I no longer have a grade-setting exercise. I decide the weights myself.
I give team exams as well as RATs. The team scores for RATs and exams
are about one-third of the individual scores, that is, TS=IS/3. A
little bit more or less doesn't seem to matter much.
I have had very strong reactions once or twice to having any team
component to final grades. This hasn't happened often, but usually has
strong feelings associated with it. The team scores have never hurt
anyone's grade, only helped.
My students are professionals who will usually be employed in work
environments where team activities and success are central. Some of
them have had some on-the-job training in group processes. If
necessary, I tell them team work is necessary on the job.
Students who are more capable usually learn more by helping everyone in
their team learn. They seem to recognize this. Not everyone will do
so.
Most importantly, you will always have some unhappy campers with TBL.
There is no easy way to prevent this. Basically, as a form of active
learning, the end products of TBL are not as clearly defined as
traditional learning and the work demands are much greater.
Any non-traditional learning format, such as active learning methods, is
going to make some people unhappy. They want clear, precise norms for
learning and anything else is so unsatisfactory that it will bring out
their worst possible criticism. If you are prepared to make a credible
conclusion that students learn more with TBL then you have a powerful
argument in favor of it. I suspect it has been successful for me
because it forces students to put in time on task much earlier in the
semester. I think many students dislike these work demands, which are
not consistent with their other academic experience.
Regards,
David Smith
David W. Smith, Ph.D., M.P.H.
Associate Professor, Biostatistics
Fellow, Institute for Health Policy
The University of Texas School of Public Health
San Antonio Branch Campus
voice: (210) 562-5512
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________________________________
From: Team Learning Discussion List [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
On Behalf Of Kathryn McKnight
Sent: Saturday, February 26, 2005 2:34 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Three Issues
Dear All,
I'm writing to reiterate a desire for responses to Lion's question on
the grade distribution, rather than with any wisdom to offer.
I do have a suggestion for the IRATs, which I think others have posted
before. I use a 5-minute limit rule on the IRATs, too. Everyone has 5
minutes from the time that one full team has completed the IRAT.
In terms of grade distribution: I am in my second semester of TBL and
have not had good experiences with the grade distribution in either one,
though other aspects of the strategy have been great. The first
semester, the class finally came to a decision on grades, but took much
more time than I had planned for. I think that one main stumbling block
is that they do not understand how the peer evaluations will distribute
the grade. And this is after I have shown them a sample like the one in
the book, where two students have identical individual grades, but one
contributes much more to the team and thus earns a much higher total
grade. I have also made this example available to them online before the
grade discussion. Yet in both semesters one or two teams have argued
vociferously and long that the individual grade must be higher, because
otherwise those who don't do the work will benefit unfairly. This second
time around, one older student --who is also a teacher-- kept his team
from coming to consensus, arguing that in the real world it is the
quality of the intellectual PRODUCT that is rewarded. Again, I think he
did not understand how peer evaluations would reward the intellectual
product of those who most contribute, but I think also he may have been
objecting to the fact that the team grade rewards other types of useful
team behavior that are not strictly intellectual product. In this class,
there was clearly no resolution in sight--with two other teams arguing
for 60 & 70% of the grade to the team work, another for 50/50 and this
one team utterly divided. So I made the final decision.
Any help? I'm about ready to take that piece of student autonomy away.
Kathy McKnight
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