Journal article
Implementation of team-based learning in a new postgraduate medical curriculum
BMC Medical Education, Vol.Advanced access
19-Sep-2026
Abstract
Background
Team-based learning (TBL) is a structured, small group evidence-based learning activity that focuses on student-centered learning and broadly encompasses methods of teaching that shift the focus of instruction from the teacher to the student, an application of learning grounded in the constructivist view. In an Australian postgraduate medical curriculum, which traditionally taught pre-clinical foundational knowledge through problem-based learning (PBL), a pilot study was conducted to implement TBL during a curriculum transition to assess perceptions of learning. TBL was piloted to improve the time and resource demands compared to PBL, and the reported strengthened student benefits in learning and teaching literature.
Methods
First year pre-clinical medical students (N = 48) and instructors (N = 2) participated in the mixed methods study. Students from the reference group, who only completed PBL (PBL only, N = 25), for the purpose of collecting a comparative quantitative measure, were compared to students who completed PBL and TBL (PBL + TBL, N = 23) in the renal system block of the program. Students were evaluated on learning perspectives in small groups and on their knowledge performance. General feedback from the instructor’s experience of small group learning and implementation of TBL was also collected.
Results
Knowledge performance between the groups was comparable, with a mixed opinion of positive and negative perceptions of TBL in comparison to PBL. Feedback on small group learning pertained to time for learning tasks, class dynamics, feedback on learning and learning design.
Conclusion
This pilot study describes the implementation of TBL in a postgraduate program and the observed perceptions by students and instructors. Results suggest that small group learning affords comparable grade outcomes, and students perceived that TBL provided opportunities for team skills such as communication, reasoning, and building rapport in a small group learning format for a common goal. This study provided confidence to change teaching frameworks from PBL to TBL for a pre-clinical curriculum in an Australian medical program.
Details
- Title
- Implementation of team-based learning in a new postgraduate medical curriculum
- Authors
- Rebecca Donkin (Corresponding Author) - University of the Sunshine CoastNicole Flemming - University of the Sunshine Coast
- Publication details
- BMC Medical Education, Vol.Advanced access
- Publisher
- BioMed Central Ltd.
- DOI
- 10.1186/s12909-026-10391-8
- ISSN
- 1472-6920
- Copyright note
- This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, which permits any non-commercial use, sharing, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if you modified the licensed material. You do not have permission under this licence to share adapted material derived from this article or parts of it. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.
- Data Availability
- No datasets were generated or analysed during the current study
- Organisation Unit
- School of Health - Biomedicine; Cancer Research Cluster
- Language
- English
- Record Identifier
- 991263455902621
- Output Type
- Journal article
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