Dear Rich,
I teach a large lecture section of Principles of Biology for biology majors (introductory freshman major’s biology course). My course design involves TBL. However,
I also use personal answer devices (clickers) for students to individually respond to questions throughout class. Student responses are collected in a digital grade book as a cumulative grade for each class session; this grade counts as 5% of students’ final
grades in the course as a class participation grade. The clicker technology has many advantages such as encouraging active learning, facilitating student-teacher interaction, aiding in formative assessment, promoting higher order thinking (if used well), and
giving students personal accountability. You may want to consider adding this tool to your TBL course to encourage preparation and on-time attendance.
Best regards, Sandra
Sandra L. Westmoreland, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of Biology
Texas Woman's University
Denton, Texas 76204
(940) 898-2560
From: Team-Based Learning [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
On Behalf Of Richard Woodward
Sent: Wednesday, June 05, 2013 4:23 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Preparation, Attendance, and on-time arrival
I've used a TBL structure for my environmental economics class three times and would like to consult the group regarding two difficulties I've been having.
First, students are not preparing well enough for the RATs.
My class is divided into 5 modules, each of which starts with a RAT. Students are required to watch 2-3 videos I've prepared and read several chapters prior to each RAT.
I find that students are entirely unaccustomed to this and, as seen in the analytics of the videos, they tend to try to do all of their preparation within the 24 hour period prior to each RAT. Obviously they see the consequences of this in their grades and
I am constantly reminding them to get started early; but their tendency to not prepare early seems to show little if any improvement as the semester goes on.
Second, my class is offered at 8:00 a.m. and late arrivals and absences are a problem.
To instill a greater sense of responsibility, I require the teams to create a contract at the beginning of each semester and I have them take care of their own attendance.
But unless there was a RAT or test, by the end of the semester about 50% of the seats were empty at 8:00. While the early arrivers complain and comments do show up in the peer evaluations, peer pressure does not seem to be sufficient to have much effect.
My idea
to address both of these issues is to have 5-minute team quizzes at the start of each non-RAT class. The quiz would cover either the material for a class (usually a short
reading) or a very easy question over part of the material for the next module to keep them on schedule with their readings.
I would greatly appreciate suggestions on alternative solutions or comments on my proposal.
Rich Woodward
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Richard T. Woodward, Department of Agricultural Economics
Texas A&M University, 2124 TAMU
College Station, TX 77843-2124
Office #: AGLS 210M e-mail:[log in to unmask]
Phone #: 979-845-5864 Fax #: 979-845-4261
Homepage:
http://agecon2.tamu.edu/people/faculty/woodward-richard/,
http://resourceeconomics.tamu.edu/
Assistant: Michele Zinn 979-845-2333