Team-based learning, anyone?


TBL in DetroitJoel Topf is a keen nephrology blogger and postgraduate teacher who has recently become involved in a new undergraduate programme.  Read his enthusiastic account of Team-Based Learning for second year students in Detroit.

The concept of team-based learning is over 30 years old.  It was the invention of Larry Michaelson at the Univ Oklahoma Business Schoo.  It looks something like a cross between Flipped Teaching and Problem Based Learning,  with a dash of competition and point-scoring to catalyse the mix.  An important difference from PBL is the key role for an expert.  Very clever.  Looks very good.

There is an excellent video outlining how to do TBL (and why) linked from the TBL collaborative website, which has many more resources.  Wikipedia on TBL

You can buy those scratch cards here


2 responses to “Team-based learning, anyone?”

  1. I have seen team-based learning as one of the components of Peer Teaching or the Flipped Classroom, though of course all these pieces and their specifics are somewhat independent and could be constructed to suit the context and purpose. Eric Mazur describes something very similar, based on prior preparation (online lectures, reading etc) then problem solving in teams, within the large group session, with the emphasis on students explaining their answers to teammates.
    There is an important difference between TBL and PBL: the latter wasn’t designed for problem-solving. If Edinburgh’s MBChB were to move to the Flipped Classroom, the PBL could support the student’s quest for mastery of the topic/s before a large group session and problem solving with the expert.

Leave a Reply to Neil Turner Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *