Derek Murray

Thanks Heather. The "speed" is a challenge for me, as I am usually trying to cram too many activities into a three-hour class.

Hi Heather,

Thanks for the feedback! In general, I agree that some advance knowledge of the questions is a good idea. What do you think about it in this specific case though? Should I provide the questions in advance even though they won't have seen the marked exam yet? I suppose even without the marked exam they can still answer some of the reflection prompts.

I should say also that this won't be the first time they've been asked to reflect in this way. The questions are slightly different, but this is something we do on a weekly basis. In your experience, does the anxiety still exist after multiple iterations of the same kind of activity? In other words, is it the idea of reflecting that causes the anxiety? Or is it the specific questions that they are being asked to consider?

Thanks again. Good question!

Derek

This is very practical for me since this activity will be happening on Thursday! Students in my class (HIST 209 - History of Aboriginal Peoples in Canada) wrote their midterm exam last week, and I will be handing back the graded exams this week.

Context

• The course is structured using the Team-Based Learning model, so students are in the same teams every week.
  
• The class meets once per week in a 3-hour block. There are 35 students.
  
• Very little class time is spent lecturing (about 15-20% usually) and most of the time is spent in guided team activities.
  
• Most of their discussions happen in their regular teams, though there are always full class discussions and sometimes I have them discuss things outside their teams using Impromptu Networking, 1-2-4-All, or similar strategies.
• Half of the students are multi-lingual learners, primarily from South Asia, many in their first semester in Canada, and the other half are mostly students from the Lower Mainland, many of whom are in teacher-track programs.

Current Version of Activity

Usually after a midterm I have students do a reflection activity that is either a variation on 3-2-1, or something that looks like this:

• First: What was the most important theme or concept that you learned about in the first half of the course? Why?
  • (1) Take a minute to write down your response. (2) Share with a partner. (4) Create groups of 4 [variation: go back to your team] and make rationale for a consensus choice. (ALL) Defend your choice to the class and discuss.
  
  
• Second: What did you do before the exam that helped you succeed? Share in your teams. Then, choose one new strategy that you will implement in preparing for the final exam. [Teams then discuss and share back their key takeaways to the class.]
  

I am trying to think of a way to enhance the metacognitive aspect of this activity, or to change it completely if necessary. I've found this does generally work well in other non-TBL courses, but I am curious if there is a way to leverage TBL to make it even more effective. The reading from Joseph Ball ("Connect-Extend-Challenge") helped to shape my thinking on this question, and I am building off the "Five Tips" article by John Spencer, specifically the "Integrate Self-Assessment" part.

Revised Version of Activity

• First [no change to this part]: What was the most important theme or concept that you learned about in the first half of the course? Why?
  • (1) Take a minute to write down your response. (2) Share with a partner. (4) Create groups of 4 [variation: go back to your team] and make rationale for a consensus choice. (ALL) Defend your choice to the class and discuss.
  
  
• Second: Start by answering the following questions [write or type responses]:
  • Which parts of the exam did you do well on? Why? (i.e. what study strategies did you use to prepare?)
  • Which parts of the exam did you do poorly on? Why? (i.e. what was missing in your study strategy?)
  • How much better do you want to do on the final exam? (i.e. make a specific goal, e.g. B+ instead of C+)
  • Start, stop, continue: What is one thing you will start doing, one thing you will stop doing, and one thing you will continue doing in order to reach your goal?
    
  • Share in your teams. Then, choose one new strategy that you will implement in preparing for the final exam. [Teams then discuss and share back their key takeaways to the class.]
    

Is that too many questions? Or is it manageable? I usually give about 30 minutes in class for this whole activity. I am attaching two slides that will be used to provide instructions. All of your feedback is very much appreciated!

Thanks,

Derek

My preference as an instructor is to try to get learners interacting with each other as much as possible as a kind of accountability, which I realize is not always realistic. It's odd then that my preference as a learner is to work independently! (for the most part)

For your activity, I like Beth's idea about a reflective "journal" or whatever you want to call it. As an example, I worked on building an Engineering course where learners had to reflect on their perspective on a particular ethical principle, then they read content & answered questions, which was followed by a case study and finally a quiz. After the quiz they again reflected on the same principle they had though about before the experience. They were asked whether their perspective changed, if so, why, and what about the content and case study led to that change in thinking. There was also a discussion forum, but I don't think it was integral necessarily.

Hi Heather,

I love the idea of a collaborative review of reading strategies for academic articles. It's a nice way to both acquire the content knowledge by reading the articles strategically while also learning more about the process of reading an academic article. I think the activity will lead to the creation of a valuable tool and there are multiple layers of reflective activity, culminating in the one-minute paper at the end.

When reading your description I do feel that I would be compelled to participate, though I am a bit unclear about exactly how that would happen. What do you mean by "collaborative brainstorming" and "collaborative review"? Are you asking them to volunteer ideas vocally in the class? Or write things down? Are they in small groups? Individual? Large groups? Will you use a polling technology to collect ideas? These concepts seem somewhat vague to me, though it may be a disciplinary thing. Perhaps you have more specific directions that you will share with learners?

One thing I wonder about is the first part of the activity on January 15. You are giving them three main categories that they will work with in their brainstorming. I wonder what would happen if you did not define these categories for them?

For example, instead asking a question like:

• "What do you look for when you read an academic article?"
  • Write down on sticky notes as many things as you can think of (one idea per sticky). ~5 minutes
    
  • Now, in your groups, collect all your sticky note ideas and arrange them into 2-4 logical categories. ~5 minutes
  • Now compare your categories and criteria with another group. What did you have that was similar? What was different? What would you keep from each?
    

You've then collected ideas and created the categories at the same time. You could then move to the part where you share your own process, and then revise as per your plan. I suppose you would have to be fairly confident that they will come up with relevant categories and criteria.

I hope this is helpful.

Derek