too learn each day with my students.
When I read your book, I thought that the one thing that would NOT work
would be to get students to do their reading assignments at home. Well, I
have been delighted to see that they do and that they prepare for the RATS.
I think the whole readiness assurance process (RAP) is an excellent concept
and helps particularly in the cases of those students who have English as an
additional language and tend to read slowly. Also, I love the fact that the
feedback is so immediate and I can instantly see where the students are
having problems understanding concepts and deal with these problems
immediately. I think TBL is high-energy which really gets the students
going. Another great thing is the 3 levels of assessment which I have found
prevents social loafing.
Having said all this, I am still in the early stages and am finding my feet
as I go along. I do regular evaluations with the students to get their
feedback on the TBL process and curriculum design I implemented. I am a
reflective practitioner and respond to my students' comments immediately.
I have decided to change the composition of teams because I can see how
certain students would benefit by being in different teams. This should also
avoid any kind of apathy setting in.
So, I beg your pardon for having written such a long posting, but you can
see that I am really enthusiastic about TBL.
Thank you to you, your team and Dr Fink for the wonderful contribution you
are making to the lives and learning of a small group of students and their
teacher in Africa. I hope that I can create a ripple effect in SA.
Regards
Bernie Millar
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