Interact at the Center

Team-Based Learning

Instructors can have a less than easy time trying to implement teaching strategies that are outside of certain methods, like lecturing.  There are other effective alternatives to lecturing, however.  One of these alternatives is group learning, which has its merits.  Team-Based Learning is also one of these alternatives that is growing in momentum and offers significant opportunities for student learning.  Recenetly, the Center hosted a workshop facilitated by Dr. Karen Sirum (Biological Sciences) to introduce TBL to BGSU faculty.

Team-Based Learning is a systematic method for helping students work in groups and learn together.  Its supporters believe that the benefits attached to TBL are well worth the time it takes to learn how to implement the method.  Moreover, TBL’s proponents are saying that it is an excellent way of supplementing their other methods for teaching that have been helpful for their students’ learning.

According to its supporters, TBL has been structured to help student learning in group settings and, almost as importantly, has accountability built into it.  Before trying this method with students plans need to be made, which include partitioning the course content into macro-units, identifying the instructional goals and objectives, and designing a grading system.  Later, in class, there are more methodical instructions on correctly implementing TBL.  Please see Introduction to Team-Based Learning and Getting Started with Team-Based Learning to read why and how you can try TBL for yourself.

There is an entire website dedicated to TBL that we invite you to visit.  The site has video examples, professional testimonies from people who have tried it and a number of other resources.  Please take a look at the site to learn about the “buzz” surrounding Team-Based Learning.

April 3rd, 2009

Disruptive Technologies or New Pedagogical Possibilities

This presentation, “Disruptive Technologies or New Pedagogical Possibilities” by Grainne Conole was delivered at the Eduserv Foundation Symposium 2008, in London, England.  In this video, Conole discusses how Web 2.0 has changing our learning and teaching paradigms.  She discusses how we need to develop new models to understand the relationship between pedagogy and technology.

In order to understand the pedagogical implications of Web 2.0 tools, she explores three case studies: Learning Design, Openlearn and SocialLearn.

To read a related article by Grainne Conole please click here.

After watching this video, do you think we must develop new pedagogies that involve Web 2.0 tools?

March 11th, 2009

Learning Styles

It’s no secret that people learn in different ways. The key to success in teaching is realizing that people learn differently and finding ways to incorporate different learning styles into our classes.  Recently, we held a workshop titled Pragmatic Practices for Teaching Assistants, Learning Styles that addressed how to assess learning styles and how to make our students aware of and responsible for their own learning styles.

In a paper titled Student Learning Styles and Their Implications for Teaching, authors Susan Montgomery and Linda Groat discuss the importance of recognizing learning styles and offered several different ways to assess these styles.  Among the learning style models that they covered are the Myers-Briggs Model and the Kolb/McCarthy Learning Cycle. The authors also provide useful tips to engage students with different types of learning styles in your classes. These tips include using both group and independent work, requiring in-class presentations and providing less direction to students.

To read the rest of the article please click here.

How do you engage students in your classes that have different learning styles?

February 26th, 2009