Team-Based Learning

Over the course of my too-many years of undergraduate education, I've had multiple opportunities to engage in team-based learning (TBL). TBL is exactly what it sounds like - learning in teams. The basic premise is that students know more collectively than they do individually and pooling that knowledge in a team setting allows it to be disseminated between students within that team more effectively than a traditional lecture format or with a self-study approach.

I've seen this used to good effect (my most recent interaction with TBL was quite positive), but in more instances, my experiences with TBL have been frustrating or unhelpful.

Like any approach to education, TBL is a tool, one which is appropriate in some situations, but not so appropriate in others. You wouldn't use a screwdriver to hammer in a nail; likewise, TBL shouldn't be used indiscriminately. That's no knock against TBL - just like screwdrivers are great for putting in screws, TBL is great when used where it's most effective.

TBL has greatest value in application problems. To answer these questions, details need to be shared between participants. If there are any differences in interpretations of core concepts, they also need to be contrasted or discussed to come to a solution. A single person knowing a detail leads to everyone knowing it within the team while interpretations of concepts can be refined and disseminated among group participants.

Where TBL falters is in the introduction of new information, or the regurgitation of facts without application. No matter how big a group is, if no one within that group knows a piece of information, it won't get shared. Data needs to come from somewhere, so TBL cannot be used as a substitute for teaching core concepts or fundamental data. A shared framework is necessary for TBL to work. Likewise, using TBL to test simple knowledge retention is fairly inefficient. There's no impetus for discussion - either group members know a fact or they don't, so deciding on the "correct" answer to a question often comes down to a matter of democracy (the most popular answer wins) or confidence (the most assured person's answer wins). There's no real value to collaboration in this case.

TBL was primarily introduced into physics instruction, where it works quite well. Physics is a conceptually challenging field, where the primary difficult comes from application of concepts rather than memorization of those concepts. Since it has worked rather well in a troublesome area of study, it has naturally received a fair bit of attention from educators.

However, as too often happens in education (and medicine), a good idea in one area has been applied in areas to which it is ill-suited. Medicine can be taught either in a wrote-memorization format, or through applications. The former is a poor fit for TBL. The latter works well for TBL. I've seen both. My hope is that, moving forward, medical educators try to be more discriminating about the use of TBL or at least adapt their TBL sessions to better take advantage of its virtues.