Team-Based Learning: Small Group Learning's Next Big Step

CAUTION: Group assignments can and, all too often, do more harm than good. The most common sign of trouble is when students (especially the better ones) feel like they must choose between doing more than their fair share of the work or risk getting a bad grade. When that happens, the real cause usually isn't the students—it's almost always what the teacher is asking them to do. In addition, even if the end product is a good one, a high percentage of students will leave the experience with negative feelings about the value of group work.

In this session, you will be introduced to an instructional strategy, called Team-Based Learning, that virtually eliminates the most common problems with learning groups and that has been used successfully, with students ranging from middle school through doctoral seminars, in hundreds of disciplines and in classes of up to 400 students.