Dear All,
Thank you so much for your thoughtful and helpful responses. You have given
me some new ideas to consider.
Best,
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/people/directory/kathryn-j.-mcknight.html
From:
Team-Based Learning [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of
Gary Oliver
Sent: Wednesday, January 04, 2017 12:53 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Restructuring teams mid-way when social loafers dominate a team
Hi All
In 2016 I found for the first time several teams had one or two members who did little or no work and the student evaluations took the attack argument of the form I paid to be taught or This is too hard to learn. I considered several options including (a)
redoing the teams (b) pointing out team weaknesses (c) suggesting where learning should be focused, and (d) commenting that other teams had not the same non-preparation as well as some teams having members who were well prepared. I did (b)-(d). I felt doing
(a) would be unfair on the teams who were engaged with the material. All teams were briefed in week one on the class arrangements and during the semester I received positive feedback from students who recognised the benefit from being able to apply their knowledge.
My approach next semester will be to spend more time with teams when they are created and start operating in week 3 to reinforce the benefit for learning of being able to apply knowledge. In summary, I think we are moving into a phase where we have to sell
the Michaelsen version of TBL as students are being given flipped classroom without discriminating the benefits of the Michaelsen version of TBL
Warm regards/gary
From:
Team-Based Learning [[log in to unmask]] on behalf of Winter, Liz [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Wednesday, 4 January 2017 5:55 AM
To:
[log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Restructuring teams mid-way when social loafers dominate a team
Hello,
Most teams do sort themselves out well enough, though occasionally there are suboptimally functioning teams.
Formative peer evaluation may help this process and articulating the reasons for it carefully and giving the scores sufficient weight may underpin its importance. If you include the peer evaluation component, I wonder if moving it up earlier in the course
would be helpful – mine is typically midway through, with the summative peer evaluation at the end of the course.
Having a requirement that individuals need to have a certain mean score on their iRAT’s to access the tRAT helps
motivate good class preparation. I do not change teams partway through a course.
Good luck!
Liz Winter, Ph.D., LSW
Academic Coordinator and Clinical Assistant Professor
Child Welfare Education for Leadership Program
School of Social Work
University of Pittsburgh
2327 Cathedral of Learning
Pittsburgh, PA 15260
Phone: 412-648-2371
Fax: 412-624-1159
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From:
Team-Based Learning [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
On Behalf Of Michelle Walks
Sent: Tuesday, January 03, 2017 1:17 PM
To:
[log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Restructuring teams mid-way when social loafers dominate a team
Hello Kathryn!
After doing TBL for a few years (5 I think), I have found that what works best in my classroom is switching teams
up half way through the term. On one occasion I realized too late that there was a toxic group (2 people accusing each other of verbal abuse that blew up right before class one day in week 10), and also noticing other teams falling into "we know who will do
the work, so we don't need to, regardless of how it looks on peer evaluations". Switching teams up has been beneficial in breaking up cliques (clicks) that form, and also disrupts student apathy. I know this midterm team switch up goes against the typical
practice, but I have found it helps the effectiveness of the learning.
Good luck!
-Michelle
On Tue, Jan 3, 2017 at 10:08 AM, Kathryn McKnight <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
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
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