Implementation of structured team-based review enhances knowledge consolidation and academic performance of undergraduate medical students studying neuroscience

Abstract

Team-based learning (TBL) provides a systematic approach to teaching and learning and promotes critical thinking and enhances medical educational activities and professional development. TBL-based didactic methodology has proven beneficial in enhancing learning and consolidating key educational concepts throughout educational curricula. Such areas of application include neuroscience, which is traditionally considered to be one of the most difficult disciplines to be taught in undergraduate medical courses to the point where the scientific literature reports “neurophobia” among undergraduate medical students. Herein, we report the design and application of a modified version of TBL, which we termed team-based review (TBR) throughout two cohorts of undergraduate medical students undertaking neuroscience. We show that our TBR methodology enhanced student understanding of neuroscience, increasing average marks and grades achieved in final exams, while also increasing the proportion of students obtaining higher grades. Application of TBR also improved marks obtained by students throughout continuous assessment (midterms, TBL, and problem-based learning grades). In surveys taken following final exams, students strongly felt that TBR enhanced their learning experience and aided knowledge acquisition, consolidation, and exam preparation. Collectively, we show that TBR-based methodology was effective in enhancing the student learning experience and performance in neuroscience and could potentially be successfully used to enhance performance and learning in other subjects in the undergraduate medical curriculum.

Medical students' perception and academic performance after team-based and seminar-based learning in human anatomy

“…(2020) provided students with a pressure-free environment to consolidate knowledge obtained throughout the course and improved their performance. 37 To the best of our knowledge, there are no previous studies of undergraduate achievements in anatomy seminars. In our study, student achievements in TBL were compared with their achievements in seminars as two balanced modalities regarding their weight in the assessment, the conduction frequency, their weight in the curriculum, and covering topics of nearly the same size.…”

“… 28 As well, student perception showed that modified TBL made the students feel restful and enhanced their knowledge consolidation, exam preparation, and performance. 37 …”

Impact of readiness assurance process and faculty feedback on individual application exercises: a model for continuous assessment in physiology

“…Furthermore, with an experimental approach, we explored to what extent the structured activities within CAP would interact and contribute toward the acquisition of conceptual knowledge for clinical application. A recent study reported on novel TBL-based approaches practiced in large classroom settings to enhance student understanding for tougher course concepts, wherein the team-based review was designed based on TBL methodology, with only group readiness assurance tests (gRATs) administered without individual readiness assurance tests (iRATs) to encourage student debate and discussions for knowledge acquisition (1).…”

Cognitive Process of Pre-service Science Teachers Using Problem-based Learning on Nervous System Concepts

“…Various Grau et al, 2021;Adams & Dewsbury, 2020;Zangerolamo, et al, 2020;Cardozo, et al, 2020;Gonzales, et.al., 2020;Khursid, et al, 2020;Kadarusman, et al, 2020;Quiroga & Choate, 2019;and McQueen & McMillan, 2018). Learning strategies must also construct mental models in order to achieve higher mental models…”