TEAL at Yale

• Avoid using the TEAL classroom as a lecture hall for over 100 students if possible. Instead, use the room for class sizes around 40-80 students. Use 8 tables with 6-8 students/table.  
• Integrate 2-3 discussion questions/problems to solve during class to provide natural breaks.
• Think of a group / table as a “mini-laboratory.” Each of the students in the group can be seen as team members working together to investigate or solve a common problem.  
• Use the all-around LCD screens to post discussion questions.
• Consider turning off the projectors if not in use as they do not illuminate well and take up extra board space.
• Lecture in small doses only. Additionally, use one of the W1 / W2 boards, which project all around the room, to intersperse interactive notes and examples for students.
• Use moveable whiteboards when necessary. Keep in mind that not all tables have whiteboards right next to them.
• Bring a box of dry erase markers, e.g. 1 marker per table, as the room often runs out.  
• Take notice of missing equipment such as batteries for microphones, pens, etc.  
• Have one instructor or teaching fellow per 20 students in the class. These individuals can circulate the room and guide students in their group work. 

TEAL is “Technology Enabled Active Learning”, an instructional method spearheaded at MIT by John Belcher. A typical MIT TEAL class incorporates lecture, recitation, and hands-on experiments in one class period. 

How it’s done

• Instructors deliver 20-minute lectures interspersed with discussion questions, visualizations, and pencil-and-paper exercises. 
• Students use animated simulations designed to help them visualize concepts, and carry out experiments in groups during class. 
• Instructors periodically ask concept questions, which students discuss and answer through an electronic polling system with handheld voting keypads. 
• Instructors no longer lecture from a fixed location, but walk around with a wireless microphone talking to students about their work, assessing their understanding, facilitating interaction, and promoting better learning.

A related initiative was developed at NC State by Robert Beichner. SCALE-UP stands for “Student-Centered Active Learning Environment for Undergraduate Programs.” 

How it’s done

• During a SCALE-UP session, students are assigned something interesting to investigate. 
• While they work in teams, the instructor roams around the classroom—asking questions, sending one team to help another, or asking why someone else got a different answer. 
• There is no separate lab class and most of the “lectures” are actually class-wide discussions.