UBC Mailing Lists 17.0 - TEAMLEARNING-L Archives

On the student side, this sounds like a classic case of not spending sufficient time at the beginning of the course, orienting students to what the teachers were going to do and why, in a way that gets student buy-in. Whenver a teacher does something different than what students are used to, you need to spend a substantial amount of time (1-3 hours), helping students understand (via experiences - not explanations) what the teacher is going to do that is different and why he/she is changing. This is as true of TBL as anything else.

On the faculty side, not so sure. It may be that someone needs to collect data on the qualityof student learning, in a way that can compare the quantity and quality of student learning with lecture vs. with TBL. My expectation would be that the latter is higher. If it is, that should be persuasive as a reason to change. If it isn't, either one needs to find out why it isn't higher - or else go back to lecturing.

On Wed, Jul 8, 2009 at 3:55 PM, Ed Bell <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

TBL Colleagues:
I coordinated a new course using TBL Spring 2009. This 3-credit course
(pharmacotherapeutics) is in the 2nd year of a 4-year professional pharmacy
program (115 students). Three faculty taught (separate 5 week modules). We
followed the TBL model very closely (ie, IRAT/GRAT, IF-AT forms, AE, peer
evaluations). I attended the TBL conference in March. Final course grades
overall were quite high. Student evaluations (8 pages total written
comments) post-course were "interesting" - most evaluations were negative
and included several themes:
1) students want more lecture - they want to be told what is important
2) students believe we as faculty - the "experts"- should be telling them
what is important about medications that they will need to know as a future
pharmacist - this is our "responsibility" as faculty/teachers
3) several students emphasized 2) above in light of our school being
private, with high tuition reasoning for responsibility of the faculty to
tell students "what's important"
4) some faculty this semester and due up next semester don't seem to fully
accept TBL vs. still desiring to lecture
How do we respond to these student - and faculty - concerns? I researched
the TBL list serve archives and found similar concerns from 2005 postings,
yet I am seeking additional recommendations and input from seasoned TBL faculty.
Thank you.
Ed Bell (Drake University College of Pharmacy)