Team-based learning (TBL): Putting learning sciences research to work in the economics classroom

Abstract

In this article, the authors describe how Team-Based Learning (TBL) intentionally promotes learning strategies that learning sciences research has identified as highly effective to create powerful learning environments for students. The article illustrates how learning sciences principles and research findings inform and support the TBL framework, focusing on six evidence-based learning science strategies: (1) effortful retrieval practice; (2) spaced/distributed retrieval practice; (3) self-elaboration; (4) use of activities employing concrete examples; (5) appropriate sequencing of direct instruction and student exploration; and, (6) repeated use of highly-structured group-based activities throughout a course. The systematic and intentional integration of these strategies in TBL classes creates the potential for powerful learning relative to courses that fail to intentionally take into account learning sciences research in their design and pedagogy.

Keywords:

• Evidence-based learning strategies
• evidence-based teaching
• learning sciences
• team-based learning

JEL CODE:

• A22

Notes

1 Chew and Cerbin (2021) recently provided a useful cognitive framework for economics instructors, grounded in “nine cognitive challenges that teachers need to address in order to help students learn” (19), that aims to increase the use of learning sciences research findings in course design and pedagogy. The cognitive challenges they list (table 1) complement the six learning-sciences-based teaching strategies highlighted here; their recommendations for addressing those challenges include a number of teaching strategies discussed in this article.

2 Readers unfamiliar with TBL will benefit from reading Ruder, Maier, and Simkins (2021), who provide an overview of TBL course design, assessment, and activities, before reading the current article.

3 As McGoldrick and Garnett (2013) note, a variety of teaching practices can be used to promote learning with understanding through the use of context-rich, real-world problems, such as cases, a social issues course design, or carefully crafted Socratic discussion. A critical component in the “big think” approach is the careful crafting of the underlying learning exercises. The four “foundational criteria” for learning modules presented by McGoldrick and Garnett are complementary to TBL pedagogy, in particular the Application Exercises that make up the bulk of a TBL course.

4 This is also related to the importance of incorporating “desirable difficulties” into the learning process to promote learning, as discussed in Bjork (1994).

5 Immediate Feedback Assessment Technique (IF-AT) forms are available from Epstein Educational Enterprises (n.d.). See Calimeris and Kosack (2020) for a detailed discussion of the IF-AT instrument and previous research on its efficacy in promoting student learning.

6 Creating effective AEs with these characteristics is perhaps the biggest challenge for instructors starting out with TBL. The online Starting Point: Teaching and Learning Economics pedagogic portal (Maier, McGoldrick, and Simkins 2012) includes an extensive library of curated AEs covering a wide variety of economic topics (https://serc.carleton.edu/econ/tbl-econ/activities.html) that economics instructors can adopt or adapt for their own classes.

7 See Ruder, Maier, and Simkins (2021) for details on the design of effective Application Exercises and their use as part of the TBL teaching strategy.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Science Foundation under IUSE Grant DUE-1712295. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.