OZARKA COLLEGE

Eating an Elephant

One Bite at a Time

This week we look at two more team building, collaborative learning approaches to teaching complex subjects. It would be easy to add time limits and bonus points to create a competitive game.

Structured Problem Solving - Members of learning teams are usually composed of four individuals. The teacher poses a question or problem requiring higher order thinking skills. Students discuss the question or solve the problem, making certain that every group member can summarize the group's discussion or can explain the problem. Sponges or extensions with additional content-related problems or activities are particularly important here for teams working faster than others. The instructor calls a specific member and the designated team members (Aces, Spades, Clubs, or Diamonds) respond as group spokespersons. To avoid repetition, the instructor will usually ask for responses from only three to six groups. The desired learning will already have occurred. In this activity, students benefit from the verbalization, from the opportunity to exchange differing perspectives, and from the peer coaching that helps high and low achievers, alike.

Team Teaching Points This is another game. We usually start the game 5-10 minutes before class and the first 5-10 minutes of class. The class has been previously divided into teams (usually four teams). These teams should work together for about two weeks and then new teams are formed .We like the ease of the playing cards technique for forming teams. Before class the instructor put 7-12 questions/problems on the board. The teams work together to teach each other and answer the problems. Each person in the team needs to truly understand each question on the board. When class starts, we use the deck of cards to pick the people who will answer. We shuffle after every turn so that the other students are always focused. The person whose card was picked has to do the problem at the board, verbalizing his/her the thinking process, not just giving the answer. This teaches them that you have to understand it to get the point for your team, not just write the correct answer. Also, I often ask them "Why did you do that?" and "What made you decide to do it that way? These answers have to be answered to my satisfaction or the team member doesn't get the point for his/her team. Every two weeks we have reward day. Each member of the winning team gets 10 extra points and the runners-up get 5. When the team members are working out the answers together, we always see peer tutoring and active learning taking place. (Estes, B.)

If you have time and don't want to wait for the next bite, you can find the rest of the toolbox in myOzarka under the "Ozarka Resources" tab.

Or you can follow this link:

https://www.ozarka.edu/files/resources/teachingtoolbox.doc

I will be posting each section in the Student Success Center Blog. So if you are interested in checking out "back bites," you can find them there.

Or you can follow this link:
https://www.ozarka.edu/blogs/success/index.cfm/Weekly-Postings-for-Faculty-

Hope you enjoyed it.