The Process of Team-Based Learning

The Process of Team-Based Learning

Vart Zeitlian

LAU

Abstract

Team based learning is an instructional strategy where the members work together and get the opportunity to practice what they learn. While traditional learning is boring, team-based learning is more fun and has a lot of advantages. TBL has four essential principles without which it can not work effectively. It has a certain procedure and grading system, and it finales with certain evaluations.

Literature Review

Definition

Team-based learning is the effective process of transforming groups into teams where the members work together to achieve certain goals. Espey (2012) reported that “Team-based learning attempts to foster effective group interaction by keeping students in the same group throughout the semester and utilizing collaborative activities daily in class” (p. 3). TBL should have certain characteristics to be successful and if done properly, it can be helpful to save time and increase effectiveness of teams.

Groups vs Teams

To make things clear, groups and teams are not the same. Members in a group work individually then everyone puts the pieces together to “complete-the-puzzle” where as in teams, the members work together from the beginning until the end to achieve a certain goal (Chapter 6: Teamwork and Working in Teams).

But this development from groups to teams can not happen with a blink of an eye, it takes time and commitment. And there are two models for team development: “The Tuckman Model” and “The Cog Model”. The Tuckman Model includes four stages as mentioned in Chapter 6 of Teamwork and Working in Teams which are: forming, storming, norming, and performing. In the forming stage, the author says, little work can be done because the members start getting to know each other. They simply agree on some group objectives and establish rules that make the group more effective. In the storming stage the members let down their guards. He/ She continued by saying that they start to develop strategies that sometimes lead to debates so they argue with each other, keeping in mind that they should respect the different existing opinions. In the norming stage, the group members start to accept their differences, learn to work despite the occurrence of some conflicts and focus on their main tasks. In the performing stage, the groups finally transform into teams where the members adopt creative brainstorming, approve on goals and create constructive criticism. Moreover, problems are solved easily at this stage (Chapter 6: Teamwork and Working in Teams).

The Cog model sees the team development as a process that takes time to unfold. The five stages mentioned in Chapter 6 of Teamwork and Working in Teams follow: The Polite stage where people start getting to know each other and is more of a “meet and greet” stage. The Why Are We Here? Stage that makes the members consider about the purpose of the group. The Bid for Power Stage thinks about the development of the team. Sometimes, power struggles may begin to appear between the members. The Constructive stage is the stage where implementation of strategies starts to take place that nurtures the goals of the team. This stage is characterized by team harmony. The Esprit stage is the stage where members become delighted of each other and care of the prosperity and success of the whole team. Moreover, the members at this stage no longer have difficulty to communicate with each other. On the contrary, they engage themselves in beneficial arguments (Chapter 6: Teamwork and Working in Teams).

But, the transformation of a group into a team is not enough. The purpose is to have effective teams. Chapter 6 of Teamwork and Working in Teams stated that effective teams usually share common characteristics including respect for each other, appreciation for strength, promotion of team cohesion and most importantly, trust. It mentioned the idea of positive interdependence between groups by having each one maximize their own productivity and then try to maximize the others’ productivity as well.

In addition, a group can be transformed into a team depending on the level of their social closeness and interdependence. This is why frequent cooperation and interaction is highly recommended to groups in order to decrease the social distances as much as possible (Stein, Colyer & Manning, 2015). So, having effective teams do not just “happen”; they can only be grasped by investment, commitment, and endless maintenance of the team (Chapter 6: Teamwork and Working in Teams).

Principles of TBL

TBL has four main principles which include properly formed and managed groups, accountability for work quality, feedback, and promotion of learning and team development.

Group Size

The group formation itself is a kind of agreement between members so that everyone does their best to satisfy the interest of the group. And in order for the groups to be formed well, they should have enough resources. So, Csernica et al. claimed that the group size is important and they should never be too small because small groups do not have enough diversity and creativity (as cited in Burke, 2011). But still, Cooper believes that smaller groups are better when the time availability is short (as cited in Burke, 2011). While, Michaelsen, Sweet & Parmalee (2009) stated that diversity can add different perspectives for the same issue sometimes when the group becomes too large it lessens the opportunity of all members to be able to contribute. Moreover, they stated that the linguistic and academic capabilities should be distributed fairly between the groups. They continued by saying that the assigning of students to groups randomly is better than letting them form their own groups to avoid the over socialization between members.

This idea was backed up by Davis reporting that it is preferable to choose students to groups randomly to maximize heterogeneity and avoid bias, and Cooper claiming that the groups should not be self-selected because most of the time when friends come together they socialize more than they work and this may lead to chaos that weaken the process of activities (as cited in Burke,2011). Furthermore, time is important too. The students should have enough time to gain the trust of each other and decrease their social differences.

Accountability

It is important for everyone to be accountable of their work and carry responsibility to be able to achieve the team’s purposes. So, Michaelsen et al. (2009) emphasized on the importance of pre-class preparations to hasten the coherence development of the group; they said that students should work cooperatively by equally dedicating time and effort for the work group to achieve their goals and they should have the opportunity of evaluating each other’s performance to make the group more productive and fruitful.