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Hi Gary
 
We use TBL in many lower division courses
 
It can be difficult when there are external content covering
expectations for your course
 
We use TBL in a 2nd year mechanical design course and last year when we
resorted to lecturing at a difficult topic (we thought) the students
stopped us and asked what we thought we were doing! They wanted TBL
 
There is a good paper by Haidet et al (available at TBL site) around
active vs passive learning and they found that they could cover as much
detailed technical mathematical content as a passive delivery.
 
There is also a great paper by Weeks (1987) talking about the fact that
most engineering undergraduates (or at least the ones studied) see the
instructor do 1000 problems at the board....and do another 3000 in their
homework....BUT have no discernable improvement in their problem solving
skills over their program......hmmm
 
Read Bligh about the ineffectiveness of lectures
 
I think the reality is that we as academics are in love with content and
have a lot of trouble giving it up
 
The literature really points to our failure to effectively "cover the
content" (Ramsden has some damming quotes about this)
 
THE REAL QUESTION is what do you want your students to be able to
do.......reproduce lots of detail on demand.....or be able to think and
solve problems
 
This is very controversial....I am in the middle of a curriculum review
for one of my engineering departments and the "reducing" content issue
is always at the surface
 
I have instructors who just can't give up the content....they are now
using pre-class podcasts to "cover the content" so they can use class
time differently.
 
I am a bit biased.....I think TBL is the answer to many of the
curriculum issues we struggle with....I seen too many good outcomes in
TBL courses of all levels....
 
Jim

________________________________

From: Team-Based Learning [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf Of Gary D Lynne
Sent: Friday, April 24, 2009 6:05 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: TBL for all levels?



The "Webinar" yesterday stirred a thought/question, which I did not get
around to posting: Does TBL have to be modified a bit for different
levels of teaching, e.g. 200 level for mainly sophomores ( a course I
have been working at converting into a TBL format) v. a graduate course?
My concern is with how much material needs to be delivered in the
traditional "sage on stage" (lecturing) format. I can see where an upper
division (especially a capstone) course and/or graduate course could
rely almost exclusively on self-teaching, with lecture supplements, and
problem sets/case studies that really bring application to the table. 

I am more sceptical about the latter for 100-200 level courses, at least
based on my limited experience ... trying to bring TBL into my 200 level
course only for the second time this semester. I find myself needing to
do a bit more traditional lecturing than TBL seems to call for....
especially with respect to core ideas these students have never seen
before (in contrast to upper division, graduate students who have seen
the core ideas/theories/constructs many times before). 

Any insights on this matter will be appreciated!

Gary D. Lynne, Professor
Department of Agricultural Economics and 
School of Natural Resources
103B Filley
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Lincoln, NE 68583-0922
Website: http://www.agecon.unl.edu/facultystaff/directory/lynne.html
Phone: 1-402-472-8281 Cell: 1-402-430-3100

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the implicit solidarity of human nature" (Robert Solomon)