Dujeepa,
Thanks so much for sharing with everyone from your extraordinary experience of having extensive contact with both TBL and PBL. That is exceedingly unusual and therefore exceedingly valuable.
Could you share a few more specifics as to what you see as the strengths and limits of each?
Given my more limited exposure, here is what I have seen in each. Although each strategy promotes multiple kinds of good learning, the relative strength of PBL seems to be its ability to help students "learn how to learn" because that is essentially its primary focus. In comparison, the relative strength of TBL is its ability to help students learn how to apply their knowledge to challenging problems.
On the limit side, it seemed that PBL was good with smaller size classes but that it did not "scale up" well to larger classes (say, 75 to 200 students) because it traditionally has required many tutors to guide students through the process of handling "learning issues."
How would your comparison of the relative strengths and limits of these two teaching strategies compare with the one above? What would you change or add to this characterization?
Thanks again for sharing insights from your special experiences!
Dee Fink
*******************************
L. Dee Fink Phone: 405-364-6464
234 Foreman Ave. Email: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
Norman, OK 73069 FAX: 405-364-6464
Website: www.finkconsulting.info<http://www.finkconsulting.info/>
**National Project Director, Teaching & Curriculum Improvement (TCI) Project
**Senior Associate, Dee Fink & Associates Consulting Services
**Author of: Creating Significant Learning Experiences (Jossey-Bass, 2003)
**Former President of the POD [Professional & Organizational Development] Network in Higher Education (2004-2005)
________________________________
From: Team-Based Learning [[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Dujeepa D. Samarasekera [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Wednesday, May 13, 2009 11:14 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: PBL vs. TBL
Dear All,
I am reading with interest all the posts on comparisons and queries regarding TBL, PBL and other learning methodologies etc.
Having had the experience of going through a very "traditional" medical curriculum and later on in PBL setting as a postgrad student and currently through quite an extensive exposure to TBL as a professional, I feel each system has it's strengths and weaknesses. Whether a particular system will or will not work depends on the ground situation such as the learning environment which it is applied, resource availability, most importantly the training given to teachers & students on these particular method/s. Therefore, it is not wise to compare and contrast these methods out of context and or apply them without properly understanding how they will augment one's learning - teaching environment. Thanks.
Dujeepa
Dujeepa D. Samarasekera (Dr):: Deputy Head, Medical Education Unit, Dean's Office, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine :: National University of Singapore :: MD11 #01-08, Clinical Research Centre, 10 Medical Drive, Singapore 117597 :: 65-65163760 (DID):: 65-68721454 (Fax):: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> (E) :: www.nus.edu.sg<http://www.nus.edu.sg/> (W)
2009/5/13 Sweet, Michael S <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
My “elevator speech” on the difference between PBL and TBL is that they include many of the same pieces, but are just “reversed.”
By this I mean that in PBL students are given a complex problem FIRST and then have to go off on their own and figure what material they need to master in order to solve it.
However in TBL, students are FIRST provided a socio-intellectually powerful set of activities to help them master the necessary material and THEN are giving complex problems upon which to apply to apply that material. This is more consistent with the notion of instructional “scaffolding”.
Also, TBL is much more scalable to very large classes than PBL (in the way that PBL is traditionally done with facilitators for each group).
-M
________________________________
From: Team-Based Learning [mailto:[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>] On Behalf Of Sibley, Jim
Sent: Wednesday, May 13, 2009 9:01 AM
To: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: TBL in the NY Times, Five Questions
Hi Richard/Sandy
Another few differences between PBL and TBL
1) PBL has an information literacy piece where students go off with their learning issues, do independent research and come back to the group and integrate what they find…..TBL does have this except with careful design
2) In PBL is facilitator only….never expert…..in TBL you can step into the role of expert at appropriate times to aid student learning…..a lot of faculty are uncomfortable completely shedding the role of expert that PBL requires
Jim
________________________________
From: Team-Based Learning [mailto:[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>] On Behalf Of Sandy Cook
Sent: Tuesday, May 12, 2009 10:55 PM
To: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: TBL in the NY Times, Five Questions
Dear Richard,
I guess I can answer two of your questions to the TeamLearning listserv, being the Associate Dean for Curriculum at the Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School Singapore.
