TBSL Teaching Application Methodology: Deeply Integrating TPACK Theory

Author: Prof. Power Wu, Dr. Steven Liang

I. Introduction

The TEAM Model Based Smarter Learning (TBSL, 1999) philosophy is a modern learning methodology that leverages the advantages of the TEAM Model Smarter Education Support System. It is also a contemporary classroom pedagogy, fostering the deep integration of Content (C), Pedagogy (P), and Technology (T) – TPC. It is abbreviated as the TBSL Methodology.

The TBSL Methodology, a modern learning approach, leverages the advantages of teacher-student smart terminal data channels, Team-Based Learning (TBL), and one-to-one (1:1) learning models (using students' mobile learning devices, IRS, and e-schoolbags). It seamlessly integrates the strengths of group learning (TBL) and self-directed learning (1:1), connecting pre-class, in-class, and after-class activities in an information-driven educational framework. By utilizing data channels, artificial intelligence collects and analyzes teaching data, enabling smart decisions that make classrooms more effective and intelligent.

The core philosophy of the TBSL Methodology is Interaction, Differentiation, and Autonomy. Its classroom learning model includes three main components: effective interaction, synchronous differentiated instruction, and autonomy under group learning. This modern learning approach emphasizes leveraging human-machine integration, focusing on collaborative learning, and practicing the philosophy of teaching according to individual aptitude.  Integration Levels of TEAM Model Based Smarter Learning
The TBSL Methodology has led to various levels of deep lesson integration, such as student-centered learning with high interaction, synchronous differentiation instruction, and collective & autonomy learning (combining group and one-to-one (1:1) learning). Guided by technological advancements, the TBSL philosophy can be continuously refined and optimized to create even more perfect modern smart classrooms.

Levels of Deep Lesson Integration in TBSL Methodology:

1️⃣Student-Centered Learning with High Interaction: A smart classroom that is student-focused and student-centered, enabling highly efficient interaction.

2️⃣Synchronous Differentiation Instruction: A smart classroom capable of data-driven decisions for synchronously differentiated learning tasks, collaborative tasks, and content allocation.

3️⃣TEAM Model 1-to-1 Learning (Combining Group and One-to-One): A smart classroom that practices teaching according to individual aptitude, balancing both collaborative group learning and personalized one-to-one instruction.
 Integration Levels of TEAM Model Based Smarter Learning

II. Innovation and Development

The TBSL Methodology represents the culmination of teaching experiments and experiential wisdom from the founding team of the TEAM Model system. In other words, the TEAM Model Smarter Education Support System was created specifically for the TBSL philosophy. Since 1999, the team has dedicated over 25 years to researching smart teaching, conducting extensive long-term clinical trials of highly interactive and quasi-one-to-one teaching models, including IRS clickers and e-schoolbags. This extensive work has yielded significant and widespread results, refining replicable and scalable smart models. These include three crucial components—effective interaction, synchronous differentiation instruction, and collective & autonomy learning—all designed to accelerate classroom innovation and upgrading.

The TBSL Methodology, at the core of the TEAM Model Smarter Classroom (powered by HiTeach software), has evolved over two decades. It has accumulated extensive and in-depth experimental and application experience across thousands of schools, tens of thousands of classrooms, hundreds of thousands of teachers, and millions of students worldwide. This has not only enriched the academic research and theoretical foundation of the TBSL Methodology but also established a symbiotic relationship between TEAM Model and TBSL. In the classroom, the assistance of the HiTeach Smarter Teaching System fully leverages TEAM Model's system advantages, extending learning from the classroom to after-class, building a complete learning ecosystem, and effectively demonstrating the essence of the TBSL Methodology. Concurrently, the TBSL philosophy continuously drives the technological upgrade of the TEAM Model support system.

The TBSL Methodology also promotes teaching research and dialogue through evidence-based approaches, such as homogeneous pedagogy lesson study, heterogeneous pedagogy lesson study, and teaching process analysis. This enhances educational equity and promotes educational diversity. The teaching big data collected from classes using HiTeach is processed by the AI Sokrates system to generate rich teaching data, including Lesson Data Quality Evaluation Reports, Sokrates Reports, Sokrates Videos, and Sokrates Lesson Examples. This continuously accumulates experience and wisdom in teaching professional research, teaching behavior data norms, and smart classroom cases.

