Our first TB is Feb. 12 at 8 AM in Morris Hall. At it I would like to discuss "team learning" and a problem I have always had when using it. That is, how do I deal with the Hitchhikers or Couch Potatoes when I put my students into groups or teams. A recent pro/con set of articles was sent to a list I am on on this issue.. so I provided them as a starting point for discussion.
I would like to hear from people on:
Do you put students into groups or teams?
How? (Self select, etc)
Does it work?
Do the assess each others work? What are issues with this?
Pros/Cons on this from your perspective.
How do you deal with those that go along for the ride or don't carry their share?
> "To expound on a point: it is inappropriate to suggest that students should
> take responsibility for the conduct of their team-mates and assert control
> -- as the article suggests. When students are in a classroom they are
> equal, and thus as teammates see themselves as equals. If Jack and Henry
> aren't doing their fare share why is it up to Mary and [the reader of the
> article] to do something about it?"
>
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> Folks:
>
> November 18, 2002 Posting #441 COPING WITH HITCHHIKERS AND COUCH
> POTATOES ON TEAMS, generated some interesting responses. Below is
> one such response, from Sean D. Hurley, Research Assistant Professor
> in the Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy at the University of
> Rochester. It is followed by a rebuttal by the posting author,
> Barbara Oakley, Assistant Professor of Engineering, Oakland
> University, Rochester MI, Both articles are reprinted with
> permission of the authors.
>
> Rick Reis
> [log in to unmask]
> UP NEXT: Conflicts of Interest and Conflicts of Commitment
>
>
> Tomorrow's Teaching and Learning
>
> --------------------------------------- 1,922 words
> ----------------------------------
>
> FURTHER COMMENTS ON COPING WITH HITCHHIKERS AND COUCH POTATOES ON TEAMS,
>
>
>
> November 18, 2002
>
> Rick,
>
> A nicely written article which points out both why students generally
> dislike "team learning" (at least the brightest ones tend to) and why team
> learning, at least as it is commonly implemented, is a fundamentally flawed
> idea.
>
> Team learning is flawed because it foists on students all of the
> responsibility without any control. In a classroom environment, learning is
> ultimately a solitary activity, yet with a team paradigm individual
> assessment is made in aggregate -- thus those students who wish to be
> rewarded for the learning that they have accomplished invariably end up
> doing more than their fare share.
>
> Yet the article suggests that it is up to the students to protect
> themselves from freeloaders, hitchhikers, and couch potatoes. However,
> while students may be responsible for the actions, or lack of action, of
> their comperes, they are almost never assigned the power, by the professor,
> to insure that their teammates contribute.
>
> Ultimately, many professors defend the practice of "teams" by pointing to
> the "real world", ie the business world, where teams are routinely
> implemented. However, what many fail to appreciate is that teams in the
> business world often have a team leader who has the power to punish those
> who are not performing and reward those who do. I do not believe it is
> appropriate for students to have that type of power over each other -->
> often classrooms are competitive and students are often too aware that
> their grades can make the difference in where they might end up in
> professional school.
>
> Thus, teams often work best, in a classroom setting, when students have
> clear zones of control. If Jack, Henry, and Mary are responsible for their
> own part of the final report, then it will be quite clear to the professor
> who is doing the work and who isn't and those students who work the hardest
> will be fairly rewarded.
>
> To expound on a point: it is inappropriate to suggest that students should
> take responsibility for the conduct of their team-mates and assert control
> -- as the article suggests. When students are in a classroom they are
> equal, and thus as teammates see themselves as equals. If Jack and Henry
> aren't doing their fare share why is it up to Mary and [the reader of the
> article] to do something about it? They are supposed to be equals, and most
> students don't think it is their place to criticize their peers. If
> anything this is standard social behavior and I do not believe professors
> should expect anything different.
>
> Of course, many people in life are assigned jobs with great
> responsibilities and little power. But in the "real world" they are paid
> for it. Whereas in college, it is students (and their parents) who are
> handing out the dole.
>
> Best, as always,
> Sean
>
> Sean D. Hurley, PhD
> Research Assistant Professor
> Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy
> University of Rochester Medical Center
> [log in to unmask]
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> RESPONSE BY BARBARA OAKLEY 01/13/03
>
> I appreciate the opportunity Rick Reis has given me to respond to
> Sean Hurley's letter. And I thank Dr. Hurley himself for providing
> me with a range of issues that allow me to tell both why I wrote the
> Hitchhiker essay, and why I believe the ability to use the techniques
> described in the essay is so important.
>
> But before I respond to Dr. Hurley's points, I'd like to establish my
> background and experience in working with teams, because it's
> relevant to the credibility of the conclusions I drew. I happened
> into a professorship much later than the usual academician, having
> spent over twenty years working at a variety of industry-related
> positions. My early years (after waitressing and working as a
> cleaning woman in high school) were spent in the U.S. Army, where I
> spent several years as enlisted before entering the officer ranks and
> subsequently attaining the rank of Regular Army Captain. From the
> perspective of observing how teams work, this was a fascinating time,
> because I learned many of the tricks that enlisted men and women used
> to fool the more gullible officers, of which the university system
> turned out many. Later, I worked as a radio operator at the South
> Pole Station in Antarctica and also spent several seasons on Russian
> trawlers working for the Soviets with American fishermen. Ships and
> isolated Antarctic stations are wonderful 'controlled experiment'
> situations for anyone wishing to study the mechanics of how teams do
> and don't work optimally. In the business world, I spent a number of
> years working in research and development as an engineer in the
> optics industry, and in design/manufacturing in the automotive
> industry.
