I would caution against talking about the specific application activity with the group that completed it early. My primary reason is that you run the risk of revealing what is your favorite answer. This may interfere with an unbiased class discussion in which all teams are simultaneously revealing a choice that they will need to defend against other teams. It is in the defense of a specific choice that you will learn how a group "actually did"...
Peter Clapp
Assistant Professor
Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, School of Pharmacy
Rueckert-Hartman College for Health Professions
Regis University
3333 Regis Boulevard, H-28
Denver, CO 80221-1099
Office: (303) 625-1312
Fax: (303) 625-1305
-----Original Message-----
From: Team-Based Learning [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Kontio, Ken
Sent: Wednesday, November 20, 2013 2:13 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Question about engaging with an early-finishing team
I am always leery of a team that finishes much earlier than the others...averages being what they are and if the distribution of skill is equal, what did they do that was so efficient. For small differences I use usual sponge activities as you discussed. If they are still done early, I would think about sitting down with the group and talking about the actual assignment they finished and how they actually did. Perhaps a critical review of how and what they accomplished would help you understand something new about group dynamics and also shed some light on the utility of your assignment. The idea of giving one group "something extra" would not go over well in our medical school curriculum, as others will feel left out or disadvantaged and have concerns about what they missed (exam content etc.). It may even cause some of the teams to rush through their activities to be available for such in the future...hurting group dynamics an learning.
I would say cover no extra material and students always have something to do if you give them a few minutes (we are a computer ?laptop based curriculum.
Just some thoughts.
Ken
Sincerely,
Dr. Ken Kontio B.Sc., M.D., M.Ed., FRCS(C) Department of Surgery - Rm 3342 Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario
401 Smyth Road
Ottawa, ON
K1H 8L1
Office (613) 737-7600 x 2426
Fax (613) 738-4840
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-----Original Message-----
From: Team-Based Learning [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Mark Stevens
Sent: Wednesday, November 20, 2013 1:42 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Question about engaging with an early-finishing team
Hi all. TBL instructors often wonder what they should do when one team
finishes a team exercise before the other teams. Like many of you, I try
to think of an additional activity or question for the early finishers
to work on while the other teams finish up. I tried something new
yesterday that seemed to work well, but I have some concerns and wanted
to see if you think my concerns are warranted.
One team in my class yesterday finished much earlier than I was
expecting, so I gave them a few additional tasks to work on while the
other team continued working on the exercise. Once the early-finishing
team had completed its additional tasks (and it was clear that the other
team was still going to be working on the exercise for a while), I
decided to sit down with the early-finishing team to debrief their work
on the extra tasks. I enjoyed this debriefing session, and it kept the
team members more engaged in the class and material than they otherwise
would have been. I got to cover some non-essential but nevertheless
relevant material with that team that I wouldn't have been able to cover
in the post exercise discussion, because I knew there would only be time
to discuss the essential material. Overall, I think this debriefing
session was valuable for the early-finishing team.
My concern, though, is whether it is problematic to spend time chatting
with one time while the other team is working on the exercise. I don't
think our chatting was a distraction to the still-working team, but the
team that I chatted with had an opportunity to "learn more" than the
team that was still working, which could be viewed as "unfair". On the
other hand, more learning is arguably better than less learning, even if
the the "more learning" is unevenly distributed across the students.
Does anyone have any thoughts on this issue?
Thanks,
Mark
--
Mark Stevens, PhD, MCIP
Assistant Professor, School of Community & Regional Planning
University of British Columbia
223-1933 West Mall
Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z2, Canada
SCARP bio: http://www.scarp.ubc.ca/people/mark-stevens
Planning Evaluation Lab: http://www.planningevaluationlab.ca
604-822-0657
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