I am currently teaching a class of FOUR... one team of FOUR... which obvioulsy is much smaller than you would like for a team. I haven't run into the problems that David describes, but it is perhaps that I am still a novice in the pedagogical technique so haven't implemented al the pieces such as posting iRAT/gRATs. I teach Athletic Training courses. My teamwork tends to be very novel tasks (build a knee joint out of scraps of wood, rubber, sponge, bungi cords) and thus almost forces them to work together because it is nothing like they have every experienced in their college careers. I have found that the more novel the task the more they must create that team bond to work through the problem. Sadly... I am not able to do the team problems that require working through and answer and comparing them to other teams to determine how they have done, processed, etc. Because I am still within the semester I am looking forward to the end and a chance to look back more objectively on what worked and what didn't work in the class based on the size. I have had the challenge of having a team member absent due to a death in the family and missing 1 week of group work. How do others have thme make that kind of time with their group up? Juli Dunn Assoc. Professor in Sport Studies Whitman College Walla Walla, WA [log in to unmask] -------------------------------------------------- This mail sent through Whitman College Webmail 3.1