The TBSL Methodology integrates various HiTeach teaching functions with modern educational philosophies, making it applicable to various mainstream teaching patterns, including LBL, TBL, PBL, and 1:1. The TBSL Methodology also supports various modern pedagogies, such as Learning Community, Inquiry-Based Learning, MAPS. With the full support of the TEAM Model Smarter Education Support System, it can develop new types of teaching models that effectively utilize technology, such as TBSL + Learning Community, Smart MAPS, making these modern teaching models easier to replicate and pass on.
 

III. Core Three Stages of the TBSL Lesson

Teaching based on the TBSL Methodology is a modernized classroom approach that leverages data-driven smart decisions to drive instruction. It includes three core components: Effective Interaction, Synchronous Differentiation, and Autonomous Group Learning, summarized as follows:
 

1. Effective Interaction

In classrooms where all students are equipped with smart devices (such as IRS clickers, tablets, or mobile phones), teacher-student interaction becomes more effective. Through diverse interaction modes and based on instantly generated data, teachers can quickly make teaching decisions, making the lesson flow more flexible and ensuring that each interaction precisely responds to students' learning status.
 

2. Synchronized Differentiation

Traditional one-to-many classrooms struggle to achieve differentiated instruction tailored to individual needs. However, through instant feedback and data analysis from student devices, teachers can simultaneously push differentiated materials or tasks to groups or individual students. This allows different students to receive learning content best suited to their needs within the same timeframe, achieving ideal synchronized differentiated instruction.
 

3. Autonomous Group Learning

In classrooms where every student has a learning device, it not only provides a complete one-to-one autonomous learning environment but also effectively organizes group activities such as team-based collaborative learning and whole-class collective learning through data-driven decisions. This encourages students to actively participate, learn collaboratively, and deepen their understanding through independent exploration.
 

IV. Four Scenarios of Data-Driven Decision-Making

The unique advantage of teaching with TBSL lies in data generation, collection, analysis, and smart decision-making. Teachers who master the core ability of "interpreting and utilizing data" can achieve breakthroughs beyond traditional classroom limitations through the following four insights.

💡Interpreting Charts, Connecting Minds:

The HiTeach smart classroom creates a new learning ecosystem. Instantly generated data charts, such as statistical graphs, bar charts, and group discrepancy charts, not only assist teachers in making precise decisions but also cultivate students' ability to interpret data. When students can understand these charts and grasp their own, their group's, and the entire class's learning status, "connecting minds" can be achieved without extensive verbal explanation, leading to greater learning engagement.

💡Seeing Thinking, Creating Change:

After teachers pose questions and receive instant student feedback, they can "see" the true thought processes of the entire class, groups, and even individual students through the data. Subsequently, teachers make decisions based on this data, guiding students to transform their thinking. This is the most exciting moment in a smart classroom—effectively awakening confused students and fostering truly in-depth understanding.

💡Different Perspectives, Diversified Thinking:

The HiTeach smart classroom's data channels can quickly compile individual or collaborative group outcomes and works, displaying them on a common platform or pushing them to each group. This allows students to easily see each other's diverse perspectives, stimulating intellectual clashes and thereby deepening the breadth and depth of discussion and thinking.

💡Identifying Differences, Teaching to Aptitude:

Through the powerful statistical and analytical functions of the HiTeach smart classroom, teachers can quickly grasp the learning status of the entire class, groups, and even individual students, accurately identifying differences. Using the data channel's push function, teachers can send differentiated content and materials to groups or individuals, implementing appropriate differentiated teaching methods and assessments. This truly achieves efficient and precise teaching tailored to individual aptitudes. Teachers can utilize the system's convenient differentiated lesson preparation (content differentiation, material differentiation, pedagogy differentiation, assessment differentiation) to implement synchronized differentiated instruction through technology.
 

V. Seven Application Principles of TBSL

The HiTeach system was born from the TBSL philosophy, aiming to help teachers achieve student-centered instruction and fulfill the vision of empowering every child. To better support teachers in shifting their teaching paradigms, refining classroom application methods, fostering professional growth, and creating classrooms with a "smarter learning cycle" effect, the following application principles are key:

1. Broaden Focus, Grasp Individually

Teachers should skillfully use data channels to expand their scope of attention to all students and precisely understand each student's individual learning status, ensuring no one is overlooked.
 

