"Students learn best in classrooms that incorporate active learning and other learning science-based principles.”
- ‘From Strategic Learning: A Holistic Approach to Studying’
Education systems often rely on passive forms of learning, such as direct instruction and memorisation, rather than incorporating active learning and other learning science-based principles. To introduce students to team-based learning, educators can employ a first-day question activity to start a dialogue with their students. The first-day question activity is essential for getting student buy-in to why active learning strategies are effective in promoting learning. Without this introductory dialogue, students may not understand the expectations of coming to class prepared, working with peers, and completing various team activities.
According to the paper titled First-Day Questions for the Learner-Centered Classroom, you can ask the following three questions to your students to start the conversation:
Q1: Thinking of what you want to get out of your college education and this course, which of the following is most important to you?
- Acquiring information (facts, principles, concepts)
- Learning how to use information and knowledge in new situations and real-world scenarios.
- Developing lifelong learning skills
Q2: Of these three goals, which do you think you can make headway on outside of class by your own reading and studying, and which do you think would be best achieved in the class working with your classmates and me?
Most students might respond that acquiring information is the easiest to do alone and that the other two goals seemed more complicated and would profit from peer and instructor influence.
The last question you can then ask your students is:
Q3: How do they think they can best achieve goals 2 and 3?
According to the book titled Tools for Teaching (Davis, 1993), students learn best when they take an active role:
- When they discuss what they are reading
- When they practice what they are learning
- When they apply practices and ideas
Depending on the course context and the learning objectives, you might consider asking your students the following questions as well:
Q. What goal do you want to achieve out of your college degree/course module?
- To master the content
- To apply knowledge gained to real-world scenarios
- To become life-long learners
- To develop interpersonal and team interaction skills
- To become employable
According to Larry Michaelsen, the creator of Team-based Learning methodology, it is important that you regularly and openly describe your rationales for using TBL with your students. A good starting point is to review the overall course objectives with the class. Michaelsen would start his class by sharing the following learning objectives with his students:
- Ensure that students master the course subject matter
- Develop student ability to use course concepts in thinking and problem-solving
- Prepare students to be life-long learners
- Develop students’ interpersonal and team interaction skills
- Have students enjoy the course
Q. According to you, what skills/abilities do employers expect a college graduate to have?
According to WEF, critical thinking and problem-solving top the list of skills that employers believe will grow in prominence. The top future skills will be in four main areas: problem-solving, self-management, working with people, and technological skills.
These questions could be great dialogue starters with your students. Now is your time to introduce your students to the science behind learning and the team-based learning methodology.
