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Hi Ed

These kinds of student responses are not uncommon....student as
customer, expert should tell, lecture more

Students don't necessarily like being pushed out of the passive
role....the benefits of active learning are not immediate or
automatic....the students actually might not have the confidence as
learners to think they can succeed....hence the resistance....read
Weimer's book Learner-Centered Teaching for more on this.

Even though the literature shows that active instruction outperforms
passive instruction....the literature also shows that students continue
to want passive (read Haidet etal TBL article for more on this)

IMPORTANT: You need to frequently and eloquently explain your rationales
for using TBL and acknowledge that students may feel uncomfortable as
they grow as learner

When I get my rationale speech ready....I review Felder and Brent's "The
Bumpy Road to Student Centered Instruction" and their follow-up article
"Sermons for Grumpy Campers" and then relate that the passive
transmission of information won't give them the enduring understanding
and problem-solving capabilities that will make them successful in the
ever-changing workplace

People also having been having success with using Smith's "First Day
Questions for the Learner-Centered Classroom" to set the tone in their
course.

All the mentioned articles are available at the TBL Website

Cheers...and good luck

jim

-----Original Message-----
From: Team-Based Learning [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf Of Ed Bell
Sent: Wednesday, July 08, 2009 1:55 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Student complaints on new TBL

TBL Colleagues:
I coordinated a new course using TBL Spring 2009.  This 3-credit course
(pharmacotherapeutics) is in the 2nd year of a 4-year professional
pharmacy
program (115 students).  Three faculty taught (separate 5 week modules).
We
followed the TBL model very closely (ie, IRAT/GRAT, IF-AT forms, AE,
peer
evaluations).  I attended the TBL conference in March.  Final course
grades
overall were quite high.  Student evaluations (8 pages total written
comments) post-course were "interesting" - most evaluations were
negative
and included several themes:
1) students want more lecture - they want to be told what is important
2) students believe we as faculty - the "experts"- should be telling
them
what is important about medications that they will need to know as a
future
pharmacist - this is our "responsibility" as faculty/teachers
3) several students emphasized 2) above in light of our school being
private, with high tuition reasoning for responsibility of the faculty
to
tell students "what's important"
4) some faculty this semester and due up next semester don't seem to
fully
accept TBL vs. still desiring to lecture
How do we respond to these student - and faculty - concerns?  I
researched
the TBL list serve archives and found similar concerns from 2005
postings,
yet I am seeking additional recommendations and input from seasoned TBL
faculty.
Thank you.
Ed Bell (Drake University College of Pharmacy)