Back on December 15, 2010, I posted the following to Spirit of Inquiry:

Who’s Using Team-Based Learning?

Wednesday, December 15th, 2010

As I prepare to transmogrify (that’s right, transmogrify) my teaching strategy for English 1311 to team-based learning (TBL), I wonder who else on campus is using TBL. I know that Rhoda Reddix and others teaching pharmacology use it, but I would like to hear from others. Speak up if you adhere to Michaelsen’s “Four Essential Principles of Team-Based Learning”:

• “Principle 1: Groups Must Be Properly Formed and Managed”: The instructor forms diverse, permanent groups of 5-7 students, making every effort to ensure that “member resources” (assets such as work experience and previous course work; liabilities such as negative attitude, lack of experience/courses; as well as cultural factors such as gender and ethnicity) are evenly distributed (28-30).
• “Principle 2: Students Must Be Made Accountable”: The instructor designs the course so that students have obligations to their teammates (as well as their usual obligations to themselves and to the instructor). Students are evaluated on the basis of the preparation for class, their contributions to the team, and their team’s collaborative work (as well as on the basis of individual work) (30-32).
• “Principle 3: Team Assignments Must Promote Both Learning and Team Development”: The instructor designs collaborative activities that require student teams to make group decisions based on input from every team member. The instructor avoids creating activities that allow groups to divvy up the work and work independently (32-33).
• “Principle 4: Students Must Receive Frequent and Immediate Feedback”: Students must know whether they prepare well for class, how well their teams perform on collaborative activities, and how well they perform on individual tasks. Feedback should be “immediate, frequent, and discriminatory (i.e., enables learners to clearly distinguish between good and bad choices, effective and ineffective strategies, etc.)” (33-35).

Keep in mind these possibilities:

1. You have read Michaelsen and are fully committed to TBL.
2. You have been using (or moving toward) TBL without calling it that or doing much research on it.
3. You have colleagues who use TBL.
4. You think TBL sounds good.
5. You think acronymns are annoying and TBL stands for “That’s Buh-Loney.”

Wherever you stand, I’d like to see your comments.