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From:
Bill Goffe <[log in to unmask]>
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Date:
Thu, 14 May 2009 19:42:37 -0400
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Richard asked:

[snip]

> Michael Sweet (2009a) in a TeamLearning-L post titled "TBL in the NY 
> Times," quoted a message from Derek Bruff:
> 
> "Here's a NYT article. . . .[Kolesnikov-Jessop (2009) at 
> <http://tinyurl.com/cp4rr8>]. . . ..on the use of Larry Michaelsen's 
> team-based learning model in first-year courses at Duke's Singapore 
> campus.  Pretty convincing,  I think."

[snip]

> Five questions (repeating the two in the above abstract):
> 
> 1. Any comments or suggestions regarding my post "Re: Active Learning 
> in Medicine" [Hake (2009)]?
> 
> 2. Does anyone know what evidence supports Kamei's statement "Our 
> first class did extraordinarily well using this method" as quoted 
> above by Kolesnikov-Jessop?
> 
> 3. What's the difference between TBL and PBL? 
> 
> 4. Has the effectiveness of TBL and PBL in promoting student learning 
> been evaluated by pre/post testing?
> 
> 5. Can anyone recommend good online references to the use of TBL in physics?

If I might, let me answer another question -- "briefly compare team-based
learning (TBL) and the use by physicists of conceptests." As an economist,
I've used TBL for two courses over the last academic year (money & banking
and intermediate macro theory) and I've read a bit about conceptests.
I've found the similarities quite striking. Still, there are some
significant differences that the different communities might find useful
(thus, I've posted this to both PHYSLRNR and TEAMLEARNING-L listserves).

For TBL, see http://teambasedlearning.apsc.ubc.ca and
http://teambasedlearning.apsc.ubc.ca/wp-content/uploads/tbl_intro_2008.pdf
(the latter is a nice short intro). For the use of conceptests, I have in
mind what I read in "Farewell, Lecture?" Eric Mazur, Science, 2009,
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/323/5910/50 .

Both approaches have students prepare ahead of class and in-class time 
is spent on difficult questions. In both, lectures are used to clear up 
problems that come up and are NOT used to present new material to students. 

Here's some differences:
  TBL is generally more structured:
    - teams of 5-7 students live the length of the semester
    - the start of each unit of material (a few week's worth) starts 
      with a quiz that is taken first individually and then by teams 
      (preferably with "IF-AT" cards that give immediate feedback
      http://www.epsteineducation.com/home/ ); this two-part approach
      helps build teams and provides incentives for students to be
      prepared
    - ideally, the questions used in class satisfy the "4 S's:"
      a significant problem, all work on the same problem, it offers a
      specific choice, and all teams report simultaneously (if teams 
      report differently, the instructor uses questions to understand why)

   conceptests:
    - often developed by a profession (TBL instructors are pretty much
      on their own it seems); it seems largely used in the sciences
    - these questions might be based on in-depth studies of common student
      preconceptions, which have been studied in a scholarly fashion

As above, the similarities are quite striking and the differences pretty
interesting. As best I can tell from following both the TBL and PHYSLRNR
listserves, neither is that knowledgeable about the other.

         - Bill

-- 
         *------------------------------------------------------*
         | Bill Goffe                 [log in to unmask]          |
         | Department of Economics    voice: (315) 312-3444     |
         | SUNY Oswego                fax:   (315) 312-5444     |
         | 416 Mahar Hall             http://cook.rfe.org       |          
         | Oswego, NY  13126                                    |
*--------*------------------------------------------------------*-----------*
| "He said he could identify the different kinds of particles zooming       |
| through his eyeball by how bright the flashes were."                      |
|  -- astronaut and astrophysicist John Grunsfeld on one part of low Earth  |
|     orbit where cosmic rays are common. "Last Voyage for the Keeper of    |
|     the Hubble," Dennis Overbye, New York Times, April 13, 2009.          |
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