Dear Colleagues,

I have been using TBL for 10+ years and love it.

This past fall for the first time, I ended up with one team that had two brilliant, dedicated students and four non-readers, three of whom barely spoke in class. That was a first for me. The class is an advanced UG course in Spanish American literature that fulfills a requirement for the major. I considered reshuffling teams, but after checking in with the two really dedicated students I felt they were willing to take on the challenge. They ended up learning and growing tremendously and they didn't resent the team, although they did express some discontent in their team evaluations. Still, they could have had a much richer learning experience had I reshuffled. I met with the other fours students to try to motivate them, but it never took hold. Two didn't have the skills to read well; two didn't have the priorities.

I feel I got lucky that the two dedicated students were such good sports. But, thinking about it for next time.... Is there ever a time you have decided to reshuffle teams after the first week or two because the random/diversity-distribution team-formation process just didn't turn out well? And, relatedly, are there questions you have found you can ask in the team-creating process that get at characteristics related to social-loafing tendencies without straight-out asking for students' past grades or study habits?

Thanks!
Kathy

Kathryn McKnight
Associate Professor
Department of Spanish and Portuguese
MSC 03 2100
1 University of New Mexico
Albuquerque, NM 87131-0001
Department: (505) 277-5907
http://spanport.unm.edu/about/people/kathryn-mcknight.html


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