Hi Dee, Larry, and Arletta (and other Listserv members):
I am using TBL first the first time and would like to share some of my
experiences with it. I am teaching a four-week summer graduate course
titled, _Foundations of Music Education_. It meets daily in a two-hour
time slot and is intended to explore four foundational areas of the
music education field (Historical, Philosophical, Sociological, and
Psychological). Conveniently, the topics line up well with the calendar
(one each week).
I begin each week with the individual and team RATs over the textbook
material. This is followed by two days of non-graded activities
intented to tie the material with the class members' experience as
practicing music teachers. These activities usually include one or two
simple team projects, a teacher-led activity that I throw in to break up
the intense team work, and one or two complex activities. On Thursdays,
they perform a culminating graded team project and on Fridays we discuss
the the graded team project results and I conduct an activity that
foreshadows the next week's topic area.
LESSONS LEARNED:
1) Like the book says, *team projects work best when they ask the team
to make "the best choice" out of three to four very plausible choices*
(similar to the multiple-choice RAT). The discussion immediately moves
to why one choice is better than another and the textbooks fly open as
students search for supportive evidence for their choices. Furthermore,
I see the personalities of all individuals come to the surface in ways
that would not happen if I were providing the information in the form of
a lecture.
2) *Make the RATs challenging.* The first week's RAT was fairly easy
because I wanted to insure some initial success. However, the
excitement level was rather low. Everybody was fairly successful, but
there was a definite "so what" feeling. The next week, I really kicked
up the difficulty level by making sure that the foils were almost as
plausible as the correct answers. I experienced the following result:
(a) individual scores were, on average, lower than the previous week,
however, (b) the team scores were just a high as the previous week, and
(c) the level of engagement was substantially higher.
3) *Use IF-AT forms for team RATs.* On the first week, I devised an
answer sheet that was used for both the individual and team RATs. Once
the team RAT was finished, I read the correct answers. The next week,
however, I used the IF-AT forms that Larry and Dee mention on the
"Getting Started" section of the web site. The interaction was
incredible! I wrote a much tougher RAT this time and the team scores
were substantially higher than the highest individual scores. The
Individual RAT took about 25 minutes, but the Team RAT took at least 45
minutes. They were really pushing each other to uncover the material
with many different "why" answers. It was especially fun to hear when
the team would initially settle on a wrong answer, but before taking
that next step of scratching the IF-AT form, someone would invariably
say "Wait, what about this?" Then they would discuss the issue for
another 4-5 minutes before settling on the correct answer. What a
great teaching tool!*
4) Periodically, give teams time for "team maintenance."* Over the
smester, as the "gloves come off," some individuals may become more or
less vocal than they were at the beginning of the course. I suppose
this is a good sign of team development and evolution. I am sensing,
however, that the teams need to have the opportunity to adjust the
ground rules and team etiquette to better fit their new evolving
"identities."
SUGGESTION:
1) *It would be good to see more examples of team projects* (graded or
ungraded). The biggest challenge that I am encountering is coming up
with team projects that engage the students and that do not appear to
utilize the same two structural formats that I have used up to this
point. More suggestions on the listserv from others who have had
success with several different designs would be great! (hint-hint)
That is about it for now. By the way, I have had at least a third of the
students pull me aside and confidentially tell me that this is the best
learning experience they have had in a long time.
Thanks, Dee, Larry and Arletta, for helping me and my students.
Best,
David
--
Dr. David J. Teachout
Music Education/ Music Therapy
University of Minnesota
School of Music
2106 4th Street South
Minneapolis, MN 55455
(p) 612-624-0093
(f) 612-624-8001
[log in to unmask]
http://www.music.umn.edu
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