The Effect of Team-Based Learning on Family Medicine Training Courses for Medical Student with Different Academic Performance
Ying W. Wang, MD Dr.PH Buddhist Tzu Chi General Hospital
Background: Traditionally family medicine curriculum was taught in large group in three days workshop before students participate into the clinical practice. In the first semester of 2009, we renew the curriculum with TBL in part of the topics for 6th year medical students. We also compare the result for students of different academic performance after using TBL as a major teaching strategy.
Description: The course consisted of introduction about preventive medicine, palliative medicine, and occupational medicine, each comprised of 4-hour session with TBL teaching method. Readiness assurance pretest scores are compared with posttest scores. Semi-structured questionnaire were administered to students after the TBL sessions to evaluate student perceptions of TBL.
Evaluation: Twenty-five students participated in the teaching course. The results show that using TBL can significantly improve learning outcome, particularly for those students with poor academic performance (pretest score, 72.5; posttest score, 89.2). The majority of students acknowledged TBL to be an interesting and inspiring learning experience, more willing to take part in active learning (43.4%) and has good learner-to-learner interaction in class (47.8%).
Conclusion: TBL is a good strategy which can be used effectively and interactively in the class. All students appreciated the teaching method. TBL is most useful for those students with poor academic performance in the past.
