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  • 1.  Team Based Learning

    Posted 06-14-2018 19:37

    I just attended a Team Based Learning (TBL) workshop.  I am intrigued by it and I wonder how well it will works with a stat class.  I teach professional MBA students and they had stats/math long time ago.  Needless to say, they are not thrilled about this class.  I am wondering if TBL is the answer.  I want to know if anybody tried it and how well does it work.  More importantly, are there any good resources that you would recommend.  Thanks.

     

    Rahu Parsa

    Ivey College of Business

    Iowa State University



  • 2.  RE: Team Based Learning

    Posted 06-15-2018 15:04
    I used TBLs with my graduate statistics class for Health Solutions students. I thought it worked very well, as it helped point out why they should conduct basic steps, such as normality testing, and what something such as a p-value truly means rather than simply relying on > or < .05.

    https://www.amazon.com/Team-based-Learning-Faculty-Health-Professions/dp/1496929292/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1529089313&sr=8-5&keywords=team+based+learning

    This book helped me get started. It has a section for Anatomy and Physiology (also useful) as well as Statistics. It's very straight-forward, providing only the basics.

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    Jonathan Kurka, PhD
    Sr. Research Analyst
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    Original Message


  • 3.  RE: Team Based Learning

    Posted 06-15-2018 15:40
    I use Team-Based Learning to teach my Statistical Collaboration courses and my Intro to Data Science. I love it as it focuses students on applying the material they learn (from the readings).

    I know of two colleagues at Duke Med Center and Iowa State who have used TBL to teach statistics. I could give you their info if you want.

    There are many thousands of papers online about TBL. I don't know of specific resources for teaching statistics using TBL. Check out teambasedlearning.org

    I read this book before I started using TBL 6.5 years ago: https://www.amazon.com/Team-Based-Learning-Transformative-College-Teaching/dp/157922086X

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    Eric Vance
    LISA-University of Colorado Boulder
    Associate Professor and Director
    Boulder CO, United States
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    Original Message


  • 4.  RE: Team Based Learning

    Posted 06-15-2018 15:47

    You asked about resources for team based learning. The journal, New Directions for Teaching and Learning, in Winter 2008 was solely dedicated to team based learning for college level classes and has some good resources and suggestions. If you can't get a hold of it through your university library and are interested, let me know.

     

    I currently teach a class that might be similar to yours in that it is for educational leaders with little/long ago math or stats classes. I use some components of team based teaching in that I have group quizzes (along with individual quizzes) and some group projects. I find that students are more engaged, but you do have to deal with groups sometimes that don't work well together-that is why I will often have different groups for different projects and allow for some form of peer feedback. TBL won't be "the" answer, but I do find that it helps with creating a more open classroom climate.

     

    Karen Moran Jackson

     

    Assistant Professor of Educational Psychology and Assessment

    The Graduate School

    Soka University of America

    Aliso Viejo, California

     

     




    Original Message


  • 5.  RE: Team Based Learning

    Posted 06-24-2018 13:59

    Hello Rahul.

     

    I'm a little late to the conversation.  I used TBL for the first time in my fall 2017 classes.  One class I used it in is a general education intro stats course taught to majors from across the university.  Class sizes were capped at 31 students.  I really enjoyed the format; it helped re-energize me in the classroom and really called on students to take ownership of their learning.  Here are a few items to consider:

     

    1. I used the book Getting started with team-based learning by Jim Sibley and Peter Ostafichuk, ISBN 978-1-62036-196-2 to inform myself about TBL and how to actualize it. In short, it is the most useful pedagogy book I have ever read.  It had the precise right balance between research on TBL, vignettes from practitioners in many disciplines, and nuts-n-bolts how-to.  The book walks you through the entire process of TBL, including detailed suggestions on how to develop materials for a TBL module.  I still refer to it often.

     

    1. I was fortunate to have a colleague who was interested in TBL also. Working together we developed materials for the class throughout summer 2017.  Having a partner to bounce ideas off and share the load in prep work is very helpful.  In addition, my colleague and I met throughout fall 2017 and winter 2018 to debrief each week and make notes on what we wanted to change in activities, RATs, etc.  Then, this summer we have been making changes.

     

    1. Developing materials is A LOT of work. Don't think you can dash off a good activity in an hour or so between classes.

     

    1. Don't expect universal student praise and buy-in. I was very conscious from the get-go to have the students understand why I was using TBL.  I never said a negative word about any aspect of TBL.  That doesn't mean I wasn't willing to adjust based on students feedback (I asked them at the 4 week mark for feedback), but I did not compromise on any of the basic tenets of TBL.  Some students will ask for more lecture or make the claim that the teacher isn't doing anything.  Be sympathetic to their complaints but be strong in why you are doing what you are doing.

     

    1. Err on the side of being too easy with RAT questions. Since you are teaching grad students you can probably get away with expecting more reading comprehension than I can in a gen ed stat class.  I found that at first go around I tended to ask questions on RATs that were a bit more than they could handle.  You'll learn what your students can handle as you move along.

     

    I've taught statistics classes for 25 years.  I have always enjoyed getting students actively involved. TBL has really helped me to let go of being the fount of all knowledge.  That is a sea change for faculty; it won't always be easy to do.  Please feel free to reach out if you want to chat more about it.  gabrosej@gvsu.edu

     

    Cheers, John



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    John Gabrosek
    Professor
    Grand Valley State University
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    Original Message


  • 6.  RE: Team Based Learning

    Posted 06-18-2018 14:19
    I have been using team learning in graduate courses for many years. 
    1. In graduate courses, I assign zero weight to assignments. I ask all students to work together and to tutor each other on doing all exercises, without any copying from each other. They are encouraged to ask questions of each other and to give hints and tips on how to solve the exercises. After they hand in their assignments (for zero weight), I will then post several student solutions and I ask the class to go through them and to critique and to learn from them. This approach helps students with weaker statistics background as they have the class as their support group. The students with stronger background become better mentors and teachers from such an approach. Of course, no help is given or is received in exams.

    2. In applied research: we have a two course sequence where during the first course all students do research together on one major project and they share all learning and information. They also double and triple check all work done. In the second course, each student works alone on a project, using the information learned (from team learning) in the first semester. 

    In both cases (above), the results have been very positive.

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    Raid Amin
    Professor
    University of West Florida
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    Original Message


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