I no longer have a grade-setting exercise.  I decide the weights myself.  I give team exams as well as RATs.  The team scores for RATs and exams are about one-third of the individual scores,  that is, TS=IS/3.  A little bit more or less doesn't seem to matter much.
 
I have had very strong reactions once or twice to having any team component to final grades.  This hasn't happened often, but usually has strong feelings associated with it.  The team scores have never hurt anyone's grade, only helped.
 
My students are professionals who will usually be employed in work environments where team activities and success are central.  Some of them have had some on-the-job training in group processes.  If necessary, I tell them team work is necessary on the job.
 
Students who are more capable usually learn more by helping everyone in their team learn.  They seem to recognize this.  Not everyone will do so.
 
Most importantly, you will always have some unhappy campers with TBL.  There is no easy way to prevent this.  Basically, as a form of active learning, the end products of TBL are not as clearly defined as traditional learning and the work demands are much greater.
 
Any non-traditional learning format, such as active learning methods, is going to make some people unhappy.  They want clear, precise norms for learning and anything else is so unsatisfactory that it will bring out their worst possible criticism.  If you are prepared to make a credible conclusion that students learn more with TBL then you have a powerful argument in favor of it.  I suspect it has been successful for me because it forces students to put in time on task much earlier in the semester.  I think many students dislike these work demands, which are not consistent with their other academic  experience.
 
Regards,
 
David Smith
 

David W. Smith, Ph.D., M.P.H.
Associate Professor, Biostatistics
Fellow, Institute for Health Policy
The University of Texas School of Public Health
San Antonio Branch Campus
voice: (210) 562-5512
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
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From: Team Learning Discussion List [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Kathryn McKnight
Sent: Saturday, February 26, 2005 2:34 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Three Issues

Dear All,
 
I'm writing to reiterate a desire for responses to Lion's question on the grade distribution, rather than with any wisdom to offer.
 
I do have a suggestion for the IRATs, which I think others have posted before. I use a 5-minute limit rule on the IRATs, too. Everyone has 5 minutes from the time that one full team has completed the IRAT.
 
In terms of grade distribution: I am in my second semester of TBL and have not had good experiences with the grade distribution in either one, though other aspects of the strategy have been great. The first semester, the class finally came to a decision on grades, but took much more time than I had planned for. I think that one main stumbling block is that they do not understand how the peer evaluations will distribute the grade. And this is after I have shown them a sample like the one in the book, where two students have identical individual grades, but one contributes much more to the team and thus earns a much higher total grade. I have also made this example available to them online before the grade discussion. Yet in both semesters one or two teams have argued vociferously and long that the individual grade must be higher, because otherwise those who don't do the work will benefit unfairly. This second time around, one older student --who is also a teacher-- kept his team from coming to consensus, arguing that in the real world it is the quality of the intellectual PRODUCT that is rewarded. Again, I think he did not understand how peer evaluations would reward the intellectual product of those who most contribute, but I think also he may have been objecting to the fact that the team grade rewards other types of useful team behavior that are not strictly intellectual product. In this class, there was clearly no resolution in sight--with two other teams arguing for 60 & 70% of the grade to the team work, another for 50/50 and this one team utterly divided. So I made the final decision.
 
Any help? I'm about ready to take that piece of student autonomy away.
 
Kathy McKnight