The Early Milestones of Team-based Learning: The Key is Sustained Practice

Abstract

Background: To explore students’ perceptions of team-based learning (TBL) initial
implementation in a medical school in Saudi Arabia.
Methods: This descriptive study used the validated TBL-Student Assessment
Instrument (TBL-SAI) to gauge students’ perception of TBL in three subscales:
accountability, preference, and satisfaction. Study participants were fourth-year
students at the College of Medicine in Prince Sattam Bin Abdul Aziz University, studying
a nine-week introductory surgery course in the academic year 2019–2020. Descriptive
statistics using the mean scores were used to highlight the results.
Results: Thirty-three students participated in the study. While the mean scores for
the three subscales were: accountability 30 (SD 6.6) (neutral score = 24), preference
43.2 (SD 10.8) (neutral score = 48), and satisfaction 25.2 (SD 8.9) (neutral score = 27),
the mean of the total questionnaires’ scores was 98.4 (SD 21.8) (neutral score = 99).
Students expressed a minor level of accountability, poor preference and satisfaction,
and an overall low rating of TBL activities.
Conclusion: Low students’ engagement with TBL is likely attributed to their
unfamiliarity with this approach and the hostility that they may experience when
challenged to refrain from passive learning habits and take an active role toward their
learning. Lack of the necessary skills and experience to facilitate TBL encounters
and the educational climate where didactic teaching is pervasive may be other
factors. Exposure to TBL may initially be associated with poor students’ perception.
Perseverance, strong commitment alongside adequate institutional support are
necessarily required to mitigate poor outcomes.