Team-Based Learning: Small Group Learning’s Next Big Step

Editors: Larry K. Michaelsen, Michael Sweet, Dean X. Parmelee Published: December 30, 2008 UTHSC Library

Team-Based Learning (TBL) is a unique form of small-group learning designed in and for the college classroom. TBL’s special combination of incentives and corrective feedback quickly transforms groups into high-performance learning teams, with no time taken from the coverage of course content. In this issue, the authors describe the practical elements of TBL, how it can look in the classroom, and what they have learned as it has grown into an interdisciplinary and international practice.

Chapters discuss:

• The Essential Elements of Team-Based Learning.
• The Social Foundation of Team-Based Learning: Students Accountable to Students
• Knowledge is No Longer Enough: Enhancing Profession Education with Team-Based Learning
• Teaching Skills for Facilitating Team-Based Learning
• Peer Assessment and Evaluation in Team-Based Learning
• Technological Alternatives to Paper-Based Components of Team-Based Learning
• Team-Based Learning in Asynchronous Online Settings

Importantly, TBL is not about teaching but about learning. Several articles in this volume illustrate this emphasis by using TBL students’ own words to reinforce key ideas. This is the 116th volume of the Jossey-Bass quarterly report series New Directions for Teaching and Learning, which offers a comprehensive range of ideas and techniques for improving college teaching based on the experience of seasoned instructors and the latest findings of educational and psychological researchers.