Last year I started letting students use a Guided Reading document I
created, which contained learning objectives, readings and questions to
answer while preparing for class, as a "cheat sheet" during the
iRAT/tRAT. My reasoning was:
1. to decrease the anxiety associated with iRATs on a "difficult"
subject, and
2. to give the students and incentive to create a set of notes
while they study (as opposed to highlighting and annotating a text).
According to the students, it seems to have worked. Interestingly, iRAT
scores were no different than in the past offerings of the course. We
also had another faculty member in the College do the same thing with
the same result.
Lane
------------------------------------------------------------
Lane J. Brunner, Ph.D., R.Ph.
Professor and Chair
Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Sciences
California Northstate College of Pharmacy
10811 International Drive
Rancho Cordova, CA 95670
Tel: (916) 503-1860
Email: [log in to unmask]
Office: Room 232
This message and any files or text attached to it are intended only for
the recipients named above, and contain information that may be
confidential or privileged. If you are not an intended recipient, you
must not read, copy, use, or disclose this communication. Please also
notify the sender by replying to this message, and then delete all
copies of it from your system. Thank you.
From: Team-Based Learning [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf Of Molly Espey
Sent: Friday, August 17, 2012 1:04 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: cheat sheets
I did that for a while but stopped. It seemed that the students spent
more time trying to cram as much as possible onto the cheat sheet and
less time trying to actually absorb any of the information.
Molly Espey
________________________________
From: Team-Based Learning [[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of
Mark Harrison [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Friday, August 17, 2012 2:25 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: If not Doing iRats, What?
I let my students take an 8-1/2 X 11 cheat sheet into the RAT (and they
can use the cheat sheets on the exams, too). They still need to work
through the knowledge-level issues, just to prepare the cheat sheet.
This seems to produce the same learning outcomes (for the RATs, any way)
with less anxiety.
Mark Harrison
On Fri, Aug 17, 2012 at 1:53 PM, Clapp, Peter A <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:
I think this highlights perfectly the need to find a "sweet spot" in how
challenging to make RAT questions. If you are testing your students'
ability to apply the information in the reading to new or highly complex
problems with RAT questions, and they are not performing well, you may
want to save those items for the exam. Provide them with an opportunity
in class to work through the problem-solving/learning process as a team
- and then ask them to answer high-level questions individually in the
summative assessment. As a result, they ought to see the value of
coming to class and doing application exercises, their RAT grades will
improve, and you will save yourself from having to create even MORE
challenging exam questions.
Peter Clapp
Assistant Professor
Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, School of Pharmacy
Rueckert-Hartman College for Health Professions
Regis University
3333 Regis Boulevard, H-28
Denver, CO 80221-1099
Office: (303) 625-1312 <tel:%28303%29%20625-1312>
Fax: (303) 625-1305 <tel:%28303%29%20625-1305>
From: Team-Based Learning [mailto:[log in to unmask]
<mailto:[log in to unmask]> ] On Behalf Of Bradetich,
Judith
Sent: Friday, August 17, 2012 10:12 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: If not Doing iRats, What?
Hello,
I have been using TBL in my Adolescent and Infant Development classes
this summer. One of the primary complaints I had was that the students
felt little impetus to come to class after taking the RATs, as they felt
I had already tested their knowledge and even though the next few
classes were spent doing applications, they didn't "get it." The common
complaint was that the RATs were too difficult and asked for application
instead of "knowledge" and they felt that the rest of the time they were
"just teaching ourselves" and it was the blind leading the blind. I did
lecture a bit AFTER the RATs, priming them for the activities... They
wanted their tests to be more rote learning, I guess. They wanted to be
able to prove that they knew the material, but instead seemed to feel
frustrated that no matter how well they thought they knew it, they did
poorly. I reassured them that low grades were typical on iRats - and
they did do much better with their teams, but their level of anger and
frustration at me and the TBL format was palpable. Should I be giving
them some individual low-stakes knowledge quizzes before the RATs so
they can feel like they know the stuff before they have to apply it? It
made me question my tests. They DID have study guides.
These were summer courses, which meant a fair amount of density, by
definition. I generally tested 2 chapters per RAT = perhaps I should
have given one RAT per chapter - 2 RATs per week?... They really hated
being tested before I lectured - and I really tried not to lecture very
much...though I found myself falling back onto past pre-TBL lectures,
which basically reiterated the reading - but since they were after the
students had read I think they felt it was redundant.
Change is hard, I know, and I kept reassuring them that it was harder
for me to NOT lecture and to come up with viable activities...but this
particular group seemed especially testy. Might have just been the
participants...
Thoughts anyone? - especially about the lack of impetus to come to class
AFTER being tested.
Thanks,
Judi Bradetich
Judi Bradetich, M.S., M.M.
Lecturer, Development and Family Studies
Dept. of Educational Psychology
University of North Texas
________________________________
From: Team-Based Learning [[log in to unmask]] on behalf of
McCormack, Wayne T [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Friday, August 17, 2012 8:31 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: If not Doing iRats, What?
Do more applications! Use RATs as needed for new material, but spend no
more than 25% of your total TBL time with readiness assurance.
If you have multiple courses using TBL at the same time in your
curriculum, you might want to avoid having multiple RATs on the same
day.
Wayne McCormack
University of Florida College of Medicine
|
