MAILING LISTS

We teach statistics with TBL, and we used to teach it open-note and
open-book RATs.  Our statistics students are so anxious about the content
that we wanted to give them as many crutches as we need.  Under these
conditions, iRATs took the maximum amount of time (pages flipping wildly),
but gRATs were pretty quick:  usually someone knew right where in the book
to look to resolve team dilemmas.

So this term we switched to the one-page-of-notes strategy (closed book).
The opposite has turned out to be true:  the iRATs are pretty fast (you
either know it or you don't), but gRATs take the maximum amount of time.
The teams spend the whole time arguing issues of interpretation, referring
to their one-page-of-notes, etc..

We are very pleased with the discussions we are hearing, and the iRAT scores
were almost identical between this term and last term (mean of 9.0 last term
and mean of 9.19 this term).

So far, we are planning on sticking with the one-page-of-notes plan.  Let me
know how it works for you!

-M


----- Original Message -----
From: "Francine Glazer" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sunday, January 29, 2006 7:20 PM
Subject: using notes during RATs


> Hello,
>
> I'm using TBL for the first time this semester in my Genetics class.
> I'm thinking of allowing my students to use one page of handwritten
> notes during the RAP, figuring that it will be an incentive to them to
> prepare in advance.
>
> Those of you who do allow notes - do you allow them for only the
> individual RAT, or also for the team RAT?
>
> thanks,
> Fran
>
>
>
> --
> Francine S. Glazer, Ph.D.
> Professor, Biological Sciences
> Kean University
> Union NJ 07083
>
> Ph:  908-737-3661
> Fx:  908-737-3666
> http://www.kean.edu/~fglazer