Not advice, just sharing our experience of 10+ years with medical students:

Our first year teams are formed in a stratefied random approach, distributing students who
have advanced degrees in the biological sciences, then by geographic background, e.g. students for whom English is a second language get distributed, the kids from Columbus, Cleveland all get distributed.

For the second year, I and the class president assign students to new teams so that no two students who were in a team in year 1 are on the same team in year 2.  I do this simply:  every student's name is on either a pink or blue piece of paper with their 1st year team number; we distribute the colors so every team has gender balance, then the president makes sure no 'known couples' are together.  That's it.  The students are told how we do it, can watch a little video clip of the process if they don't believe me.

At the end of every first year, students beg to stay with their teams - even those who had some 'rough spots' with team members early on.  It is absolutely amazing to watch how quickly the new teams in the second year get to work and how well they do it.  I ask them for the first few weeks how it is going.  They say they miss their old team, but, love working with the new set and do notice that getting started a second time is much easier.  

Hope this helps.  


Dean Parmelee, M.D.
Robert J. Kegerreis Distinguished Professor of Teaching
Associate Dean for Academic Affairs
Boonshoft School of Medicine
Wright State University
Dayton, Ohio
http://www.med.wright.edu/aa/parmelee.html 


On Jun 14, 2013, at 9:55 AM, Clements-Jewery, Hugh wrote:

This past year, TBL was implemented across the entire 1st year curriculum at my medical school. We kept the same teams throughout the year. Now these students will be entering their second year of our preclinical curriculum in which TBL will also be used extensively. Is it recommended that different teams be formed compared to their 1st year? If so, what criteria should be used to form the teams for the second year? We used the following criteria to sort teams for their first year of TBL:
 
1)    Greater than two years of full time clinical experience
2)    One to two years of full time clinical experience
3)    Advanced degree (masters or PhD) in a biomedical field
4)    Have taken a cadaveric dissection anatomy course
5)    Played a team sport in college
6)    Played a team sport in high school
7)    Like to learn by reading textbooks
 
If we use the same criteria for their second year this presumably would lead to more or less the same teams.
 
Thanks in advance-
 
Hugh
 
Hugh Clements-Jewery, Ph.D.
 
Associate Professor of Physiology
West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine
400 N Lee Street
Lewisburg, WV 24901
 
Office: +1-304-793-6822
Fax: +1-304-645-4859