MAILING LISTS

Thank you to everyone who offered advice about using TBL with my freshmen in an ethical reasoning and group work class. With your encouragement, I went full-on TBL this spring semester and, while I certainly messed up some stuff, I would definitely use TBL again.  I also asked my students for feedback about the TBL approach and their responses show that they "got" why we were using it.  This comment sums it up:

I definitely think that you should use TBL in the future. Although I was the only one in my group that forgot to complete one quiz, I felt that it was MY responsibility and therefore I should receive the punishment for it (not receiving credit for the TRAT). Knowing that you will lose credit for not only your own work, but also your teams work is more motivation to get things done. The way the class was set up with grading, it stressed succeeding as a team and failing as a team. I just think that when you have the weight of a team on your shoulders, you're WAY less likely to be irresponsible and slip up. I feel that this TBL really motivates students to try and succeed for the sake of the group, and in turn helps them succeed as an individual.

/end of student comment


This is the fifth time I've taught the course and far and away saw the best group dynamics and had the least group drama ever.  I need to work on the peer evaluation feedback mechanism a bit- freshmen are not used to getting any kind of criticism, so some feelings were hurt- but the IRAT, TRAT, and Team Activities worked beautifully.  I used the 70% rule to ensure IRATs were taken seriously and highly recommend it for students who may not be the most motivated.

So thank you again, and I'm happy to share more details with anyone interested.

Best,
Candice

Candice Benjes-Small, MLIS
Head, Information Literacy and Outreach
McConnell Library, Radford University
540.831.6801
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