Education in the health professions is placing greater emphasis on "active" learning—learning that requires applying knowledge to authentic problems and that teaches students to engage in the kind of collaboration that is expected in today's clinical practice.

Team-Based Learning (TBL) is a strategy for accomplishing these goals. It can be used to transform passive, lecture-based coursework into an environment that promotes more self-directed learning and teamwork.

This book is an introduction to TBL for health professional educators. It outlines the theory, structure, and process of TBL, explains how TBL promotes problem solving and critical thinking skills, aligns with the goals of science and health courses, improves knowledge retention and application, and develops students as professional practitioners. The book provides models and guidance on team formation and maintenance, peer feedback and evaluation processes, and facilitation. A directory of tools and resources is also included.

Chapters are included in which instructors from a broad range of courses describe how they apply TBL. The book concludes with a review and critique of the current scholarship on TBL in the health professions, and explores the need for future research.

Edited by Larry K. Michaelsen, Dean X. Parmelee, Kathryn K. McMahon, and Ruth E. Levine

ISBN: 978-1-57922-248-2; 2007; 256 pages; softbound