Eddy -
I've got a fair number of thoughts as I teach economics with TBL
(hopefully other economists will chime in).
I've only taught an intro course with TBL once; it didn't go that well, to
be honest (I do use it for upper division courses and by and large I'm
pleased). I'm pretty sure that in part this was due to their expectations
in what a college course is -- they expected lecture and I didn't do a
good job explaining why I selected TBL. Now I show a video on TBL to
classes (I like the one that Michael Sweet provided,
https://webspace.utexas.edu/mss662/TBL/ or
http://magenta.cit.utexas.edu/largeclasses/#tbl ). Also, I now ask this
set of questions the very first thing the very first day (got this idea
here, but another economist, Jennifer Imazeki, suggested that I take
another look at it, and I did):
Thinking of what you want to get out of your college education and
this course, which of the following is most important to you?
1. Acquiring information (facts, principles, concepts)
2. Learning how to use information in new situations
3. Developing lifelong learning skills
I'd hazard a guess that many of your students might answer 1 (at least
according to the book "The College Fear Factor" (might be worth a look on
its own) by Rebecca Cox, junior college students tend to see college as
acquiring facts; also, my students who answer 1 tend to be freshman or
transfer students). I then point that facts are really easy to acquire
these days (I pull out my smart phone...) and then talk about the others.
I sometimes even pull out
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2008/01/23/employers which talks about
how much employers value critical thinking skills in college grads and how
they think that they're deficient in it.
Key here is that I describe how TBL helps with critical thinking.
I know that another economist, Paul Hettler, had equivocal results with
TBL with this class (he used a few more metrics and wrote a paper). I
don't recall the reasons he gave.
Also, I've found that it took some time for me to be comfortable with TBL
in the classroom. On this point, I'd definitely say that you should give
it some time time. It seems to take longer still to develop good good
in-class application questions. They need to be hard to be challenging,
but still doable. I do some research on economic misconceptions of
students in this class ( http://cook.rfe.org/Misconceptions.pdf ) and
their views are often discordant with what we're trying to teach them.
I too find that I'm not so good in my TBL courses to get student to
prepare for class (and I agree that it is very important). I call the
application exercises "homeworks" but that didn't seem to help much. I'm
curious myself what others do in this regard. Student study time seems to
matter a lot; "The Causal Effect of Studying on Academic Performance"
http://www.bepress.com/bejeap/vol8/iss1/art14?sending=10241 is really
clear on this. In traditional classes I sometime separate out exams by who
can answer questions directly from the book and those who can't and the
difference is very striking (25-30 points difference in the median between
the two groups while the questions are worth much less). But, that likely
doesn't work as well with TBL as they've presumably read the book for the
RATs.
Finally, a group of economists put in for a session on TBL at an upcoming
conference on teaching economics that'll be held in California this
summer. No clue if we'll get in, but see
http://www.vanderbilt.edu/AEA/AEACEE/Conference/Call_for_Papers.htm .
Finally, there's an economist fairly near you, Mark Maier
[log in to unmask] , who teaches in a similar setting (Glendale Community
College). While he doesn't do TBL, he's a real expert in pedagogy.
- Bill
> Hello All,
> *
> Are there any modifications to TBL for introductory (i.e.
> freshman/sophomore) undergraduate courses that you recommend?*
> *
> In searching the archives, I found a few:*
>
> * Giving non-RAT tests (e.g. Midterms and Final) is recommended to help
> beginning students "know what they don't know"
> * More substative RAT reading guides,*instructional videos, etc. may
> help students not used to college-level reading*material
> * Making sure the professor shares knowledge "above and beyond" the
> readings after the RAP (e.g. latest research, great AE's, etc.)
>
> I am asking because I am trying out TBL for the first time in my intro.
> "Economics 101" classes.* The students just took a midterm with questions
> I used before, without TBL.* On most of my midterm questions, students did
> slightly worse that students in pervious terms.* Considering how much time
> I put into adopting TBL this is disheartening.
> *
> It's my belief that TBL could do more to motivate out-of-class studying
> and preparation, a need I feel that is correlated to how well a student is
> prepared for college-level work, a problem for beginning students more
> than for upperclassmen/graduate students.* As far as evidence goes, my
> iRAT scores averages are around 50% (tRAT scores using IF-ATs are around
> 83%).*
> *
> I am planning to try TBL again in the Spring.* Greatful for any input.*
> Below I am including more information about my situation.
> *
> Best,
> *
> Eddy Chi
> *
> Further background:
>
> * I read the [1]2004 book on TBL*and decided to adopt all the major
> recommendations except for one that I am aware of: I mistakenly
> overlooked the recommendation to assign final grades based on "break
> points" in the distribution of students' overall scores (p. 220).
> * I teach at a community college in California for a low-income and
> low-educational attainment population.**
> * My students are more diverse in their backgrounds and abilities
> than*at a typical 4-year college.
> * There is high attrition.* About 40% drop.
> * I*am new to TBL and relatively new to teaching.* This is my third year
> teaching, second year at this college.* Before TBL, I had lectured and
> used a lot of cooperative group activities during my classes.*
> * The classes I teach are taken primarily by students looking to fulfill
> a genderal-education area requirement for them to transfer to a 4-year
> college.* They can take classes with less of the math and abstraction
> of Economics*instead of mine (e.g. History, Sociology, etc.) to
> fulfill the transfer*requirement.* Only some of my students need the
> class for a particular major.
> * There are other non-teaching-strategy related factors at play, such as
> whether these "101" courses should be offered or instead courses with
> content more suitable for my students, i.e. an Economics "001" class
> which is really more of a "general ed."/elective type course than my
> "101" classes.
>
> --
>
> Eddy Chi, MA
> Assistant Professor, Economics
> Humanities and Social Sciences Department
> Moreno Valley College, Riverside Community College District
> 16130 Lasselle Street
> Moreno Valley, CA 92551,*USA
> Phone: 951-571-6100
> Fax:*951-571-6185
>
> References
>
> Visible links
> 1. http://www.amazon.com/Team-Based-Learning-Transformative-College-Teaching/dp/157922086X
--
Bill Goffe
Department of Economics
SUNY Oswego, 416 Mahar Hall
Oswego, NY 13126
315-312-3444(v), 315-312-5444(f)
[log in to unmask]
http://cook.rfe.org
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