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January 22, 2006

Building Learning Teams

The Building Learning Teams article compares and contrasts traditional vs. team learning and it presents a very specific model for use of teams in the classroom.  I'm not sure I could or want to use the model presented in this article, but it does identify many important characteristics of team learning and it points out many problems and provides suggestions for solutions to those problems.  I found the guidelines for creating group assignments particularly instructive:

"A key element in the success or failure of any group-based instructional approach, including Team Learning, is the nature of the group assignments.  To be optimally effective, group assignments, whether graded or not, should be designed and managed to simultaneously accomplish four important objectives:

1) Promoting learning of essential concepts or skills

2) Building group cohesiveness

3) Ensuring individual accountability

4) Teaching students the positive value of groups"

(Building Learning Teams, p. 11)

Posted by DavidK at January 22, 2006 12:03 PM | Permalink

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