Jim and others,

We have finished our first iteration of TBL and have had some issues (understandably). We have been condensed to teach our med students Musculoskeletal medicine in three weeks. Our Rats happen on Tuesdays and our cases Tuesday and Friday each week. Our groupings are monoarthritis, polyarthritis and Soft tissue injury (paed/adult knee injury and shouder etc)

The medical school admin will not let us have peer eval (we are working on them) or grade the rats for final marks (ahhh!) so I put a bit more pressure on the rats (must get 70% to pass) for by in and accountablility and got a lot of push back form the students. They are working in CBL groups already but 3 weeks for “team” learning seems a bit short and getting students to buy in to TBL is a bit of an issue. We are trying to change venue (tables instead of hall) and try to lengthen the time available to teach these things.

My questions:

techniques to change if a short duration TBL experience?
support to get admin to buy into peer evaluation (formative and summative)?
how to avoid the 1 rat : 1 case sessions, with quick turnover, especially since fairy distinct learning objectives for each unit.in a short timeframe?

Appreciate any insight people may have

Sincerely,

Dr. Ken Kontio B.Sc., M.D., M.Ed., FRCS(C)

Department of Surgery - Rm 3342

Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario

401 Smyth Road

Ottawa, ON

K1H 8L1

Office (613) 737-7600 x 2426

Fax (613) 738-4840

From: Team-Based Learning [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Jim Sibley
Sent: Friday, December 28, 2012 12:51 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: First time using TBL

A couple of things

Testing every week is risky....likely students will get mad about testing before teaching

Each week you have a specific conceptual block....is it possible to envision a larger conceptual block that spans a few weeks.....when my faculty struggle with this...they often haven't fully let go of the list of topics...and switched to "what do I want my students to be able to do?"

Jim Sibley

Sorry for brief message -sent from my iPad

On 2012-12-28, at 9:36 AM, "A.M. Amezaga, Jr. Ph.D." <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

Question from first time user @ Psych 101:

But if each week of a single 2.5 hour class covers a specific conceptual block of material, then, by definition, are not weekly RAT’s then required or needed?

-alfredo

From: Team-Based Learning [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Larry Michaelsen
Sent: Friday, December 28, 2012 8:19 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Fwd: First time using TBL

Mike,

This is such an important question that I decided to add my 2 cents. Giving too many RATs is the single most common mistake made by faculty who are new TBL. In addition, it’s one of the most painful mistakes as well. That’s because it is the surest way to create student anger about having to “do all the work”.

There are two principles involved in deciding how many RATs to give:

1. TBL is NOT about covering content. From a student standpoint, the overall “feel” of the class MUST BE that the class is about learning to DO something as opposed to simply covering content so that they can pass a test. With TBL, you are making an implicit bargain with students that, “If you will do the pre-class preparation, I’ll make sure that you are rewarded by having the opportunity to see why the ideas are important to you.” If you give too many RATs, students will feel like their “reward” for studying on their own is being required to memorize what they are likely to see as more and more meaningless facts—and they won’t like it. [note: the real payoff in the form of opportunities to practice using the content on well-designed (i.e., “4-S”) assignments.]

2. You don’t have to ask question about everything. This is a case where less is actually more. Just like lectures that are really dense, RATs that focus on details actually result I less learning because they reward memorization rather than understanding. The RAT should questions focus on developing students’ understanding of the “big ideas”. Overall, that means that you want to ask questions that assure that students understand the “structure” of the knowledge so that, during the applications (which should always be open-book), they will be able to use their materials efficiently.

I strongly recommend giving a minimum number of RATs that emphasize really understanding the BIG ideas in a larger block of material. For example, I recommend asking questions about things that are in the table of contents but, avoiding questions about things that only appear in the index. (They can, and will, add—and actually remember—the details as they are working on open-book applications.) Further, since the applications are open-book, neither you nor your students will have to worry about forgetting what was covered in the RATs.

Larry

On Wed, Dec 26, 2012 at 12:12 PM, Michael Kramer <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

Frank and Jim,

That was precisely what I needed. Thanks for taking the time to help me out.

I am currently leaning in the following direction:

1. Eliminate the online reading quiz.
2. Start most classes with an iRAT, followed by a tRAT.

Since my class begins at 9:00 am Saturday morning, tardiness is an ongoing
problem. I often begin assignments soon after 9:00 am, but if I were to have
weekly iRATs, students would know that lateness could have a significant
impact on their grades.

Thanks again,
Mike

--

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Larry K. Michaelsen, Professor of Management

Dockery 400G, University of Central Missouri

Warrensburg, MO 64093

660/543-4315 voice, 660/543-8465 fax

For info on:

Team-Based Learning (TBL) <www.teambasedlearning.org>

Integrative Business Experience (IBE) <http://ucmo.edu/IBEl>

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