Notes from a Newbie: Sharing to Grow Team-Based Learning in Sociology

• In Event: 20461 - Teaching and Learning Symposium Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable (90 minute): Table 3: Team Teaching/Learning

Abstract

The current opportunity will be used to share team-based learning (TBL) resources, and evaluations from sociology classrooms. In the 2020 article, “Transforming Introductory Sociology with Team-Based Learning: Sufficient Value and Surmountable Challenge?”, Jennifer Roebuck Bulanda and Shelby Frye argue that TBL has a lot to offer the sociology classroom and provides a comprehensive outline of the TBL process. Using this article as a framework will invite sharing of materials and resources [e.g., syllabi, tools used, applicable Teaching Resources and Innovations Library for Sociology (TRAILS) references] and guide a conversation focused on the key barriers to the adoption of TBL, including “time demands of course redesign, concern about student opposition, and difficulty envisioning how TBL would work in a course” (Bulanda and Frye 2020:275).

Sharing resources and examples will address all the concerns above. I will focus on time demands and share findings from an evaluation comparing sections of courses with and without an undergraduate teaching assistant (UTA) to investigate how UTAs in the TBL classroom might 1) reduce the time burden on instructors and 2) affect student outcomes and evaluations, as well as levels of agreement about the learning benefits of three primary sections of the TBL process.

Bulanda and Frye offered two suggestions for future work. The first is that as more of us implement TBL we should empirically assess our efforts and share our results (Bulanda and Frye 2020). Second, they would encourage us to facilitate the sharing of application activities specific to sociology courses. The current symposium submission will address the recommendations above, while also speaking to the annual ASA conference theme of “Reimagining the Future of Work,” as we challenge both the ways we do our work in the classroom as well as the ways that we support how students will do theirs in the future.

Bulanda, Jennifer Roebuck, and Shelby Frye. 2020. “Transforming Introductory Sociology with Team-Based Learning: Sufficient Value and Surmountable Challenge?” Teaching Sociology 48(4):272–82. doi: 10.1177/0092055X20947175.

Authors

• Misty L Harris, University at Buffalo

• Jaime Chek, National University of Singapore