Team-Based Learning

Team-Based Learning is a teaching strategy which is a flipped-classroom pedagogy (though popular long before the term “flipped classroom” was invented!) in which students prepare with basic content knowledge outside of class, and then after assuring that they are truly prepared, they work though increasingly complex application problems, in permanent teams, during class time. I’m a certified trainer/consultant in TBL and I am happy to provide information and advice on its implementation. If your university, college, department, etc. would like to have a workshop on the method, please contact me (or see more on the Workshops/Consulting page.)

For full immersion in TBL, I recommend either one of the Team-Based Learning Collaborative’s fly-in workshops– there’s one every fall– or especially the annual national TBL conference, which will next be held in March, 2019.

TBLAandPboard

Both photos on this page are parts of teams working together in my Anatomy & Physiology class.

TBL Resources: The very best repository of TBL resources is Jim Sibley’s page. He also has a new book about TBL, with Peter Ostafichuk, and he recently recorded a great interview with the Teaching in Higher Ed podcast. Here are some other books and resources about TBL. Here is my list of papers about TBL. And here is a short video of Team-Based Learning in my Anatomy & Physiology class (specifically, the “debrief” of a worksheet; while the discussion shown here is not a classic TBL “simultaneous report,” it does show the value in having discussion and answers come “up” from the students instead of from the instructor.)