Last week, we completed the first workshop of the 5-part TBL Fundamental Series by CognaLearn, InteDashboard & Team-Based Learning Collaborative and I’m excited to share our key takeaways!
Takeaway 1: Random selection ensures diversity when forming teams.
Random selection minimises any unconscious biases that educators may have when separating students into teams. Other than random selection, educators can further adjust the groups according to their unique teaching context.
P.S. It will also help students assimilate into their teams if educators are transparent with the team formation process.
Takeaway 2: The most important benefit of TBL is gaining increased competence to apply knowledge.
There are a few benefits of TBL from increased student motivation to increased student engagement, but its key advantage is empowering students to apply foundational knowledge in real-life scenarios.
Takeaway 3: Using Backward Design to develop a TBL module will ensure that students are have better content mastery.
When transitioning from a didactic method to TBL, a key concern among educators is being unable to cover all necessary content. Using the Backward Design can help educators to prevent that by starting with an end goal in mind: Educators identify the knowledge they want to impart to the students and then provide the necessary reading materials that align with their teaching objective.
Thanks again to @Suzan and Cortny for faciliating! We’re looking forward to the remaining sessions. In the meantime, feel free to share any other interesting takeaway!
Wrapped up our 2nd TBL Fundamentals workshop with InteDashboard & TBLC last week, where we dove into the intricacies of crafting effective MCQs for RATs and application activities! Here are our top 2 takeaways:
Takeaway #1: Write application exercises that promote divergent thinking.
Bloom’s Taxonomy is a way to organize educational learning objectives into levels of complexity and educators can use it to craft questions.
While “analyzing” and “evaluating” are higher forms of thinking, the latter encourages divergent thinking while the former encourages convergent thinking.
This makes questions written on the latter level more appropriate for application exercises, where a higher level of applying knowledge is necessary.
Takeaway #2: Write application exercises that encourage learners to compare and evaluate all options.
This may depend on every educator’s teaching objectives but in the context of medical education, we want to simulate real-life scenarios where discussions among colleagues regarding a patient’s next-steps can occur.
In this case, we want application exercises that do not have a clear-cut answer so that individuals and teams can share and contend their perspectives.
A huge thanks to our brilliant facilitators, Akshata Naik and Suzan ElSayed, for guiding us through this enriching session! Excited for the remaining TBL Fundamentals workshops. To our participants, share your reflections or additional takeaways with us below! #TeamBasedLearning#ProfessionalDevelopment#TBLFundamentals
Exciting takeaways from the 3rd workshop! Ready to level up your knowledge about peer evaluations? Here are 4 key insights:
Team learning is the most important benefit of peer evaluation.
The ultimate goal of peer evaluation is to use it as a catalyst for team learning. Since groups move through a series of stages as they become teams, peer evaluation helps them to be more efficient in identifying areas of improvement for peak performance!
Formative feedback does the most to help groups become effective TBL teams.
Peer evaluations are either formative (provided multiple times during the course) or summative (provided once at the end of the course). The former is preferred for TBL as more frequent feedback ensures that the team is headed in the right direction and allows for changes as soon as possible, if necessary.
Make your feedback future-oriented.
There have been multiple studies disputing the sandwich method, so opt for future-focused suggestions instead. Directing peer evaluations towards actionable steps will empower teammates to move into actions that drive positive change and growth.
Teach students to provide helpful feedback to minimize their discomfort.
Students may feel resistant toward peer evaluations because they feel uncomfortable giving negative feedback. However, we can teach them to provide helpful inputs that are descriptive, specific, honest, relevant, timely, desired and usable to make it an easier experience for them.
Shoutout to our incredible facilitators @Kkubitz and Brooke Nodeland, for guiding us through these invaluable insights. Check out our blog posts on peer evaluation if you’re interested to know more. We’d also love to hear from other participants, share with us your opinions below!
We concluded yet another meaningful session at the 4th workshop of our TBL Fundamentals Series with InteDashboard & Team-Based Learning Community. Here’s a recap of 2 tips to improve your facilitation skills:
Get comfortable with silence
Instead of rushing to provide answers or call out a student immediately to explain their team’s rationale for their answers, grant students the space to ponder. Consider introducing prompts like, “You’ve got 30 seconds to formulate your thoughts before I ask for a volunteer.” This not only accommodates students who need more time before speaking up, but also instills the crucial lesson that it’s perfectly fine to take a moment to think.
Customize your approach in application exercises according to your context
If your teaching objectives emphasize discussion over a single right answer in application exercises, set clear expectations with students for how the process unfolds. If your aim is to use application exercises as a journey of exploration, rather than a straightforward destination, let students know so that they would not be unhappy to realize that there’s no clear-cut solution.
We give thanks to our brilliant facilitators, David Fuentes and Neal Carter, for steering us toward enhanced facilitation prowess! Here’s a question for our participants: What other tips would you use to improve your TBL facilitation skills? Share with us below!#EducationEvolution #FacilitationMastery#TBLFundamentals
In a blink of an eye, we finished the last session of our Fundamental Series! Nicely wrapped up by our facilitators @Richard.Plunkett and Cortny, it was all about creating an effective TBL module.
A question for our participants: What’s one thing that you will incorporate into your own implementation of TBL? Let us know what you’re teaching too!
In the meantime, here are 3 insights that I would like to share:
Be careful of cognitive load when planning the prework content!
Cognitive load theory helps us to avoid overwhelming learners with more than they can effectively process. Students may tune out and find it difficult to absorb everything in their preparation for class if the amount of content given to them is too much.
Get students’ buy-in from the start.
Getting students’ buy-in, not just the facilitators’, is important to make TBL effective! Interestingly, this action can begin at the very beginning of the TBL process at the prework stage by sharing the learning objectives with them. Students would have a clear understanding of what they should know and do at the end of the lesson, motivating them to start well by completing the assigned readings.
An effective TBL application should always follow the 4S framework, especially having the “Same” problem.
Having all teams work with the same problem is especially important to keep students’ interest and attention. If they’re working with different topics, they will not be able to learn from other alternative perspectives, and may be too distracted with worrying about their own presentation to absorb other teams’ sharing.
That’s all from me! Again, I’d like to hear the thoughts of other participants: Let us know the one thing you will incorporate into your next TBL lesson!
Last week, we completed the first workshop of the 5-part TBL Fundamental Series by CognaLearn, InteDashboard & Team-Based Learning Collaborative and I’m excited to share our key takeaways! 
Takeaway 1: Random selection ensures diversity when forming teams.
Takeaway 2: The most important benefit of TBL is gaining increased competence to apply knowledge.
Takeaway 3: Using Backward Design to develop a TBL module will ensure that students are have better content mastery.
Here are our top 2 takeaways:
A huge thanks to our brilliant facilitators, Akshata Naik and Suzan ElSayed, for guiding us through this enriching session! Excited for the remaining TBL Fundamentals workshops. To our participants, share your reflections or additional takeaways with us below! 
Teach students to provide helpful feedback to minimize their discomfort.
Check out our 
We concluded yet another meaningful session at the 4th workshop of our TBL Fundamentals Series with InteDashboard & Team-Based Learning Community. 
Here’s a recap of 2 tips to improve your facilitation skills:
Here’s a question for our participants: What other tips would you use to improve your TBL facilitation skills? Share with us below!
#EducationEvolution 
In a blink of an eye, we finished the last session of our Fundamental Series! Nicely wrapped up by our facilitators 