> In his letter, Dr. Hurley points out "Ultimately, many professors
> defend the practice of "teams" by pointing to the "real world", ie
> the business world, where teams are routinely implemented. However,
> what many fail to appreciate is that teams in the business world
> often have a team leader who has the power to punish those who are
> not performing and reward those who do."
> Unfortunately, the reality in the business world is that a team >
> leader or supervisor is too busy with their own work to be concerned
> with petty interpersonal issues-even if those issues don't seem so
> petty to the person(s) concerned. If you have to go complain to the
> boss every time someone takes advantage of you in the workplace,
> you've got a problem. And, as the Hitchhiker paper suggests, it is
> easy to fool a gullible team leader into believing that a problematic
> team member is actually the one least at fault. Team leaders are
> generally far from omniscient father figures who come to the rescue
> when a problem arises-in fact, they are sometimes part of the problem.
> As explained in the full version of the Hitchhiker paper ("It Takes
> Two to Tango," Journal of Student Centered Learning, Volume 1, Issues
> 1, 2003, pg 19-28), I have found that students working in industry
> are often the most appreciative of the tools the Hitchhiker paper
> provides. It is in industry, after all, that the easy life of being
> able to switch classmates and professors at the end of the semester
> is not an option. Quoting again from Dr. Hurley "SÝwhile students may
> be responsible for the actions, or lack of action, of their comperes,
> they are almost never assigned the power, by the professor, to insure
> (sic) that their teammates contribute." I might append: ditto for
> workers out in industry. That's why it's important to learn to take
> active control of one's interactions with one's colleagues, whether
> in the academic or the professional world.
>
> Dr. Hurley states: "I do not believe it is appropriate for students
> to have that type of power over each other-often classrooms are
> competitive and students are often too aware that their grades can
> make the difference in where they might end up in professional
> school." The implication here is that the academic environment is
> more competitive and somehow more important than the environment out
> in the "real world." The reality is exactly the opposite. Speaking
> from experience, I can assure you that the corporate world, the
> entrepreneurial world, and even the military world is at least as
> competitive, and often far more so, than the typical academic
> environment. And ultimately, making the final cut to executive rank
> is far more important-and competitive-for a corporate worker than the
> triviality of whether he or she earned a 3.8 instead of a 3.2 grade
> in Calculus I.
> In his letter, Dr. Hurley asserts: "When students are in the
> classroom, they are equal, and thus as teammates see themselves as
> equals." I've had enough experience with humanity to know that
> everyone is not equal, inside or outside the classroom (outside of
> the legal realm, equality rarely exists). I have also seen precisely
> how such notions of equality can be used for manipulative purposes by
> individuals with malign intent, as described in the Hitchhiker essay.
> Dr. Hurley also states "In the classroom environment, learning is
> ultimately a solitary activitySÝ." Not in my classroom, and not in
> any of the many classrooms that use cooperative learning techniques
> throughout the country. There are many different learning styles.
> (See Rich Felder and Barbara Soloman's excellent paper, "Learning
> Styles and Strategies," at
> http://www2.ncsu.edu/unity/lockers/users/f/felder/public/ILSdir/styles.htm)
> Those individuals who ultimately receive doctorates are often
> reflective learners who like to learn on a solitary basis, as opposed
> to active learners, who enjoy bouncing ideas off each other. As the
> old bromide goes-the A students end up becoming professors, while the
> B students end up working for the C students. There are many
> different pathways to learning-and to success.
>
> About five years ago I heard a surprising comment during an interview
> with the president of an optics company. He revealed that he never >
> liked to hire graduating engineering students to work on electronics
> design in his company-instead, he retrained physics graduates. His
> reason? Engineers at that time were used to learning, and working,
> as a solitary activity. They had too many difficulties adjusting
> their work habits upon leaving school to be able to function
> effectively in teams. The patterns set in the classroom followed the
> students out into the workplace.
>
> In his letter, Dr. Hurley goes on to say: "[Students] are supposed
> to be equals, and most students don't think it is their place to
> criticize their peers." In reality, it is indeed uncomfortable for
> many students to be assertive enough to stop others from taking
> advantage of them. But that does not obviate the need for students
> to learn this important life skill. As the Hitchhiker essay
> suggests, without constructive criticism, hitchhikers and couch
> potatoes will never be able to learn that their actions are
> detrimental to others.
>
> Dr. Hurley states that: "It is inappropriate to suggest that
> students should take responsibility for the conduct of their
> team-mates and assert controlSÝ. If Jack and Henry aren't doing their
> fare [sic] share, why is it up to Mary and [the reader of the
> article] to do something about it?"
> Of course it's up to Mary and the reader of the article to do
> something about it! Who else is going to? The professor? He or she
> wouldn't know there's a problem unless Mary and the reader brought it
> to the professor's attention, which already means that Mary and the
> reader are doing something about it. And as the article pointed out,
> when Mary, Henry, and the reader brought the problem to the
> professor's attention, it worsened the situation. This is a
> realistic scenario, and one I have seen time after time in my own
> team-related experiences.
> To expand on an important final point, if it is inappropriate to
> suggest that students take responsibility for the conduct of their
> team-mates, then in real-life human terms, that means their
> team-mates can do anything and get away with it. Setting an early
> pattern in university years of telling a student it is inappropriate
> to take responsibility for their colleagues' conduct means that
> later, out in industry, a former student would be more prone to
> turning a blind eye to unproductive and even unethical practices.
> After all, it would not be their responsibility. Is that really what
> we want?
>
>