Dear TBLC Colleagues,

 

I had an interesting debate today in a meeting of colleagues who run a one-year professional master’s degree in our School of Medicine. This program employs TBL across the required core science curriculum (involving multiple courses) and to date, we have kept teams together across semesters throughout the year in all such required science courses. The students are assembled into different teams for a professional exploration/development/formation course that does not employ TBL; otherwise, all required coursework is done in the same TBL teams.

 

So here’s my question for the list: does anyone know if there have been studies defining best practice recommendations for keeping teams together across academic semesters when TBL is used consistently in multiple courses?

 

We are considering reforming teams at the halfway point in our year, but would want to be guided by the evidence for best practice in this matter. My own sense is that year-long teams work best; but I am willing to persuaded by data to the contrary.

 

Thank you very much for sharing your pointers to literature, and your own experiences on this question.

 

Best wishes,

 

Len

 

 

Leonard E. White, PhD

Associate Professor

Department of Neurology

Department of Neurobiology

Duke University School of Medicine

 

Associate Director for Integrative Human Biological Sciences

Master of Biomedical Sciences

Duke University School of Medicine

 

Co-Director of Undergraduate Studies in Neuroscience

Trinity College of Arts and Sciences

 

Co-Director of Brain and Society

Bass Connections