Application of Team-Based Learning at a Health Science Course: A Case Study

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to identify students’ reactions to the implementation of team-based learning as an instructional strategy in a pharmacology course in the context of a Turkish university. Team-based learning is defined as an active form of learning that not only encourages individual effort but also team involvement to learn in an academic setting. Team-based learning is one of the learning techniques/methods that is increasingly being used in medical education. Literature shows that in team-based learning students apply the concepts at the time they are learned in the classroom, before the exams, as opposed to traditional lecturing, in which the concepts that are learned are later tested in the exams. Furthermore, research supports that faculty are more engaged with their students in team-based learning, since it affords instructors the ability to readily identify what their students are achieving, as opposed to traditional lecturing or other group approaches. There are limited studies in Turkey that examine the applications of team-based learning in a higher education setting. Therefore, this study describes the use of the team-based learning technique in an undergraduate health science course in Turkey. The initial results indicate that this instructional strategy was beneficial for students’ learning.

Keywords

• active learning
• adult education
• health science
• higher education
• high power distance
• large classroom
• team-based learning