TEAM BASED LEARNING

TBL Traditional Teaching to TBL  3 important distinctions 1.course objectives change -> Shift from familiarisation of concepts to usage of concepts 2.Teacher role & function changes 3.Role & function of student changes Michaelsen & Sweet, 2008

FOUR ESSENTIAL PRINCIPLES OF TBL 1.Groups must be properly formed & managed 2.Students must be accountable for individual and group work 3.Group assignments must promote both learning & team development 4.Students must have timely feedback When these are in place : groups of students evolve into cohesive learning teams

TBL PRINCIPLE 1 : GROUP FORMATION Groups must be properly formed & managed  Teacher decides composition of group  Heterogenous as possible and equal balance of student skills & limitations- as well as reducing potential barriers – ex. Girlfriends etc.  Groups are permanent-allows group to form and eliminates group dominancy overtime in favour of achieving group success  Groups should be large & diverse- 5-7 members

TBL PRINCIPLE 2: STUDENT ACCOUNTABILITY Accountability for individual pre-class preparation (Readiness Assurance Process IRAT) multiple-choice questionnaire Contribution to team – additional answer sheet & re-take same test-each student must defend each answer- also Peer Assessment- attending meetings etc. & give grade to each member High Quality Team Performance – ‘Product’ which can be compared in frequent & timely manner – need a teacher created standardised grading format.

TBL PRINCIPLE 3: ASSIGNMENT PROMOTES LEARNING & TEAM DEVELOPMENT Choose appropriate assignment that truly promotes ‘ group interaction’ Outcomes such as oral presentations/ lengthy documents lead to social loafers & individual dominancy Assignments that require groups to make decisions & enable them to report decisions in simple form will usually generate high levels of group interaction Michaelsen & Sweet, 2008

TBL PRINCIPLE 4: FREQUENT & TIMELY FEEDBACK RAT- team & individual held accountable  Publicly shared & motivates to protect public image  Can identify individual member problems Application focused team assignments  More difficult to do  Evaluating higher-level learning skills as opposed to student’s understanding of basic concepts  Easier when simple output is provided- questionnaire Michaelsen & Sweet, 2008

TBL: 4 PRINCIPLES Conditional on extent to which students are 1.Motivated to prepare for groupwork 2.Willing to engage in discussion  Cohesiveness, Trust, Motivation needed to transform groups into effective learning teams.  Adhering to the 4 principles will achieve this. Michaelsen, 2004

IMPLEMENTING TBL Needs overall course re-design Decisions & design of activities at 4 different points in time  1) before class begins  2) 1 st day of class  3) each major unit of instruction  4) near the end of the course

COURSE RE-DESIGN : 1) BEFORE CLASS BEGINS  Partition course into 4-7 macro-units  Form the basis for course objectives, RAT assessment & application- focused assignment  Consist of 2-4 chapters / number of bundled readings on overall conceptual theme  Identify instructional goals & objectives  2 types of objectives : know the knowledge, what to do with the knowledge “What do I want students to be able to do at the end of the course?”  Design the grading system  Individual  Peer  Team performance  Let them decide on weighting

COURSE RE-DESIGN : 1 ST DAY OF CLASS Accomplish 4 objectives of TBL TBL is quite different and needs motivated students  Explain why & how course will procede  Give presentation on how TBL works & why it is better  Give demonstration of RAT, perhaps based on course outline  Alleviate concerns about grades and let them input into ‘Setting Grade Weights”

COURSE RE-DESIGN: EACH MAJOR UNIT OF INSTRUCTION Each in-class goal should contribute to 2 major education goals  Understanding of course content  Increase group cohesiveness to allow groups to successfully develop into self-managed learning teams

COURSE RE-DESIGN: EACH MAJOR UNIT OF INSTRUCTION Michaelsen, 2004

COURSE RE-DESIGN: EACH MAJOR UNIT OF INSTRUCTION Michaelsen, 2004

COURSE RE-DESIGN: EACH MAJOR UNIT OF INSTRUCTION Team Folders & development of positive team norms  Teams will only develop once 2 norms firmly established 1) pre- class preparation 2) class attendance  On-going record of teams attendance, RAT scores and team assignment scores

COURSE RE-DESIGN: NEAR THE END OF TERM Brief Review of course content  1 page of course concepts – militates danger of forgetting learning as little of class is dedicated to initial concept knowledge Understanding course content-  teachers need to provide expert advice and help students review & integrate what they have learned.  Can be achieved by assignments where students apply overall knowledge Learning about value of teams  Can be achieved by tracking course scores and evaluating performance even against initial best performer in the group.  Studies show weakest teams will perform better than the initial best performer in the class Recognise effective team interaction  Reflection / paper analysis comparing original views of team or effective barriers to development or even personal log along the way Learning about themselves  well designed peer-review process  Reflection papers

BENEFITS OF TEAM LEARNING Large classes Increased social support for various types of ‘at risk’ students Development of interpersonal skills Building and maintaining an enthusiasm for teaching