Team-based learning: A new approach toward improving education

Team-based learning is designed to provide students with both conceptual and procedural knowledge,aiming to enhance active learning and critical thinking. in the present study,team-based learning and lecture methods in teaching the hospital organization and management course among hospital management students were compared. this quasi-experimental study was conducted on 25 undergraduate students of management. teaching sessions were divided into two parts. the first part was taught with interactive lectures and the second part with team-based learning method. the students’ knowledge was measured before,immediately and two months (late post-test) after teaching. finally,the mean scores of the final exam and students’ satisfaction towards the methods of teaching were measured. there was an improvement in test scores of the students after the tbl sessions when compared to the test scores after lecture sessions (p<0.001). also,tbl group had significantly a higher amount of knowledge retention compared to the lecture group (p<0.001),but no significant relationship was found between the mean scores of the final exam in the tbl and lecture groups (p=0.116). finally,the majority of the respondents were more satisfied with tbl sessions compared to the ones held through lecture (p=0.037). the results indicated that tbl provides a better outcome for students. we found that the tbl approach allowed us to create an active learning environment that contributed to the improvement of the students’ performances. © 2016 tehran university of medical sciences. all rights reserved.