Interprofessional Team-Based Learning Improves Graduate Level Comprehension, Accountability, Collaboration and Satisfaction in Gross Anatomy
Purpose/Hypothesis: The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of Team-Based Learning (TBL) on student performance, accountability, delivery preference (vs. traditional lecture) and satisfaction in a graduate applied anatomy course with doctoral physical therapy (DPT) and occupational therapy (OTD) students.
Number of Subjects: 79 students enrolled in a DPT or DOT program.
Materials and Methods: The students engaged in a specific interdisciplinary TBL experience covering the upper-extremity. The effects of TBL on academic performance, accountability, delivery preference and satisfaction were measured. Performance was assessed by comparing exam performance vs. the historically similar cohort. An Independent sample-t test was used to determine if there was a significant change in exam score between groups. Accountability, delivery preference and satisfaction were measured using the Team-Based Learning Student Assessment Instrument (TBL-SAI).
Results: A superior examination performance was found for the TBL cohort vs. the historical control over the exact same material (7 points or one-half std. dev.). An independent samples t-test revealed that the mean exam performance differences between the TBL vs. the historical group was statistically significant, t(177) = 3.496, p= .00 (Cohen’s D = 0.538). The students considered at greatest risk (lower performers) disproportionally benefited by their involvement in the team-based intervention evidenced by the lack of a negative tale and concurrent right shift in the exam performance distribution. The results of the TBL-SAI instrument demonstrated that students found TBL to have a higher level of accountability than lecture while preference for TBL vs. traditional lecture was neutral. Students reported a higher level of satisfaction with the TBL learning experience and reported a more favorable experience overall with TBL when compared with traditional lecture.
Conclusions: The use of TBL in a graduate level applied anatomy course with both physical therapy and occupational therapy students significantly improved exam performance as compared to the traditional lecture format. The use of team-based learning also demonstrated disproportionally positive benefits for the lower performing students in the course (both DPT and DOT). Additionally, students reported a more favorable experience with TBL when compared to the traditional lecture format with which applied anatomy is taught.
Clinical Relevance: While cadavers, pro-sections, plastic models and computer-based visual models are often used to augment student learning, they often are used as a bolt-on augmentation to otherwise passive forms of learning such as the traditional lecture. The use of TBL is an active solution to that of traditional lecture which provides greater engagement and satisfaction for the student while having a positive effect on student performance. Most promising is the evidence that this active form of engagement provides significant benefit to those students who would normally struggle in the learning and assimilation of this material.