MAILING LISTS

My practice is to move around the lecture theatre as much as possible, particularly when the students are doing their individual and team tests, and during any exercise sessions. I do this quietly and without rushing. I ask teams how they are going and check for problems. This also allows me to quickly spot (potentially) difficult teams or students and deal with them directly without disrupting the class.
The "engagement" literature suggests that any activity that increases interaction between students and staff enhances student engagement, and I think that this is a straightforward way of relaxing the teacher/student interface. Anyway, I have got much more positive evaluations since starting to do this...
Peter Balan
University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia

-----Original Message-----
From: Team-Based Learning [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Bill Goffe
Sent: Monday, 18 October 2010 12:39 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Student is not a team player

One thought on rotating teams and where they sit. I don't do that much
board work (at least for an economist), but when I talk during application
exercises and sometimes during mini-lectures, I vary where I stand, but
most often I'm right in the middle of the room. Perhaps that lessens the
impact of where teams sit? 

Do others also wander around the room when talking during application
exercises and mini-lectures? This didn't dawn on me until after doing TBL
for some semesters and I don't think I've seen it mentioned here.

      - Bill


Tamara said:

>    Dianne-
> 
>    It seems like you have been given some good advice for dealing with this
>    one student.  I had a problem student with a strong personality like this,
>    but the problem was not as much a team issue as just a mere disruption to
>    the class dynamic.  She was able to recruit her teammates into being
>    distracted and distracting others.  Her team was located in the back of
>    the classroom near the door, which I felt was part of the problem.  My
>    solution is to rotate teams around the room throughout the semester.  I
>    have a smaller class (only 5 teams), so I rotate the teams every 3 weeks
>    (15 week semester).  My rationale that I give the students is that some
>    prefer to sit in the front, while others prefer the back.  Everyone gets
>    an opportunity to sit everywhere.  It has definitely helped with issues
>    that have arisen from students sitting in the back of the classroom and
>    being disruptive.  No one gets to sit there long enough to get too
>    comfortable.
>    Tammi Bories, Ph.D.
>    Western Illinois University
>    Department of Kinesiology
>    Brophy Hall 221X
>    1 University Circle
>    Macomb, IL 61455
> 
>    (309) 298-1793 (o)
>    (309) 298-2981 (f)
>    [log in to unmask]