gms | German Medical Science

Team-Based Learning is a well-defined instructional strategy that is being employed increasingly in medical education. This approach allows a single instructor to manage multiple small groups simultaneously in one classroom and has the potential to promote active, small group, interactive learning without requiring large numbers of faculty facilitators. The structure of the team-based learning sequence fosters a very high level of content learning by giving students several passes at increasing their understanding of the course material. The first pass occurs at the level of individual study of the material before class activities, a task for which they are held accountable on the first individual test. Then, during the four steps of the Readiness Assurance process, students increase their understanding by trying to answer questions individually and through group discussion, reviewing the assigned readings to make appeals, and receiving additional focused input from the instructor being an expert in his field [1], [2], [3].