Name
A New Perspective on the TBL Learning Contract
Date & Time
Tuesday, March 17, 2020, 8:00 AM - 9:45 AM
Peter Balan OAM
Description
This workshop describes an innovative “grounded” approach to develop the student “learning contract” in the modern teaching and learning environment that requires students to take increased responsibility for the learning, and with an emphasis on students working in Team-Based Learning teams. In particular, this workshop demonstrates how the student learning contract can be formulated quickly in the context where there are three parties: the student, the team, and the educator. The workshop is based on a “bottom-up” method for developing the learning agreement using students’ own words by analysing their perceptions of their own responsibilities, the responsibilities of their team members, and of the educator, in order for them to be successful in their studies. Importantly, the method demonstrated in this workshop allows educators to implement research projects that allow them to identify similarities and differences between perceptions based on student gender, their origin (local versus international students) and their academic performance. The findings of this type of research lead directly to an improved understanding of behaviours that can be immediately used for classroom management. This method is described in: Balan, P., Clark, M. & Restall, G. 2015, 'Preparing students for Flipped or Team-Based Learning methods', Education + Training, vol. 57, no. 6, pp. 639-657.