The majority of students in my experience come into class, with a history of being burned by group work. Many students are resistant to TBL. I approach this challenge by first surfacing student concerns. We develop a two column chart of pros and cons.  Students always come up with a great list - slackers on my team, I did all the work and nobody else worked, we couldn’t find time when everyone could meet outside of class, there were people that were too aggressive, and there were people that were too passive. Once their concerns and the benefits of team work are surfaced, I make sure to address the concerns and talk about how TBL is different; how TBL is designed to maximize the benefits and minimize the cons. 

Holly Bender
Professor  of Veterinary Clinical Pathology

Associate Director of the Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching

                        Iowa State University

After the first couple of activities, at the end of the class, I try to save five minutes to help students realize how much they have learned and to sort of translate what they just did into what a lecture could have looked like. So that they can see that all of the information that could have been in that lecture is what came up in their conversations.

Laura Madson

Associate Professor – Psychology

New Mexico State