Frequently Asked Questions

Will TBL work for my subject matter?

YES – This is one of the most common early questions. It starts with “I can see how this works in other disciplines, but not mine.” Doesn’t matter who I talk to….the Scientist can imagine it working in the Humanities…someone from the Humanities can imagine it working in Science. Let me assure you, it works in any discipline where you want the students to learn how to use the course content to solve problems. I think our addiction to content clouds our judgement and the incorrect belief that we won’t cover all that content versus the idea that we need to create conditions for students to learn the content is unsettling. I seen it work in subjects from glass blowing to computer aided surgery to auto mechanics. It works!

Can I still cover all the content?

YES – This is often a concern about any classroom activities that they will take time away from “covering the content.” Studies that have compared a TBL section to a didactic section have found the the TBL section can cover more material and the students perform better on examinations. Ironically, when surveyed the students still preferred the didactic section (by a small margin).

Haidet P., Richards B., Morgan R.O., Wristers K., Moran B.J. (2004) “A controlled trial of active versus passive learning strategies in a large group setting.” Adv Health Sci Ed, Volume 9 No. 1: 15-27

Is TBL right for everyone?

NOT FOR EVERYONE – TBL requires careful up front preparation. If you are a last minute person you probably will not do well in the TBL classroom. Students are sometime uncomfortable in their new active role and will happily blame your disorganization as the source of their pain. TBL requires you to give up your central role as expert and conveyer of knowledge, instead you create the correct conditions for learning by getting your students prepared and asking the right question the right way. Often the difference is described as “Sage on the Stage” versus “Guide on the Side”, but TBL is more like “Sage on the Side”. Your expertise and short clarifications at teachable moments is extremely important to deepen student learning.

Readiness Assurance

What are common student complaints about RATs?

Students will say “testing before teaching makes no sense” – you will hear it, if you don’t properly sell the idea of TBL and explicitly highlight the purpose of the Readiness Assurance Process. Which is low stakes tests that get students ready for the main course – learning how to apply the course content in the Application Activities.

Good student sometimes worry about lower grades on iRATs and voice these concerns. Our iRAT average is typically 65-70% and tRAT averages of 95-100%. Good students sometimes need to be reassured that the RAT’s don’t count for much, there focus is on learning, and the high team scores will pull up their RAT grades.

How often should I give RATs?

A common early mistake is to give too many RAP’s. Giving RAP’s tests every week is usually too often unless classes are long and only meet weekly. Typically we do a RAP every 2-3 weeks in a regular 13 week course. Remember the Readiness Assurance Process is just about getting students the minimum they need to begin problem solving. The students will learn plenty more during the Application Activities. In certain course configuration with long class meetings once a week, short readings and weekly RAP’s can make sense. Better to have too few, then too many – remember these aren’t about testing, there about getting your students ready for problem solving.

How much should the RATs count?

Not too much – If you assign a large grade to each RAP, you can turn it into high stakes testing. Assign just enough to make it worthwhile for students to do the readings and prepare. The typically range for a RAT is 2-5% for iRAT and 2-5% for tRAT. We have always used 1.5-2% for each RAT.

What kinds of questions are good questions for the RATs?

RAP questions are typically constructed at Bloom’s levels Remember, Understand and light Application. The RAP test highlight concepts more at a table of content level than index level. Remember these questions are just to get students ready for the activities that follow. These are not final summative tests of all that has been learned.

Application Activites

What makes a good application question?

Often questions that ask – pick the best course of action from a list of reasonable courses of action. You want the team to use large complex and incomplete data sets, be forced to use inference, make assumptions explicit and use measured judgements to arrive at that “simple” decision. These kinds of analysis can lead to powerful reporting conversations. Remember that the 4 S are not optional. People who are new to TBL, but not new to teamwork often create activities that don’t include some of the S’s. Don’t. The 4S structure lets you consistently generate great activities and reporting discussions. In the interview for my book, people with more TBL experience most often had greater fidelity to the 4S structure. The 4S framework gives you some structure to relax into. When a teachable moment comes by, you are often in a better position to capitalize on the opportunity.

What kinds of questions don’t work for application activities?

The most common problem is questions that are too simple. If a student can sit back and watch the brightest student in the groups solve the problem, many students will do exactly that. This unleashes all sorts of group dysfunction.

Should I grade application activities?

Depends. There is a diversity of opinion on this issue. We have never graded application activities, but we do collect a worksheet from each team after each one. We tell students that the only time we may look at these worksheet is when students are close and want the bump to the next higher letter grade. We have had no issues with students willingness to engage in ungraded application activities.

If you do grade the activities, you need clear deliverables and grading rubrics to accurately assess each teams submission. Many people have started with graded application because they worried that students would not engage with activities unless they were worth marks. This turn out to not be true and ungraded applications let you turn up the difficulty of the application without the backlash from students when they “get the answer wrong” on graded difficult applications. Remember, the goal here is a great reporting conversation, not getting the right answer.

Grades

What are common student concerns about grades?

In any kind of group work, students often have concerns that their grade depends on their less capable peers. That is one reason to keep the TBL portion of course grade modest. In most of our TBL courses, the TBL portion is only 25% and the other 75% is traditional things like individual assignments, midterms, and finals. In that 25% portion it is often 10% iRAT, 10% tRAT and 5% peer evaluation. If you have 5 modules with 5 Readiness Assurance Processes than individual iRATs are only worth 2% a time and tRATs are only worth 2% a time.

How do I handle student that don’t participate or “free ride”?

