Some Formative Results

After using TBL for a semester, I was able to look at some data and draw certain conclusions. This is from August, 2011:

The readings I have done while blogging led me to significantly change my teaching technique, as I began using team-based learning in my Writing 1311 classes in January, 2011. Now I am able to look back at the Spring 2011 semester and begin assessing the impact of team-based learning, at least informally.
Since the Fall 2008 semester, I have unofficially surveyed my writing students about my teaching strategies. Here are the questions I have asked:

• Question 1: Reading: Indicate your agreement with the following statement: “Mr. Woodward’s use of reading assignments contributed to my development of writing skills.”
• Question 2: Ideas: Indicate your agreement with the following statement: “Mr. Woodward’s emphasis on ideas (thesis and reasons) as the building blocks of essays contributed to my development of writing skills.”
• Question 3: Grading: Indicate your agreement with the following statement: “The bases for Mr. Woodward’s grading of my papers is clear to me before and after I turn them in”
• Question 4: Engagement: Indicate your agreement with the following statement: “The class is engaging (i.e., it requires my involvement and is stimulating).”
• Question 5: Group Activities: Indicate your agreement with the following statement: “Working in small groups with classmates has been productive and helpful.”

When I compare survey results from Fall 2010 (the most recent non-TBL semester) and Spring 2010 (the first TBL semester), I find some notable numbers:

• •Q1: 5% more students (74% total) agreed or agreed strongly that use of readings  increased their writing skills.
  •Q2: 8% more students (52% total) agreed strongly that emphasis on ideas increased their writing skills.
  •Q3: 18% more students (81% total) agreed or agreed strongly that they understood the bases for their grades.
  •Q4: 14% more students (64% total) agreed or agreed strongly that the class was engaging.
  •Q5: 21% more students (40% total) agreed strongly that group activities were helpful and productive.

My principal goals when I began using TBL were to increase student engagement (Question 4) and and the effectiveness of group activities (Question 5). It is good to see evidence that TBL can help instructors work toward a variety of pedagogical goals, such as integrating reading, emphasizing ideas, and helping students to understand how they are evaluated.
I consider these results formative, as they take into account just one semester of using team-based learning. I hope to see a continuation of the upward trend in student engagement and other factors.

Relinquishing Control

Here are some thoughts from 2011, 2.5 months into the grand TBL experiment:
Team-based learning is not for every faculty member. It takes a certain temperament. Faculty who are comfortable with students, who are willing and able to speak and act informally in a classroom setting, will find the transition to team-based learning relatively trouble-free. Faculty who already have their students work in groups during class will find team-based learning simply allows them to give more emphasis to collaboration.
Perhaps fifteen years ago, I taught for the first time in a computer lab staffed by an educational technologist (at another institution). I had to get accustomed to the presence of a non-student, a colleague who would be there listening to me as I taught, who would at times step in and assist students during class. With team-based learning, I have had to make another adjustment. There are times when the students are working productively in teams, and I have (dare I say it?) nothing to do. Well, not quite nothing--I keep tabs on the teams, ready to visit them when they have questions that no one in the team can answer. Often I work on handouts for the upcoming weeks or the next readiness assessment test, mainly so that I can keep busy while I wait for the students to finish teaching one another.
Like all faculty, I have a territorial instinct when I am teaching, that old this-is-my-classroom, this-is-my-class-period feeling, and only a certain amount of tolerance for straying off-topic/off-purpose. But team-based learning is teaching me to loosen up.