Dear David (and others), I've only had one experience with a 1-team class (so I'd hope that others on the list serv would chime in as well). I did not, however, experience the problems you describe. I can only think of two things (and maybe a third) that I did that might have made the difference. They are: 1) I made a REALLY big deal about my views with regard to the importance of teaching in a way that would prepare them to be life-long learners (see attached transparencies). By doing so, I think they: a) understood the dysfunctional nature of turning to me for help without trying to work things out on their own and, b) took pride in "going it on their own." 2) Instead of posting the team scores on the RATs (there were no other teams to post scores for), I provided a "benchmark" by giving them the average individual and team scores from previous classes just before I handed out the test. They got every bit as excited about beating the "norms" as teams typically do in "competing" with other teams. 3) Although I'm not sure exactly what I said, I strongly suspect that I probably reinforced their efforts at working independently in two ways. One, that I do in multi-team classes anyway, is to "listen in" and, when they ask for my input, I restate what they have been saying to each other (e.g. "Joe seems to be arguing that ____ , Jane made the point that ______ , etc." Then I draw some sort of a conclusion and throw the ball back in their court. For example, I might say, "If you take their input seriously, you're almost there." or "What you have to figure out is which point is most critical/accurate/fundamental, etc." or "Now you have to figure out what's missing." The other is praising their successes. For example, I might say, "I think it was really great when you _____ (specifically recounting what they did that was positive)." or "Although I probably could have made the same point, you both understand it better and will remember it longer because you figured it out on your own. Good work." If it is a graded assignment/test, the response is much the same as point #3 but, even more comfortable. For example, I'll simply say something like, "Joe seems to be arguing that ____ , Jane made the point that ______ , etc. I can't say which point is most critical/accurate/etc. without giving away the answer." I hope this helps. Larry -- ************************************************************* Dr. Larry K. Michaelsen (405) 325-5692 - voice David Ross Boyd Professor of Management (405) 325-7688 - fax 206 Adams Hall [log in to unmask] - e-mail The University of Oklahoma Norman, OK 73019