I would caution against talking about the specific application activity with the group that completed it early. My primary reason is that you run the risk of revealing what is your favorite answer. This may interfere with an unbiased class discussion in which all teams are simultaneously revealing a choice that they will need to defend against other teams. It is in the defense of a specific choice that you will learn how a group "actually did"... Peter Clapp Assistant Professor Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, School of Pharmacy Rueckert-Hartman College for Health Professions Regis University 3333 Regis Boulevard, H-28 Denver, CO 80221-1099 Office: (303) 625-1312 Fax: (303) 625-1305 -----Original Message----- From: Team-Based Learning [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Kontio, Ken Sent: Wednesday, November 20, 2013 2:13 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: Question about engaging with an early-finishing team I am always leery of a team that finishes much earlier than the others...averages being what they are and if the distribution of skill is equal, what did they do that was so efficient. For small differences I use usual sponge activities as you discussed. If they are still done early, I would think about sitting down with the group and talking about the actual assignment they finished and how they actually did. Perhaps a critical review of how and what they accomplished would help you understand something new about group dynamics and also shed some light on the utility of your assignment. The idea of giving one group "something extra" would not go over well in our medical school curriculum, as others will feel left out or disadvantaged and have concerns about what they missed (exam content etc.). It may even cause some of the teams to rush through their activities to be available for such in the future...hurting group dynamics an learning. I would say cover no extra material and students always have something to do if you give them a few minutes (we are a computer ?laptop based curriculum. Just some thoughts. Ken 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 Confidentiality Statement - The contents of this e-mail, including its attachment, are intended for the exclusive use of the recipient and may contain confidential or privileged information. If you are not the intended recipient, you are strictly prohibited from reading, using, disclosing, copying, or distributing this e-mail or any of its contents. If you received this e-mail in error, please notify the sender by reply e-mail immediately and permanently delete this e-mail and its attachments, along with any copies thereof. Thank you. Avis de confidentialité - Ce courriel, y compris ses pièces jointes, s'adresse au destinataire uniquement et pourrait contenir des renseignements confidentiels. Si vous n'êtes pas le bon destinataire, il est strictement interdit de lire, d'utiliser, de divulguer, de copier ou de diffuser ce courriel ou son contenu, en partie ou en entier. Si vous avez reçu ce courriel par erreur, veuillez en informer immédiatement l'expéditeur. puis effacez le courriel ainsi que les pièces jointes et toute autre copie. Merci. -----Original Message----- From: Team-Based Learning [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Mark Stevens Sent: Wednesday, November 20, 2013 1:42 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Question about engaging with an early-finishing team Hi all. TBL instructors often wonder what they should do when one team finishes a team exercise before the other teams. Like many of you, I try to think of an additional activity or question for the early finishers to work on while the other teams finish up. I tried something new yesterday that seemed to work well, but I have some concerns and wanted to see if you think my concerns are warranted. One team in my class yesterday finished much earlier than I was expecting, so I gave them a few additional tasks to work on while the other team continued working on the exercise. Once the early-finishing team had completed its additional tasks (and it was clear that the other team was still going to be working on the exercise for a while), I decided to sit down with the early-finishing team to debrief their work on the extra tasks. I enjoyed this debriefing session, and it kept the team members more engaged in the class and material than they otherwise would have been. I got to cover some non-essential but nevertheless relevant material with that team that I wouldn't have been able to cover in the post exercise discussion, because I knew there would only be time to discuss the essential material. Overall, I think this debriefing session was valuable for the early-finishing team. My concern, though, is whether it is problematic to spend time chatting with one time while the other team is working on the exercise. I don't think our chatting was a distraction to the still-working team, but the team that I chatted with had an opportunity to "learn more" than the team that was still working, which could be viewed as "unfair". On the other hand, more learning is arguably better than less learning, even if the the "more learning" is unevenly distributed across the students. Does anyone have any thoughts on this issue? Thanks, Mark -- Mark Stevens, PhD, MCIP Assistant Professor, School of Community & Regional Planning University of British Columbia 223-1933 West Mall Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z2, Canada SCARP bio: http://www.scarp.ubc.ca/people/mark-stevens Planning Evaluation Lab: http://www.planningevaluationlab.ca 604-822-0657