On Thu, 23 Feb 2006 14:55:14 -0600, Fritz Laux <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>I'm using TBL, for the first time, in an intro to macroeconomics course.
>Would be interested in hearing from any co-conspirators, who teach
>economics.
>
>
>
>All is going well except that students seem to be doing way too much foot
>dragging during the in-class exercises. I pass out or describe the
exercise
>and too many of them want to "negotiate" about what exactly I want. Then
>they want clarification. Then, after warnings that they need to finish we
>have to wait because "we still need to write out our graph."
>
>
>
>We have a large number of remedial students, and that may explain some of
>this. What I'm looking for are tips on how to get more
>productivity/learning out of the team exercises. My feeling is that I'm
>doing pretty well on Larry Michaelsen's main points of designing activities
>that require specific choices, with simultaneous reporting (if I could get
>more cooperation on that).
>
>
>
>Perhaps I need a way to hold the groups more accountable for foot dragging
>and not paying attention. Perhaps by doing this incrementally, I could
make
>groups feel accountable for paying attention without provoking a revolt.
>For example, (1) "Does everybody get the assignment?" (and if not, another
>group is asked to explain so that the rest of the class gets to express
>their frustration at the foot draggers), (2) "Who is not done?" (with the
>implicit question being, if all others are finished, why not you?), I could
>implement this accountability without provoking a revolt. My feeling is
>that being too strict won't work because then the offending group will
>disrupt the class discussion.
>
>
>
>Other tips? Any silver bullets?
>
>
>
>Thanks, Fritz Laux, Northeastern State University.
>
>
Hi Fritz,
I saw your posting about macroeconomics. I tried TBL for the first time in
international economics this semester. Unfortunately I did not know about
Michaelson's work until about March when I read the book and made some
critical changes still within the scope of the syllabus. The biggest were
making the group assignments more decision-based, publicly revealing all
groups' answers to the assignments, and increasing the "unit" from one
chapter to about 3.
I had students write an evaluation of the teaching methods as part of their
final exam, and this has been a valuable source of feedback. Most everyone
mentioned the positive changes in the second half of the course. The only
change that students did not like was being quizzed on more than one
chapter at once. Many of the negative aspects they mentioned would
probably be alleviated in the future based on techniques I've learned in
the meantime.
I'm curious about how you have evaluated your own semester in macro.
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