As team-based learning educators, we’ve all come across misconceptions about TBL. Now, we
want to hear from you! Which of these myths do you hear the most? Vote below!
TBL takes too much time to implement
TBL doesn’t work for certain disciplines
TBL requires less effort from instructors
TBL requires too much effort from instructors
TBL is just another form of group work
TBL can’t be adapted for online or hybrid learning
Students prefer to be taught in lectures rather than in TBL style
Other (please comment)
0voters
Join us for an exclusive live discussion where we’ll reveal the top-voted myths and break them
down! I’ll be joined by my esteemed colleagues @SandyCook and @TomJansen for a
members-only panel discussion on July 30, 11 am EDT/4 pm BST. You can find all the details
and register here. Cast your vote and drop any other myths in the comments—we look forward to discussing
them with you!
I think there is some truth in ‘TBL takes too much time’ - there is a danger in going into TBL with insufficient time to design and think it through. So this needs to be scheduled in. The other criticisms I’ve heard include MCQs can only be used for ‘shallow’ teaching; appeals mean that the questions are poor quality ; ‘we are teaching ourselves’ ; we (or they) need lectures ; you need a mix of approaches on a course, it shouldn’t all be TBL.
You raise some common additional concerns that have been raised about TBL.
You are right - one does need to have sufficient time to design and think through the mechanics. It certainly is more time consuming than reviewing existing lectures and doing what you have already done - but ask someone who is building a course (or even a new PowerPoint presentation) from scratch - that takes time too.
And, making MCQs that are meaningful - not shallow also takes time. I think the issue of “teaching ourselves” needs to be addressed through helping the learners understand what is the purpose of the TBL process and how RATs are part of the clarification of concepts. Appeals might mean the MCQ is unclear - but better having the appeal than wasting class time arguing semantics and interpretations.
Ultimately an Educator does need to know if EACH learner has achieved the desired knowledge AND Skills to accomplish the end outcome - so sometimes additional strategies, skills development strategies and assessments are needed to ensure success. That doesn’t negate the value of TBL in the repertoire of learning strategies.
Team-based learning may suit teens and university students, but not adults in the workforce, and there are many of them studying. Many of these adult students barely have time to attend the class, whether face-to-face or online, and don’t have time to do preparatory work for a class, or home work, in many cases. I also can not see it useful for online or hybrid classes,
Hi, thanks for sharing your thoughts. I run a distance learning programme for pharmacists working in practice in England. We have learnt several lessons over the past 3 years.
Keep pre work level to a minimum. We provide 4 hours per unit (1 unit every month) . We have CORE learning and then we also provide refreshers and additional/optional for the super keen. The RAPs are based on CORE only.
We run the iRAT asynchronously using InteD - they can join when they want over a 7 days opening period.
Keep LIVE sessions to min time = 2.5 hours - within which we run the tRAT, instant feedback and AEs. The students love this and value the experts we have that join to faciltate the discussions. We also record these for any students who cannot attend or want to watch them again.
Out pathway is NHSE funded so we have found that we ran the LIVE sessions at different times and on different days including evenings that the attendance in the evenings was so low that we have now stopped doing this. At the start of the prog., we now ask line managers to agree to release the students to attend the live sessions once a month and ensure work place support. Ultimately this traning is to make them better practitioners so the long term benefit of this is IS to the NHS and patients.
Do not undercut the time spent at the beginning of the course explaining TBL, VLES and IT. This is invalulable time and you can find literature about ‘orientation’ and how important it is which I would whole heartedly agree on.
I am running a webinar via InteD in Oct about all of this. In essence, I would never return to didactic teaching, students really value TBL and there are ways to ensure it is a success but also you learn to tweak over time based on feedback and your own observations.
We also use TBL for our Diplomas and pharmacists there work in practice and then attend on campus study days.
I hope this helps and I am happy to provide more ideas or tips if needed.
Hi there, for me I have foudn the reverse. For example, in a project management course I teach, the traditional way was to use class time to complete a ‘critical path’ analysis - a standard project management exercise. I found that some students got this very quickly, others didn’t - it wasted class time. Now, I cover critical path in the pre learning, with a self assessment exercise that students do at their own pace. I ensure it is covered by a RAT question. Then, in class, the application activity is for a team to consider how to ‘crash’ (accelerate) a critical path on a real project - an authentic and advanced exercise that we simply didn’t have time to cover before. Now this might feel like sleight of hand - I have taken the previous in class work and put it into pre learning - but consider 2 things. Firstly - any individual exercise which will be done at different paces by students is best done as asynchronous, out of class, ‘at your own pace’ work. Secondly, in the traditional format the preparation for assessed group work was done out of class. Now it is done in class as scaffolded TBL application exercises (which is a much better approach). So in traditional flipped teaching fashion, the ‘out of class’ work has not increased, but changed in nature (more individual self paced work, less ad hoc team work) and timing (more work before class, less work after class)
Cast your vote and drop any other myths in the comments—we look forward to discussing
Thank you to everyone who voted and shared your insights!
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