Hi Heather,

 

First, students complain about whatever format you use not matter how much you bend over backwards to try to make it exciting, fair, interesting, relevant, or whatever else you do.  So, make them stick with it and just slowly figure out how to tweak so it works best for your students and for you.

 

For a variety of reasons, I have adapted the full TBL format – including about 1 lecture a week with the testing system and activities in class.  My lectures are rarely straight lecture though – involving students by asking questions, going to web pages, or having some short activities.  I am in sociology so many of my RATS are focused on readings that have been done.  I generally do not use text books but academic journal articles which they do struggle with.  So, I have adapted. 

 

First, since I normally have 50 minute classes, I have shifted the I-RAT  to being done on line before the class period.  They generally do not do great on those of course but one thing that I have done that helped a lot is to have a practice quiz on the readings only that is all true / false questions and they can take that as many times as they want.  I then use a selection of these questions modified into multiple choice for their I-RAT and a different set of similar questions for the T-RAT.  So, they do not have the SAME questions for the I-RAT and T-RAT but it allows me the time to let them discuss their T-RAT questions and answers fully and have time to discuss the problems in class within a 50 minute period. 

 

One other thing I have started doing in bringing in data from my TBL classes and traditional classes.  They all assume that since the RATs are so hard (and lower scores than they are used to) that they will not do well in the course.  It is of course the opposite – with significantly higher final grades than my traditional courses.  That makdes them go a little quiet about how hard the class is.

 

Good luck!

 

Stacey Nofziger

 

From: Team-Based Learning [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Heather Lerner
Sent: Thursday, September 10, 2015 11:34 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: first RAT of the term

 

We are having the same problem in a first year intro Ecology course. Some students have asked us to just lecture at them because they are tired of doing badly on the iRATs, I guess. They say they don't know what to study out of the textbook when we assign it before the iRAT. They want us to give them a handout of exactly what to know. I feel like they need to build life-long learning skills of how to prepare for a 10-12 question quiz in a class on basic concepts. Here is the guide we gave them for how to study:

 

 

Here are some tips for how to prepare for RATs using the textbook:

 

You should be able to define any vocabulary terms in bold and use them correctly.

 

For each section of the text that has a heading in bold black letters (these sections are usually ½ page to 2 pages in length), be able to write a sentence summarizing the main take-home point.

 

For each figure in the text, you should be able to interpret the figure and explain it in your own words.

 

It would be great to hear from others how to encourage these students are doing so poorly on the iRAT and are uncertain how to study. Note: we also offer a study session for two hours the night before the quiz, staffed with TAs 

 

On Thu, Sep 10, 2015 at 11:05 AM, Neil Haave <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

First the context: this is a first year course for majors and non-majors in biological function. Most of the students are either majoring in biology or intending to enter a professional program in the health sciences.


My question: How have people on this list handled the huge disappointment that happens with the first RAT of the first term in freshman courses?

This is typically students' very first university quiz as I start right after the first week of setting up the course structure with the first TBL module. This past weekend I gave students their reading assignment complete with reading guide (key objectives and keywords matched to the pages and figure numbers in the text book). Then they wrote their first RAT yesterday. I received fairly typical results I think except that the iRAT score were lower then I had hoped.

Inline images 1

 

Inline images 2

 

It breaks my heart when I hear stories from students during the tRAT and after class that they studied 10-15 hrs and made 10-15 pages of notes over the long weekend only to receive an iRAT mark of 2/10. They had such energy at the start of the term last week. Now I think I have killed it.

How do the rest of you manage this sort of disappointment and help students regain their spirit for learning (and mine for teaching!)? I suspect the issue is that many of these excellent students (and I have no doubt they achieved excellence in high school) simply were able to excel in high school without developing good study, reading, and note-taking skills. I have a couple of excellent senior students who will be coming into class tomorrow to explain how they read and take notes. I hope that helps.

I would love to hear the collective wisdom of the TBLC.

Thanks very much.

Neil


Neil Haave, PhD

Associate Professor, Biology

Managing Editor, CELT

Vice-President, AIBA

 

University of Alberta, Augustana Faculty

Rm C155, Science Wing, Classroom Building, Augustana Campus

4901 - 46 Avenue, Camrose, AB, CANADA   T4V 2R3

 

 

"We do not learn from experience . . . we learn from reflecting on experience" - John Dewey

 

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--

Heather

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Heather R. L. Lerner, Ph.D., M.S.
Joseph Moore Museum Director
Assistant Professor of Biology
Earlham College
801 National Road West
Richmond IN 47374

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http://heatherlerner.com/
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