I try to have an extra thought provoking question ready for the students to discuss if they finish the activity early.  This will typically be something that's not core to the course, so that those students who don't get to it don't miss out on crucial material, but relevant enough to stimulate interest and keep the students engaged.  I can't remember who it was, but someone who conducted a workshop on our campus about cooperative learning referred to it as a sponge activity because it soaks up the extra time.
 
Molly Espey
 
From: Team-Based Learning [[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Krisztina Jakobsen [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Thursday, January 19, 2012 8:08 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Downtime between application and discussion

I’ve been using TBL in my developmental psychology classes for the last few years.  I am struggling with what to do when some teams are done with the application activities before others.  I typically let the students know how much time they’ll have to complete the activity, and some teams take the whole time to complete it, while others don’t.  So then I have students who are waiting for others to complete the assignment so we can have our class discussion.  I'd love to hear suggestions for what I could have the teams who finish early do until we’re ready for the class discussion? 

 

Krisztina



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Krisztina Varga Jakobsen, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of Psychology, MSC 7704
91 E. Grace St.
James Madison University
Harrisonburg, VA 22807
540-568-4301