Developing Effective In-Class Group Activities That Apply to Clinical Practice

Developing Effective In-Class Group Activities That Apply to Clinical Practice Background: Greater student diversity and expansion of the graduate practitioner programs led to the adoption of Team Based Learning (TBL) developed by Michaelsen (1994) as the overall teaching strategy. TBL is a small group-based instructional method that consists of three phases. Phase one was individual pre-class preparation. In-class, phase two was readiness assurance individual and group quiz. Phase three was the application of course concepts to clinical practice. Students from different areas of concentration were assigned to teams for the semester Purpose: Describe strategies to develop effective in-class group activities that apply course concepts to clinical practice. Method: “What do we want the students to be able to do when they leave this course?” and course objectives were the foundation for all three phases of TBL. Phase one was focused study questions for student reading assignments. In phase two, students took a quiz based on the readings and immediately took the same quiz as a group. Faculty led discussion and mini-lectures immediately after the group quiz ensured students’ understanding of core concepts. Phase three group activities applied core concepts to clinical practice. In-class group activities included case studies, multiple-choice questions, cross word puzzles, image sorting, and data plotting. Results: Effectiveness of the group process was related to (1) individual and group accountability, (2) assignments that reinforced individual, group, and in-class discussion within and between groups, (3) linked assignments to the same significant clinical problem that required a specific choice, (4) groups reported choices simultaneously, and (5) students received immediate feedback on their choices.