I also confront this each spring when I use TBL with my freshmen. Over the years, I’ve refined my approach:
1. On the first day, I discuss with them that I aim the average IRAT score to be about 70. If they all easily got A’s, then why do the TRAT exercise?
2. For the first three or four IRATs (out of 8), I give a tailored, detailed study sheet (example below). Yes, they should know how to prepare for a quiz, but they don’t. After the first four, I stop giving “reading guides”- and they seem to be pretty good at figuring out how to prepare from that point on.
3. Most of them bomb the first IRAT. I ask one of the students who did not bomb what s/he did. Then we talk a little about how people prepared- and almost all of them, despite the warnings, ignored the reading guide.
4. I drop the lowest IRAT grade.
5. On occasion, with a very stressed but engaged group, I’ve curved some IRATs.
It also helps that over the semesters, I’ve used the same quizzes enough to feel confident that when scores are low, it’s probably due to learner error rather than poor question making. I share this (worded nicely) with them, too, if they try the “The quiz was too hard! It’s not fair!” line.
-Candice
Sample reading guide:
Step 1. Read Handbook #4 Dilemmas & Ethical Biases (located in the Week 2 Content area of D2L).
Step 2. Take notes over what you have read. You can use these notes for both the IRAT & TRAT. As part of these notes, it is strongly suggested that you define the following concepts and terms in your own words.
· Ethical dilemmas
· Cognitive biases (self-deception)
o Bandwagon effect
o Belief bias
o In-group bias
o Obedience to authority
· Personal motivation
o Self-Interest
o Altruism
· Rationalizing
o Denial of responsibility
o Denial of injury
o Blaming the victim
o Social weighting
o Appeal to higher values
o Saint’s excuse
· Fallacious reasoning
Step 3. Test your understanding. Create your own examples to help distinguish between the different types of biases and rationalizations. For example…
Obedience to authority – My doctor prescribed this new medication for me. I haven’t slept for three days, but I’ll keep taking them in the hopes that I feel better soon.
Appeal to higher values- I drove while drunk because my mom called me and needed help at her house.
Candice Benjes-Small, MLIS
Head, Information Literacy & Outreach
McConnell Library, Radford University, Radford, VA
540.831.6801
[log in to unmask]
From: Team-Based Learning [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Heather Lerner
Sent: Thursday, September 10, 2015 11:34 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: first RAT of the term
We are having the same problem in a first year intro Ecology course. Some students have asked us to just lecture at them because they are tired of doing badly on the iRATs, I guess. They say they don't know what to study out of the textbook when we assign it before the iRAT. They want us to give them a handout of exactly what to know. I feel like they need to build life-long learning skills of how to prepare for a 10-12 question quiz in a class on basic concepts. Here is the guide we gave them for how to study:
Here are some tips for how to prepare for RATs using the textbook:
You should be able to define any vocabulary terms in bold and use them correctly.
For each section of the text that has a heading in bold black letters (these sections are usually ½ page to 2 pages in length), be able to write a sentence summarizing the main take-home point.
For each figure in the text, you should be able to interpret the figure and explain it in your own words.
It would be great to hear from others how to encourage these students are doing so poorly on the iRAT and are uncertain how to study. Note: we also offer a study session for two hours the night before the quiz, staffed with TAs
On Thu, Sep 10, 2015 at 11:05 AM, Neil Haave <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote:
First the context: this is a first year course for majors and non-majors in biological function. Most of the students are either majoring in biology or intending to enter a professional program in the health sciences.
My question: How have people on this list handled the huge disappointment that happens with the first RAT of the first term in freshman courses?
This is typically students' very first university quiz as I start right after the first week of setting up the course structure with the first TBL module. This past weekend I gave students their reading assignment complete with reading guide (key objectives and keywords matched to the pages and figure numbers in the text book). Then they wrote their first RAT yesterday. I received fairly typical results I think except that the iRAT score were lower then I had hoped.
[Inline images 1]
[Inline images 2]
It breaks my heart when I hear stories from students during the tRAT and after class that they studied 10-15 hrs and made 10-15 pages of notes over the long weekend only to receive an iRAT mark of 2/10. They had such energy at the start of the term last week. Now I think I have killed it.
How do the rest of you manage this sort of disappointment and help students regain their spirit for learning (and mine for teaching!)? I suspect the issue is that many of these excellent students (and I have no doubt they achieved excellence in high school) simply were able to excel in high school without developing good study, reading, and note-taking skills. I have a couple of excellent senior students who will be coming into class tomorrow to explain how they read and take notes. I hope that helps.
I would love to hear the collective wisdom of the TBLC.
Thanks very much.
Neil
Neil Haave, PhD
Associate Professor, Biology
Managing Editor, CELT<http://celt.uwindsor.ca/ojs/leddy/index.php/CELT/index>
Vice-President, AIBA<http://www2.mtroyal.ca/~tnickle/AIBA/AIBA_website/AIBA.html>
Faculty Affiliate, CTL<http://uofa.ualberta.ca/centre-for-teaching-and-learning/about-ctl/people/faculty-affiliates>
McCalla Professor<http://uofa.ualberta.ca/centre-for-teaching-and-learning/awards/mccalla-professorships>
University of Alberta, Augustana Faculty
Rm C155, Science Wing, Classroom Building, Augustana Campus
4901 - 46 Avenue, Camrose, AB, CANADA T4V 2R3
email<mailto:[log in to unmask]> | Augustana dossier<http://www.augustana.ualberta.ca/profs/nhaave/> | Google+<https://www.google.com/+NeilHaave> | blog<http://activelylearning2teach.blogspot.ca/> | Twitter<https://twitter.com/nhaave> | LinkedIn<https://ca.linkedin.com/in/neilhaave>
"We do not learn from experience . . . we learn from reflecting on experience" - John Dewey
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Heather
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Heather R. L. Lerner, Ph.D., M.S.
Joseph Moore Museum<http://earlham.edu/jmm> Director
Assistant Professor of Biology
Earlham College
801 National Road West
Richmond IN 47374
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