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Team-Based Learning <[log in to unmask]>
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Wed, 28 Jul 2010 14:51:38 -0400
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Bill Goffe <[log in to unmask]>
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To: "Sweet, Michael S" <[log in to unmask]>
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Indeed. As someone who has used team-based learning for 2 years in most of
my small (40 students and less) and am moving to conceptests in my large
(300 student courses), let me compare:

First, 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: 
    - generally more structured with its RAP process, permanent teams, 
      4Ss, and so on.

  Conceptests:
    - the questions are often developed by a profession, while TBL instructors 
      are pretty much on their own it seems; there are even banks of conceptest 
      questions on-line (start Googling "conceptest" and the field of choice 
      and you'll find some quickly)
    - conceptest questions tend to be, not surprisingly, conceptual in nature, 
      and thus may be more narrow than the application questions in TBL
      (I'm not sure that they've actually simpler as they with the ideal
      conceptest question maybe 1/2 the students answer correctly the
      first time; a short MC question isn't necessarily easy)
    - these questions might be based on in-depth studies of common student
      preconceptions, which have been studied in a scholarly fashion (I'm 
      particularly thinking of physics, which formally studies student
      preconceptions)
    - at least in physics, there is a large body of work that finds that
      students learn more with this method than with standard lectures
      (something TBL could really use, in my opinion); one member of this
      list, Richard Hake, did what I believe was the first large study:
      http://web.mit.edu/rsi/www/2005/misc/minipaper/papers/Hake.pdf (yes,
      6,000 students in the study!)

As I understand it, conceptests were pretty much started by Harvard
physicist Eric Mazur (and they've spread to many other fields; mostly in 
the sciences, as Michael mentioned). Here's some references. The first 2 
are very short and the next two are not:

  "From Questions to Concepts: Interactive Teaching in Physics"
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBYrKPoVFwg (less than 3 minutes; same
    as on the SERC page that Michael gave, which I guess really
    illustrates how useful it is)

  "Farewell, Lecture?" Eric Mazur, Science (the journal)
    http://www.laspau.harvard.edu/idia/mecesup/readings/Eric_Mazur/Mazur_52364.pdf

  "Confessions of a Converted Lecturer: Eric Mazur"
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwslBPj8GgI (1 hour, 20 minutes)

  "Peer Instruction: Engaging Students One-on-One, All at Once"
    http://www.compadre.org/per/items/detail.cfm?ID=4990 (apparently the
    latest thinking in print; I presume it supersedes his book)

Again, there is an awful lot of commonality and the differences are mostly
in the details. I'm using conceptests in my large class as TBL seems
difficult to execute in a class of 300. At least for me, class size is the
determinant of which approach to use.

Finally, there is all sorts of good stuff at http://serc.carleton.edu . 
I could be biased as I contributed to one module there on the use of
clickers in teaching economics and friends of mine are heading up the
economics modules there...

      - Bill



Michael said:

> It appears that folks in the sciences are pursuing a similar idea, and
> calling them ConcepTests.
> 
> Here is a page on ConcepTests in Geology, with a *goldmine* of examples:
> http://serc.carleton.edu/introgeo/interactive/conctest.html
> 
> These particular examples may be a little simpler than some of us like
> our application activities, but this page provides a fantastic look at
> the *idea* of application activities as we describe them.
> 
> -M
 

-- 
         *------------------------------------------------------*
         | 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                                    |
*--------*------------------------------------------------------*-----------*
| "Betty's toolmaking abilities came to light by accident during            |
| an experiment in which she and Abel had to choose between a hooked and a  |
| straight wire for retrieving small pieces of pig heart, their favorite    |
| food. When Abel made off with the hooked wire, Betty bent the straight    |
| wire into a hook and used the tool to lift a small bucket of food from a  |
| vertical pipe."                                                           |
|  -- Betty is a crow. "Crow Makes Wire Hook to Get Food," National         |
|     Geographic News, August 8, 2002                                       |
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