It is not a problem. This problem actually disappears when we get the task right. When an instructor comes to me with this problem, the first place we look for the source of the problem is the assignment itself. Team-Based Learning could easily be called decision based learning…teams are naturally pretty good at decisions (think of courtroom juries). Large product based assignments often spawn group dysfunction. If I am a C student and want a C at the end of the course and you are an A student…you are likely going to be unhappy with the quality I do….does the A student step in and redo the C students grade. This will likely make everyone in the group unhappy. Get the question right and everything seems to fall into place.

Is peer evaluation really necessary?

Absolutely – the peer evaluation process needs to have enough teeth that good students are rewarded for their work and students who don’t prepare as well or don’t contribute don’t benefit by the higher team grades.

Teams

How should I form teams?

Teams should be formed by instructor. You must resist student preference for student selected teams. The literature clearly shows that in the long term, criterion formed teams outperform student selected teams. When you create team you need to think about the student assets that you want to spread across all teams. Maybe each team should have someone with work experience, or someone who has lived overseas, or someone who speaks a second language. You need to think about who your students are and what each team will need to have to be successful. Information on the logistics of forming teams in small classes can be found here. Information on the logistics of forming teams in large classes can be found here.

Brickell, J.L., Porter, D.B., Reynolds, M.F., Cosgrove, R.D., (1994) Assigning Students to Groups for Engineering Design Projects: A Comparison of Five Methods. Journal of Engineering Education, 7:259-262

Can I use smaller teams of 3-4?

Team should be 5-7, really! This is counter-intuitive to most teachers experiences using groups where large teams mean some should can hide and do no work (known as social loafing). These bigger teams work when you ask the right kind of questions. When team tasks are product based, small teams are necessary to control social loafing. When team tasks are messy, authentic decisions, big teams work! The teams actually need the intellectual horsepower to solve these big teams.

When I conducted interviews for my book, I always asked question about team size and have your team always been that 5-7. I got a very consistent response. People were initially reluctant to use big teams, but on reflection pretty much said the same thing – if I had trouble with a team,it was a smaller team. I now believe in and use the bigger teams.

Should I mix the teams up periodically?

NO – when we first create groups of students there is considerable energy spent on “social overhead” as students work with other, begin to trust each other, recognize how to work together they cohere into a much more powerful team entity that spend a greater portion of their effort on task focused work. Mixing teams resets teams into groups and they have to cohere all over again .he literature points to 10-14 hours of task focused work to create high levels of team cohesion. The Readiness Assurance Process and Application Activities all foster team cohesion.

How do I handle students that insist on picking their own teams?

SAY NO – there are a few nice ways to handle this. First and foremost, have your words and rationales ready.

I refer students to: Brickell, J.L., Porter, D.B., Reynolds, M.F., Cosgrove, R.D., (1994) Assigning Students to Groups for Engineering Design Projects: A Comparison of Five Methods. Journal of Engineering Education, 7:259-262. I ask them to write a half page analysis of why the paper is wrong in recommending teacher formed groups. If I accept their arguments, I tell them I will let them self-select. No student has ever taken me up on this.

Laura Madson has a nice story she tells. There is a boyfriend and girlfriend on your team, they break up mid-semester – do want to be on that team?

Say NO to self-selection. Be ready for this question and stand your ground.

How do I resolve conflicts among team members?

With Team-Based Learning there often isn’t the kinds of conflicts you see with other forms of group work. Having teams focus on decisions and needing the defend why they made a particular decision really changes things. Give a well functioning TBL team and bad assignment and you will get dysfunction and conflict, but ask the right kinds of questions (decisions) the right way (4S) and there usually isn’t any conflicts that need managing by the teacher.

Logisitics

I teach large classes with inflexible seating – will TBL work?

YES – we have only done TBL in tiered lecture theatres with fixed seats. Our classes are 120-200 students. A few practices can really help things go smoothly. First, teams need to know where to sit, so we provide a classroom map that shows team locations and display it on the document camera. Second, team folders are a must. Load the team folders in your office with the day’s classrooms materials and have a representative from each team come to the front to pick up and drop off folders. Lastly, teams of six give you the best team shape. Teams with 5 or 7 students leave someone on the end.

My classes are 50 minutes – will TBL work?

YES – longer classes are better, but 50 minute classes are no problem. We sometimes shorten the RAP test to 10-12 question so we can do whole RAP process in one class. Other instructors stick with 20 questions and just do the iRAT and tRAT in one class and save appeals and mini-lecture for next day. Given a choice, go for longer classes. But 50 minute classes work just fine.

How much help will I need in the classroom to manage TBL?

Even in large classes we usually just have ONE teacher and sometimes ONE TA. By using team folders and having student representatives come pick up and drop off materials, the teacher does not need to get caught up in the logistics of distributing materials and instead focus on their class.

Can I cherry-pick and use only some components of TBL?

SORT OF, BUT IT IS RISKY – you can use some of the pieces, but it can be a little dangerous. People sometimes don’t hold true to the TBL frameworks like the steps of the Readiness Assurance Process or using all four S’s. This can lead to activities that fall flat and don’t achieve their objectives. Unfortunately often TBL gets blamed, not the effect of cherry-picking pieces. Using the whole TBL frameworks really do let you build and deliver consistently excellent learning events.

Early people often fall in love with the Readiness Assurance Process. I think just using the RAP is a mistake. The RAP is abut getting students ready for the main course – application activities. There is considerable synergy between the part of TBL and you and your students won’t benefit from it if you just dabble.

The other place you can get yourself in trouble is just converting one module to TBL just to try it out and minimize the risk. When students first encounter TBL there is considerable growing they likely need to do. They aren’t used to being active and actually being responsible for their own learning. They can change, but if they go through the trouble and you switch back to traditional delivery in next module, they can be unhappy. I recommend at least 2 two week modules to make it worthwhile for the students.