Students who have done well in traditional classrooms, tend to have a hard time transitioning to TBL. When I first introduced TBL I started with only doing the challenge problems the first semester. Then I introduced team grading the second semester. The next year I introduced the iRAT/tRAT. This gradual approach allowed me to try out and tweak my approach. I also graded very leniently the first year. Once you get a feel for the process you can adapt it to your specific needs.

 

Some adaptations I use are to provide students with a detailed outline that is partially filled in with the RAT info, then students fill in the additional details throughout the unit. This way they can clearly see exactly how much information they learned. I personally give them a unit test, but whether you do this is your prerogative.

 

Additionally I prepped my administrators with what I was doing and why before I implimented any component of TBL. I also front load my course with a short TBL unit (just a small snippet of the curriculum), so that students can see what the whole process looks like.

 

Scott