Team-based learning in medical school

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22373620

Acad Med. 2012 Mar;87(3):292-299.

Perspective: Guidelines for Reporting Team-Based Learning Activities in the Medical and Health Sciences Education Literature.

Haidet P, Levine RE, Parmelee DX, Crow S, Kennedy F, Kelly PA, Perkowski L, Michaelsen L, Richards BF.

Source

Dr. Haidet is director of medical education research and professor of medicine, humanities, and public health sciences, Pennsylvania State UniversityCollege of Medicine, Hershey, Pennsylvania. Dr. Levine is Clarence Ross Miller Professor of Psychiatry and Internal Medicine, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas. Dr. Parmelee is associate dean for academic affairs and professor of psychiatry and pediatrics, Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine, Dayton, Ohio. Dr. Crow is assistant dean for curriculum and evaluation and associate professor of pediatrics, University of Oklahoma College of Medicine-Tulsa School of Community Medicine, Tulsa, Oklahoma. Dr. Kennedy is professor of accountancy and finance, Clemson University College of Business and Behavioral Science, Clemson, South Carolina. Dr. Kelly is adjunct associate professor of medicine, Tulane University School of Medicine, New Orleans, Louisiana. Dr. Perkowski is associate dean for curriculum and evaluation and associate professor of family medicine, University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis, Minnesota. Dr. Michaelsen is professor of management, University of Central Missouri Harmon College of Business and Professional Studies, Warrensburg, Missouri. Dr. Richards is director, Center for Educational Research and Evaluation, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, New York.

Abstract

Medical and health sciences educators are increasingly employing team-based learning (TBL) in their teaching activities. TBL is a comprehensive strategy for developing and using self-managed learning teams that has created a fertile area for medical education scholarship. However, because this method can be implemented in a variety of ways, published reports about TBL may be difficult to understand, critique, replicate, or compare unless authors fully describe their interventions.The authors of this article offer a conceptual model and propose a set of guidelines for standardizing the way that the results of TBL implementations are reported and critiqued. They identify and articulate the seven core design elements that underlie the TBL method and relate them to educational principles that maximize student engagement and learning within teams. The guidelines underscore important principles relevant to many forms of small-group learning. The authors suggest that following these guidelines when writing articles about TBL implementations should help standardize descriptive information in the medical and health sciences education literature about the essential aspects of TBL activities and allow authors and reviewers to successfully replicate TBL implementations and draw meaningful conclusions about observed outcomes.