So you think you know the autonomic nervous system? – Using team based learning to support student understanding and engagement in undergraduate seminars.

Background and Aims: Student engagement with seminar sessions is variable and depends on factors as far ranging as the type of learning tasks given to the academic level of the seminar leader and can even include the time of day. Information from a feedback survey of our level 4 Pharmacology module suggested that students did not see the significance of seminar sessions in consolidating their learning with many reporting these sessions were simply to gain example questions for assessments. In addition, exam question analysis (Speedwell) showed that students struggled with the concept of the autonomic nervous system in formative exams despite ample coverage within lectures. To respond to this I have introduced a series of case study and team based learning seminars which utilise the student response system Turning Point to improve student participation and wider learning in these undergraduate seminars.

Summary of work: A series of short, team based quizzes (approx. 5 questions per quiz, 4 quizzes in total) were designed using the Turning Point ‘clicker’ response pads. Each set of quizzes related directly to a themed area from lectures (for example, sympathetic innervation). Students were randomly assigned to small groups of no more than 4 students and given one ‘clicker’ per group. They were asked to work as a team and select a single best answer from a list of options within a pre-set time. At the end of each quiz slides from the corresponding lectures were discussed and student teams were asked to comment on responses from all teams and justify the ‘group’ answer before the correct answer was revealed. At the end of the session a fun animation is used to visualise the ‘team’ success in each themed area compared with their peers.

Outcomes: Comparing exam marks for questions relating to the autonomic nervous system from student cohorts in 2007 (pre-quiz) with those in 2009 (post-quiz) it is clear that the seminars enhanced the students learning as the % of students answering correctly on 8 core questions increased from 58% to 69%. This improvement in examination performance is equivalent to that seen in medical students studying Pharmacology through similarly designed team based sessions (1). Student feedback is also positive indicating an improved engagement at this early point of the degree programme. Examples of student comments include: “The most useful seminars I’ve had this year have come from this module!”; “Seminars really useful as applying knowledge in a more practical way”; “All modules should do this”.

Discussion and conclusion: Using team based sessions where students must justify their decisions with peers before submitting an answer allows students to engage in greater depth with the activity and their learning. Students can track their own progress through the questions in comparison to their peers in a fun and supportive way as no individual responses are visualised. This type of interactive and team based approach is of particular importance to introverted learners who generally struggle to engage in discursive seminar environments because of fears of stating a wrong answer. Anecdotal evidence from students suggests this type of seminar is particularly supportive to students with English as a second language.

References:

1. Zgheib, NK. Simaan, JA. & Sabra R. (2010) Using team based learning to teach pharmacology to second year medical students improves student performance. Medical Teacher; 32: 2, 130-135.