• Does anyone know what evidence supports Kamei's statement "Our first class did extraordinarily well using this method" as quoted above by Kolesnikov-Jessop?
We are in our 2nd year of existence. We have 26 2nd year students and 48 1st year students. Our results are quite preliminary, thus not yet published, but are encouraging. As background, we are delivering, essentially the traditional, often lecture based, Duke Curriculum using TBL exclusively in the 1st year basic sciences course; using some adapted versions of TBL in the 2nd year clinical teaching; hoping that lessons learned will apply for our students as they engage in their 3rd year research; and will be encouraging more TBL for 4th year return to clinical activities. We will be publishing as we move forward with this adventure, but are clearly not yet ready for prime-time.
Essentially, we start with the course and content structure from Duke and use their recorded lectures as the preparatory material. We have developed over 70 TBL sessions to provide the students with an active learning environment critically reviewing and discussing the principles set forth in the basic science lectures. We have used similar assessments as Duke (both in teacher made course exams and NBME Comprehensive Basic Science Exam (CBSE), Clinical Subject Exams) so that we can at least bench mark our performance to Duke Students. We also are measuring students’ attitudes on some environmental issues using the Dundee Ready Educational Environment Measure (DREEM). We will be measuring our students on their performance on the USMLE Step 1 and Step 2CK and would welcome any other thoughts on tools and measures to use to explore the impact of this learning strategy.
So, the statement by Dr. Kamei is based on the fact that our first group of 26 students performed similarly as the Duke Students on the faculty developed assessments yet when they took the CBSE exam, as did Duke students, at end of 1st year, without any study time (or encouragement even – but asked to use it diagnostically to see where their gaps were), Our students’ mean was statistically higher in comparison to Duke Students (n=100). Clearly there is lots of room for discussion on the validity of the comparison and limitations (from Halo effect to non comparable samples), which is why we are not yet ready to publish. We hope to be able to replicate the results in July when our current 48 first year class takes the CBSE for first time; and explore sustainability with the original group as they take CBSE for 2nd time. We acknowledge that this is only a small component of assessing impact and believe it is more than the knowledge that we will be influencing.
To our advantage, we have a natural control group at Duke who is not (yet) using this methodology, and provides us with ample opportunity to make interesting comparisons. Randomized Pre/Post is not exactly possible here, but we still think we have a good opportunity for learning some great things about this strategy.
• What's the difference between TBL and PBL?
I’m certain others can and have responded to this in more detail, but from our perspective the major differences are:
• Students in TBL are closely guided ahead of time (with direction from faculty/material) on what they need to know to solve the ‘problem’ they are given (or application in TBL terms) rather than using discovery learning. I should note that it is not a statement of “good” or “bad” about discovery learning – but just a different approach. It was more efficient for us to tell the students what to prepare rather than take the time to enable them to discover what they needed.
• Students come prepared (on this prep material) and are held accountable for that preparation in their grades through individual assessments; however, it is followed by group assessments on same material to further enhance learning. Just-in time learning- they are primed to learn based on their own individual struggles.
• All the teams are in the same room, so there are fewer facilitators needed and the facilitation engages all teams, so there is the same experience and similar closure on sessions for all students. Which was critical for us as our faculty size is very limited compared to a traditional medical school.
• All the problems are done in class so there are less group dynamic problems with someone doing part of the work for the group and individuals riding only on the group work.
There are probably many others, but these are the four key ones that we felt were important factors that influenced our decision to us this strategy over PBL.
Sandy
********************************************************
WE HAVE CHANGED OUR EMAIL ADDRESS - PLEASE CHANGE TO [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
Sandy COOK, PhD | Associate Dean, Curriculum Development | Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School Singapore | Khoo Teck Puat Building | 8 College Road
Singapore |169857 | W: (65) 6516 8722| F: (65) 6227 2698 | email: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> | web: http://www.duke-nus.edu.sg<http://www.duke-nus.edu.sg/>;
Administrative Executive: Belinda Yeo | [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> | 6516-8511
Important: This email is confidential and may be privileged. If you are not the intended recipient, please delete it and notify us immediately; you should not copy or use it for any purpose, nor disclose its contents to any other person. Thank you.
--
"The only person who is educated is the one who has learned how to learn and change." -- Carl Rogers