2. Contrast with Tradition, Optimize Application

The use of digital tools should be grounded in educational principles, fully leveraging the value of smart technology to refine innovative teaching methods that surpass traditional models (including convenience, efficiency, and intelligence). Avoid using technology merely for its own sake. Instead, continuously optimize teaching models through research and practical application.

3. Student-Centered, Teacher-Guided

Under teacher guidance, cultivate a student-centered, learning-focused ecosystem. This will inspire students' learning horizons, prompting them to move from passive learning to interactive learning, and ultimately to highly autonomous learning.

4. Everyone Interacts, Instant Feedback

HiTeach provides comprehensive teacher-student sensing capabilities. Through questioning and instant feedback, it significantly enhances the quality and quantity of interaction, ensuring every student actively participates and that no one remains a "guest" in the classroom. Teachers should appropriately use various interactive learning modes, including teacher-student, student-student, and student-teacher interactions.

5. Understand Results, Value Feelings

By using HiTeach for teaching, teachers can instantly grasp every student's feedback. In this process, teachers should skillfully use technology to create "aha moments" (Technology moments). For example, through prompt points, statistical points, flip card points, and discussion points, not only focus on learning outcomes, but also carefully attend to each student's learning feelings, avoiding any negative emotions.
 

6. Collaboration First, Competition as a Supplement

Utilize HiTeach's collaborative mechanisms (such as group discussions, peer instruction) to enhance learning effectiveness, and introduce competitive elements at appropriate times to motivate collaboration. Design classroom learning activities that are both cooperative and competitive to foster a " lively, interactive, proactive" classroom. Avoid reversing priorities, competing solely for the sake of competition, thereby losing the true purpose of collaboration.

7. Record Lessons, Connect Post-Lesson

HiTeach automatically records the complete classroom history, building a vast amount of data (including digital teaching materials, electronic notes, activity history, diagnostic reports, remedial videos, teaching behaviors, learning behaviors, etc.). This not only effectively records the classroom but also enables a seamless connection between pre-class, in-class, and post-class, thereby creating a more ideal learning environment and ecosystem.
 

VI. TBSL's Precise Teaching Strategies

TBSL is a learning philosophy and a precise teaching methodology. With the assistance of the TEAM Model Smarter Education support system, it can further implement student-centered precise teaching strategies that permeate e-Teaching, e-assEssing, e-diAgnosing, and e-reMediation, covering pre-class, in-class, and post-class learning processes. Below are explanations of the teaching application strategies for Interactive Classroom (T), Instant Assessment (E), Diagnostic Analysis (A), and Remediation (M).

1️⃣Interactive Classroom (T):

Interaction is the primary task for implementing a student-centered approach, transforming students from classroom guests into masters of their learning. In a classroom where every student has a smart device, using HiTeach's interactive teaching aids enables more convenient, efficient, and intelligent teacher-student interaction. For example, Buzz-in quick response, Knock-out snatch authority, and Pick-out student selection (randomly picking an individual or a group) can create a fairer, more generative classroom. Smart Pick-out further intelligently picks specific students based on feedback data types, such as students who answered incorrectly, students who chose a particular option, or any student from groups that got all answers correct, making classroom interaction more targeted and intelligent.

2️⃣Instant Assessment (E):

After each section of teaching and learning guidance, teachers can conduct Q&A interactions or mini-quizzes at any time, asking students to use their learning devices for feedback and answers, enabling the most convenient formative assessment. After teachers collect effective student feedback data through effective questioning, the HiTeach teaching system instantly performs data analysis, generating various statistical charts, which then help teachers make effective decisions. The smart content push function can further assist teachers in more intelligently pushing differentiated teaching materials, automatically or semi-automatically, to group or individual smart devices based on student feedback data types, facilitating synchronized differentiated learning.

3️⃣Diagnostic Analysis (A):

Applying the comprehensive TEAM Model system to assist teaching and learning automatically records the complete learning process before, during, and after class. This includes activity data and behavioral data from various assessments (IRS responses, script quiz, and OMR online scoring system, and so on), e-notes, and diagnostic reports, which are then mined, diagnosed, and analyzed to fully grasp the learning situation of every child.

4️⃣Remediation (M):

As the TEAM Model ecosystem is a cloud-integrated system, it connects pre-class, in-class, and post-class learning resources via the internet. Students log into their smart companion using their own accounts, seamlessly receiving learning resources such as electronic notes, activity history, diagnostic reports, and remedial videos for incorrect question remediation, key point review, flipped learning, and autonomous learning activities.

