Judi,
Take heart: EVERYONE goes through exactly what you are going through. We all learned content a certain way, and most of us have always taught it the same way we learned it. When a better way came along, we could immediately recognize it as superior, but that didn't mean were automatically good at that new method! (Even if you are a damn good photographer, the first time you see a movie you will immediately recognize all the benefits that movies have over still images. But that doesn't mean you're automatically ready to jump in and start making movies.)
Here's a simple mental exercise to get yourself started:
Imagine the class goes well and a few years from now you are sitting in a restaurant at lunch and realize that you are sitting near one of your better students. You are sitting in adjoining booths, back-to-back, so they don't know you are there, but you can hear everything they are saying.
You learn that student has since graduated and taken a job in which the content from your Human Development class is directly relevant to their day-to-day work.
Over lunch, your ex-student is having a heated debate with a colleague about something at work. They are trying to make a tough decision, based upon a complex situation. As you listen, you cannot help but smile as you hear your ex-student bringing to bear material from your class in such a way as to make clear that they *got* it--they truly got what you were trying to teach them in your class.
O.K.--flash back to the present--what things might that conversation have been about? What are a half-dozen or so *clusters* of things that conversation might have been about?
These clusters--the discipline-based DECISIONS that you want your students to be able to use your course content to make--are the instructional objectives for each module of your course. Given X, students will be able to decide Y. Think "case studies."
What's not necessarily easy is shaking up the course content and reassembling it in these ways. It is a creative process and can be fun, though. I often do best with a brainstorming buddy.
So. . . the bottom line is: don't think CONCEPTS first. Think REALISTIC CASE STUDY *DECISIONS* first. Assembling a handful of those will then tell you what concepts students will need to learn so they have the tools to make good decisions when presented with realistic cases from your discipline.
Hope this helps. Keep in touch and let us know how things go!
-M
-----Original Message-----
From: Team-Based Learning [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Jim Sibley
Sent: Friday, June 11, 2010 12:39 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Forwarded message from [log in to unmask]
Hi All,
I'm very new to this Team Based Learning concept, and am attempting to apply
it to a web-blended class in Human Development that I have been asked to
redesign. Basically, I meet with the students one and a half hours per week,
and they are expected to spend at least 1-1/2 hours on-line, too. I am
wanting to make up some reading guides to help them use the textbook and
understand the concepts so that they can do team-activities when they are in
class. I am suddenly feeling like I don't know how to prioritize the
concepts. I am realizing that perhaps I am just as poorly prepared to
decipher the most important ideas as my students are (perhaps I shouldn't be
admitting this to colleagues) I just don't want it it be the blind leading
the blind. I am really excited by this whole concept but am feeling
overwhelmed at the beginning of the process. I had a nice chat with Jim
Sibley, who suggested I join this ListServe. Any and all help/suggestions
would be greatly appreciated!!
Thanks,
Judi Bradetich
Judi Bradetich, M.S., M.M.
Lecturer, Development and Family Studies
Dept. of Educational Psychology
University of North Texas
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