Student Teams Can Transform Learning — A Special Workshop by Larry Michaelsen

How do student groups learn to function as teams? How do we create the conditions that accelerate this transition? These questions will be the subject of ITLAL workshops by Larry Michaelsen on May 8. Author of Team-Based Learning: A Transformative Use of Small Groups in College Teaching and Team-Based Learning for the Health Professions, Dr. Michaelsen has received many awards nationally for his pioneering work in applied organizational psychology and behavior. He holds a PhD in Organizational Psychology from the University of Michigan, and is a David Ross Boyd Professor Emeritus at the University of Oklahoma. He currently serves as Professor of Management at Central Missouri State University, and is a Carnegie Scholar, a Fulbright Senior Scholar, and former Editor of the Journal of Management Education. His method for teaching with small groups is now being used in nearly every academic discipline, on over 200 campuses in the US and abroad. He is also an extremely engaging presenter. Please join us to explore “student collaboration” taken to its highest level. Reservations required: 442-5521 or teachingandlearning@albany.edu.

Schedule of Events for Thursday, May 8
10:00 AM – 12:30 PM: Getting Beyond Covering Content
12:30 PM – 1:00 PM: Lunch (Reservations, please)
1:00 PM – 3:30 PM: Designing Group Work that Really Works

Location: Assembly Hall, Campus Center

Reservations required: 442-5521 or teachingandlearning@albany.edu.

10:00 AM Getting Beyond Covering Content
This workshop will: 1) demonstrate a Readiness Assurance Process that enables instructors to use the vast majority of class time for developing students’ higher-level thinking and problem solving skills without reducing coverage of course concepts and, 2) familiarize participants with a small-group based instructional format, Team-Based Learning (TBL), which has consistently resulted in high performance, attendance and student satisfaction in a wide range of content areas and class sizes of 150+ students. Following the demonstration, discussions will explore additional issues and concerns about using groups including:

• How to ensure coverage of basic content in less than a third of the time required for lectures by creating incentives for pre-class preparation and opportunities for peer teaching.
• How to build groups into learning teams with norms that promote high levels of individual preparation, content engagement and class attendance.
• Coping with the mechanics (e.g. physical layout, materials and exams, classroom procedures, grading, etc.).

1:00 PM Designing Group Work that Really Works
During this session, attendees will participate in a series of activities that: 1) demonstrate why group assignments often result in social loafing (uneven participation) in learning groups and, 2) highlight three key variables that must be managed to create broad-based member participation and learning. In addition, the session will explore related issues and concerns about using groups including:

• How to design effective group assignments for teaching higher level thinking and problem solving skills.
• Why well-designed assignments are the key to ensuring fairness in grading of group work.
• How to deal with contextual problems such as large classes, classrooms designed for lectures–not group work, resistance from traditionally focused students, faculty peers, and administrators.

Please contact our office if you will be joining us for either or both sessions and lunch: (518)442-5521 or teachingandlearning@albany.edu.