I am surprised at the comments from your students that they wanted MORE
teamwork. It has been my experience that views on teamwork are
mixed...there are those who favor it for various reasons, including the
enhanced learning opportunities it provides (but also, alas, the potential
reduction in workload for the individual), while many are against it because
of the potential free-rider problems, the extra work required to coordinate
schedules for meeting times, and the anxiety associated with having a
portion of their grade rely on others' performance.
What reasons did your students give for wanting more teamwork? What are
others' experiences with teamwork.
Thanks!
-Donna Anderson
At 11:35 AM 10/2/97 -0500, you wrote:
>Hi:
>
>I just finished teaching a fundamentals course for MBA
>students who have never been exposed to economics before.
>I relied heavily on the lecture format, but did have
>several class discussions on surveys from The Economist.
>In addition, groups of students were required to present
>the survey of their choice from The Economist -
>highlighting and explaining all economic principles.
>
>My big complaint from the students was that they would have
>preferred to have had more team work to do. My approach
>reminded them of a souped-up version of an undergrad
>course. I come from an Arts and Sciences background and
>have not been taught using the team method. Does anybody
>have any suggestions on how to implement this procedure in
>a fundamentals course? Suggestions on books or other web
>sites related to this issue would be greatly appreciated as
>well.
>
>Thanks for your help.
>
>Rita Balaban
>
>
>
>-----------------------------------------
>Rita A. Balaban
>Samford University
>Email: Rita.A.Balaban@samford.edu
>(205)870-2682 (office)
>(205)870-2464 (fax)
>
>
Donna M. Anderson
Assistant Professor
Economics Department
University of Wisconsin - La Crosse
La Crosse, WI 54601
(608) 785-8099