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Dear Bernie,

Thanks for your feedback on TBL's positive impact in dealing with diversity issues.  As far as changing teams is concerned, I don't have enough information about the context to answer the question.  In most situations, faculty don't have a choice about changing teams at the end of the term because students move on to other classes and you get a whole (or at least partially new) batch of students.  Thus, you are forced to change teams.  My questions are:

What subject(s) are you teaching? 
How many courses will this specific set of students be in and over what period of time?
How many students are in your classes?
Are you (or could you be) pointing toward some sort of major integrative problem-solving assignment?

Also, I'm curious about how you learned about TBL and why you decided to use it?

Larry

--
Larry K. Michaelsen
Professor of Management
University of Central Missouri
Dockery 400G
Warrensburg, MO 64093

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>>> bmillar <[log in to unmask]> 04/25/08 1:28 AM >>>
Dear Colleagues

I have been implementing TBL since February in my classes at the Cape
Peninsula University of Technology in Cape Town, South Africa. We have come
to the end of our first term and I want to ask how often one should or
should not change the team composition. 

Initially, I had thought of keeping the same team for the whole year, but
now think that I should set up new teams for the next term as I think the
teams may be slipping into comfort zones and attitudes might be setting.
What is your practice?

I did an appreciative inquiry with the class on the TBL course at the end of
the term and received an overwhelmingly positive response - the students
like TBL! One of the questions was "What is working really well in this
class?" The response - (1) working in culturally and language diverse teams
where the emphasis is on peer teaching and (2) learning to work in a diverse
team as a really useful life skill because they will be working in a
culturally diverse society when they gradate. I am really pleased with this
response because SA is still a very segregated society as a result of its
apartheid legacy and I had selected the groups very carefully to be
representative of culture, language, gender and educational backgrounds in
an attempt to break down barriers and build up future workers who are
culturally literate and tolerant. What has been so great is that in this
process I have learnt so much!

Regards

Bernie Millar