Dear Eddy,

My teaching context is similar; undergrad (entrepreneurship) electives that include up to 65% international/foreign students with limited English competence.

My TBL questions are at the bottom end of Bloom’s taxonomy; ie they focus largely on content. I allocate the international students across teams.

I give students an explanatory session on TBL in the first class and a “test drive” (ie not counted for assessment) so that they are familiar with all the materials. They then have 5 TBL rounds for assessment in subsequent sessions.

I give students detailed information on our website:

http://www.unisa.edu.au/cde/programs/undergraduate/SpecialUG/TBL/TBL1.asp

Feedback from students is very positive, particularly from our international students who really value the team interaction. Interestingly, they are positive about being forced to learn the materials beforehand. They find the discussion sessions (instead of lectures) to be useful and interesting (as I require them to contribute). As far as I am concerned, TBL is a really great way to run a class with students from diverse backgrounds.

All the best, Peter Balan

University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia

From: Team-Based Learning [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Eddy Chi
Sent: Wednesday, 3 November 2010 6:29 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: TBL in introductory undergrad courses

Hello All,

Are there any modifications to TBL for introductory (i.e. freshman/sophomore) undergraduate courses that you recommend? 

In searching the archives, I found a few: 

• Giving non-RAT tests (e.g. Midterms and Final) is recommended to help beginning students "know what they don't know"
• More substative RAT reading guides, instructional videos, etc. may help students not used to college-level reading material
• Making sure the professor shares knowledge "above and beyond" the readings after the RAP (e.g. latest research, great AE's, etc.)

I am asking because I am trying out TBL for the first time in my intro. "Economics 101" classes.  The students just took a midterm with questions I used before, without TBL.  On most of my midterm questions, students did slightly worse that students in pervious terms.  Considering how much time I put into adopting TBL this is disheartening.

It's my belief that TBL could do more to motivate out-of-class studying and preparation, a need I feel that is correlated to how well a student is prepared for college-level work, a problem for beginning students more than for upperclassmen/graduate students.  As far as evidence goes, my iRAT scores averages are around 50% (tRAT scores using IF-ATs are around 83%). 

I am planning to try TBL again in the Spring.  Greatful for any input.  Below I am including more information about my situation.

Best,

Eddy Chi

Further background:

• I read the 2004 book on TBL and decided to adopt all the major recommendations except for one that I am aware of: I mistakenly overlooked the recommendation to assign final grades based on "break points" in the distribution of students' overall scores (p. 220).
• I teach at a community college in California for a low-income and low-educational attainment population.  
• My students are more diverse in their backgrounds and abilities than at a typical 4-year college.
• There is high attrition.  About 40% drop.
• I am new to TBL and relatively new to teaching.  This is my third year teaching, second year at this college.  Before TBL, I had lectured and used a lot of cooperative group activities during my classes. 
• The classes I teach are taken primarily by students looking to fulfill a genderal-education area requirement for them to transfer to a 4-year college.  They can take classes with less of the math and abstraction of Economics instead of mine (e.g. History, Sociology, etc.) to fulfill the transfer requirement.  Only some of my students need the class for a particular major.
• There are other non-teaching-strategy related factors at play, such as whether these "101" courses should be offered or instead courses with content more suitable for my students, i.e. an Economics "001" class which is really more of a "general ed."/elective type course than my "101" classes.

--

Eddy Chi, MA
Assistant Professor, Economics
Humanities and Social Sciences Department
Moreno Valley College, Riverside Community College District
16130 Lasselle Street
Moreno Valley, CA 92551, USA
Phone: 951-571-6100
Fax: 951-571-6185