I know that there had been research available pertaining to WBT, but when I went looking for it, it isn't on this site anymore. Will it be reposted soon? I wanted to share it with a very knowledgeable 8th grader who is challenging me by declaring the gestures for the rules childish.

When this issue was originally raised in my classroom, I gave him one of my patented steely eye stares, and calmly informed him that these strategies had 30+ years of educational and medical research to back it up. I wanted to bring some (research) in to more or less bury him with the data....

But meanwhile, I told that class that if the majority of the class felt that way, we could do class "the other way" - no gestures, scoreboard, game time, etc, and do all lecture. In fact, I've got everything ready to show my student leaders tomorrow and give the class a chance to discuss it and present a case to the judge - ME! Trust me, once they see the "no fun" way, I think they'll be begging to return to WBT!

Just to comment on the "No fun way"; towards the end of the year (or when ever my darlings are acting up) I start writing two daily schedules on the board. Version A is WBT style and Version B is boring lecture/pencil/paperwork style. I tell them that the scoreboard game dictates which version I go with. If I'm winning, I go boring style; if they're winning, I go WBT style. One of the better things I've done in my classroom.

Jay, I LOVE IT! I talk about the no-fun way, but have never used it as a penalty. I think I may need that this year as we close in on Christmas.

Here is a link for some research that supports what we do. It is from an article that gives references for several other articles also.

findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3673/is..._9/?tag=content;col1

I clicked on the link you provided, but it's not clear on this page what is related to WBT. Could you elaborate? Thanks!

On page 7: Cooperative learning and discussion groups

On page 8: Practice by doing

On page 9: Teaching others

Jeff ... how about doing WBT and the world of education a huge favor by summarizing the conclusions of that extremely important article in a few paragraphs? Even more wonderful, would be to correlate our techniques with the research's conclusion. I do think it is good to point out that the oft quoted "Learning Pyramid" has, as generally used, little research support.

Biff , I would be happy to:

Cooperative Learning and Discussion Groups.

The studies quoted covered several age ranges. They concluded that cooperative learning groups have a significant positive effect on learning groups when compared to traditional, more individualistic methods.

Teaching Others

On this one their conclusion was that peer tutoring should only be used when it is to the advantage of the tutor.

Additionally, they concluded that the opportunity for students teaching each other dies result in higher retention.

Basically, the conclusion is that Dale’s Cone of Learning does not have empirical evidence behind it, but does have some validity in an observation sense. You could not say accurately that “you remember 90% of what you teach someone else” but you can accurately say that having the students teach each other results in greater retention for the students than some more traditional method.

The conclusions were also that all methods used in the classroom are useful, but student teaching student, and learning by doing give a better level of retention to the students.

Hmmmm….Teach!-OK! anyone? Micro-lecture discussion? I am soooo there!

Vanderfin,
I love that. It, as usual with WBT, makes them think they are choosing WBT (and why wouldn't they?) which makes them less likely to 'slam it' as they become 'too cool' toward the end of the year when they are getting ready to move on to the next grade....

Clever, as always.

I really like the strategy Jay suggested also. I have used it to great advantage with one particular class. They get serious really fast, and have consistently kicked up their game and beaten me when 'Old School' versus 'Fun WBT School' was on the line. Really cool.