Therefore, the TBSL Methodology offers application advantages such as autonomous learning, collaborative learning, smart decision-making, full-process recording, and artificial intelligence, further enabling student-centered learning, teaching according to aptitude, and nurturing individual talents.
Application Advantages of TBSL Methodology 

VII. TBSL Methodology + AI Smarter Coach

The AI Sokrates system is an intelligent system that analyzes classroom teaching behavior data characteristics based on data collected during HiTeach classroom instruction. It combines artificial intelligence and teaching experts to analyze teaching material design (C), pedagogical application (P), and technological interaction (T), promoting the deep integration of TPC. It is also a support system that fosters teacher professional development through AI. In short, the Sokrates system serves as teachers' AI smarter coach.

Under the assurance of the AI smarter coach, the TBSL Methodology provides teachers with immediate teaching feedback, significantly promoting the realization of the "smarter learning cycle" lesson and greatly accelerating teacher professional growth. Taking Chengdu Normal University's Yindu Wisteria Primary School as an example, over 300 Sokrates videos are automatically recorded and generated monthly. Through these videos, pedagogical review activities such as smarter lesson debriefing, "acupuncture" analysis of teaching model slices, and homogeneous and heterogeneous pedagogy lesson analysis are conducted. This not only ensures and enhances teaching quality but also progressively archives school-based classroom teaching wisdom, continuously refining the essence of the TBSL Methodology.

AI Sokrates Video

VIII. TBSL's Classic Lesson Sharing Platform

As HiTeach system is applied systematically, massively and normally in over ten countries and regions, its application gets wider and deeper and has amassed many thousands of classic, valuable Sokrates video lesson examples. These videos are kept in the Sokrates Platforms of Global TEAM Model Education Research Institute (short for Sokrates Channel). These videos not only help share and promote TBSL Methodology, but also build up a global data research platform for TBSL which gradually collects and provides research on teacher’s specialization development, norms of teaching behavior big data, cases of smarter lectures database, international cooperation and interaction mechanic, just to name a few.
Sokrates Channels
On the Sokrates platform and channel, the smart tags of Sokrates videos make the smart model of lesson videos sliceable and can be searched, indexed, classified, analyzed, reviewed, commented, etc. For example: search by region, course, grade, subject, teaching type, smarter characteristics (second Retake IRS Question, differentiated teaching by Differentiated Push, collaborative learning), etc.
Sokrates platform exclusive channel (the film can be set for public or not) and global exchange platform
The HiTeach system collects teaching data in smarter classrooms automatically, amasses a great number of Sokrates videos, verifies and stores up valuable shares. It is the most treasurable resource in helping teachers develop their professional skills. In the following context, there will be classic examples of highly interactive Student-Centered Learning, Synchronous Differentiated Instruction, TEAM Model 1-to-1, and other in-depth application levels:
 

1.Student-Centered Learning Teacher Ma Hung-tao, Little Monkey Hanging Bananas

 

In the 1st Cross-strait Smarter Lecture Contest in 2016, the first prize-winning team of elementary school math: Little Monkey Hanging Bananas (Chengdu Team, instructed by Teacher Ma Hongtao in Chengdu ELDU Wisteria Primary School), fully demonstrated a student-centered learning, highly interactive lesson.

2.Synchronous Differentiation Instruction

Teacher Hsu Da-wei, Exploration on Fraction
In 2nd Cross-strait Smarter Lecture Contest 2017, the team wining first prize on elementary school math: Exploration on Fraction (Taipei Team, instructed by Teacher Hsu Dawei, Beisin Elementary School, New Taipei County) conducted diversified lesson preparation and carry out a synchronized diversified lesson.

3. TEAM Model 1-to-1

Teacher Gao Jian-feng, Inverse Proportional Function
In 3rd Cross-strait Smarter Lecture Contest 2018, the team wining first prize in middle school math: Inverse Proportional Function (Hangzou Jianggan Team, instructed by Teacher Gao Jianfeng, Hangzhou Jingfang Middle School) demonstrate group one-on-one learning with diversified materials for different students in a  Student-tablet Smarter Classroom.

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►Recommended article: Lesson Samples on the Principle of TEAM Model Based Smarter Learning － The Heart-To-Heart Model

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TEAM Model ‧ TBSL Methodology
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