On the concern over student evals, why not document increases in student
learning and emphasize that? One way is by comparing answers on final exams
over the years (this assumes that you don't pass back finals). This would
also make the point that, after all, we should be measuring learning 1st
and student evals are secondary. This might get some good discussion going
in your department. I'm planning on doing that this semester.
- Bill
Gary said:
> Erica, you note:
>
> "I feel like I have a hard time convincing my students about the benefits
> of TBL. Half are on board and the other half make it hard. I'm discouraged
> at times, my midterm evals had comments like "Stop the team stuff" and
> "quit
> teaching" in them. I feel the norm in my department is heavy based on
> lecture and students are not expected to read (or at least are not held
> accountable for reading). If you have any ideas for readings, activities,
> etc that might help me out that would be great."
>
> First, don't feel alone ... my class evaluations dropped substantially,
> albeit student learning has increased, upon introduction of TBL for the
> first time last spring in an undergraduate (natural resource,
> environmental and ecological economics) class, 200-level (although lots of
> juniors and seniors in the class, about 1/2 of them actually) of
> 45-students. To put this in context, I have been teaching for over
> 2-decades!... and have never had lower evaluations, but, also, I have
> never had students learn more. More specifically, I have never had such
> extremely negative statements about my teaching as I received with the
> introduction of TBL last spring, along the same lines of "quit teaching",
> "didn't learn anything", "total waste of my time", etc... from a small
> minority. There were also extremely complementary comments, however...and
> we should not ignore those... I am sure you also have them... like the
> best course they had ever taken! Yes: about 1/2 love it, 1/2 hate it...
> the latter making things hard, like you point out.
>
> Second, we are trying it again this spring, with 58-students, 9-teams.
> This time we followed the suggestions in the paper by Smith(2008;
> attached), with better results so far, albeit one student wrote on the
> first Exam.. "you didn't teach us this" .. for a question in which they
> had to really understand the construct in order to apply it... and he
> didn't even try to answer it ... even though they had worked on the
> identical problem in a Team activity, and, we had lectured to it, as well
> as used both the iRAT and tRAT to work on the basic constructs needed.
> Actually, what he is saying, it seems likely to me: "you didn't tell me
> what to memorize and put back on the test." I honestly do not know what
> to do with students like this... We (the TA and I) even offered to meet
> with him, try to help... which was declined... we, instead, are "not
> teaching" ... it is all our doing, not his. Yet, I am also hoping that our
> use of the Response clickers this spring is helping, overall, and that we
> have reduced the number of these students having issues like this. With
> the clickers, we are much better able to react quickly, have discussion on
> issues/problem areas in the material right away, and they can see class
> results on the screen... etc. Hopefully the extra, better informed
> dialogue during class is helping...
>
> I am not overly confident that we have solved the problem... am not
> holding out for a much higher evaluation... albeit we already know from
> the first Exam and the first Team Case study they have so far completed,
> that, overall, there is more learning going on... As an economist used
> to thinking in terms of costs and benefits, the benefits of TBL > costs
> of TBL, albeit how they are distributed among the students continues to
> be an issue.
>
> I look forward to comments by others, especially from those who have far
> more experience with TBL. Still learning...
>
> Gary D. Lynne, Professor
> Department of Agricultural Economics and
> School of Natural Resources
> 103B Filley
> University of Nebraska-Lincoln
> Lincoln, NE 68583-0922
> Website: [1]http://www.agecon.unl.edu/facultystaff/directory/lynne.html
> Phone: 1-402-472-8281 Cell: 1-402-430-3100
>
> "We are always only one failed generational transfer of knowledge away
> from darkest ignorance" (Herman Daly)
> "We do not just have our own interests. We share interests with others.
> Empathy is neither altruistic nor self-interested. It rather exemplifies
> the implicit solidarity of human nature" (Robert Solomon)
> (See attached file: Smith(2008)FirstDayQuestionsTBL.pdf)
> ----- Forwarded by Gary D Lynne/AgEcon/IANR/UNEBR on 03/07/2009 01:52 PM
> -----
>
> Erica Hunter <[log in to unmask]> To [log in to unmask]
> Sent by: Team-Based Learning cc
> <[log in to unmask]> Subject sample activities?
>
> 03/07/2009 01:06 PM
>
> +------------------------------+
> | Please respond to |
> | Erica Hunter |
> | <[log in to unmask]> |
> +------------------------------+
>
> Hi All,
>
> I am hoping that you can help me with a problem. I have been using TBL for
> three semesters in a couple different undergrad sociology courses (Soc of
> Gender and Mass Media) with courses that are 120 enrollment and 25
> enrollment. For background, I am a grad student instructor and I've been
> teaching for 3-4 years. I am interested in pedagogy and use TBL because I
> feel it is a good format for helping students meet course goals (working
> with readings, being accountable for their learning, application of course
> concepts in class, etc).
>
> I am thinking about redesigning my fall courses (Intro Soc and Families)
> to
> also be TLB but I feel stuck. My course evaluations are "in the middle"
> but
> low for my department and I worry that there is something I'm "doing
> wrong"
> with TBL. I've read the book and I went to a workshop that Larry
> Michaelsen
> did on my campus. I talked to someone about this and she suggested I post
> on
> here for some examples of how others lay out their classes.
>
> My questions and requests are:
> 1. For your units, how many do you have in the semester? What do they
> "look"
> like? I do about 5 units in a 16 week semester. Starts with a RAT (with
> IF-AT forms), RAT Review/discussion of the reading, Activity or two, end
> unit. I spend time framing the current unit and the activities as a part
> of
> the larger course issue (i.e. "This unit we are talking about masculinity
> and femininity. Today's activity will get us thinking about the
> relationship
> between the two"). Here, if you have a syllabus you would be willing to
> share (any discipline) that would be awesome. I think it would help me to
> "see" how others are successfully putting their courses together.
>
> 2. I would really like to see some sample ideas for activities that work
> well. I generally follow the 4S of activity design but some fail. I also
> feel like I do the same kind of things over and over. I would like to get
> some ideas about different activities, esp ones that might involve working
> with data, a film, or something other than a discussion question/scenario.
>
> 3. I feel like I have a hard time convincing my students about the
> benefits
> of TBL. Half are on board and the other half make it hard. I'm discouraged
> at times, my midterm evals had comments like "Stop the team stuff" and
> "quit
> teaching" in them. I feel the norm in my department is heavy based on
> lecture and students are not expected to read (or at least are not held
> accountable for reading). If you have any ideas for readings, activities,
> etc that might help me out that would be great.
>
> Thanks in advance for any help you can offer,
> Erica
> Department of Sociology
> University at Albany
>
> References
>
> Visible links
> 1. http://www.agecon.unl.edu/facultystaff/directory/lynne.html
--
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