Evaluation of a Modified Team Based Learning Method for Teaching General Embryology to 1 st Year Medical Graduate Students

Background and Aims: To encourage student participation in the learning process, the authors introduced a modified team based learning (TBL) method to cover two general embryology topics in the 1^st year MBBS curriculum. The aim of this study was to evaluate students′ perception of this method vis-à-vis the lecture method of teaching.
Settings and Design: A questionnaire was used to survey and evaluate the perceptions of 1^st year MBBS students at the Department of Anatomy at our medical college in India.
Materials and Methods: A total of eight classes were allotted to cover General Embryology. Six of these classes were conducted using the traditional didactic lecture method. Two topics were covered using the modified TBL method. Five teams of students were constituted, and each team was given handouts which contained basic factual material, four clinical case histories, and previous university exam questions from the topic. On the day of the session, these were discussed in the presence of the faculty facilitator. Students evaluated these sessions through a questionnaire.
Results: A majority of students felt that the modified TBL sessions were better at fulfilling learning objectives (46 students, 85%), enabled better understanding (43 students, 79%), were more interesting (43 students, 81%), ensured greater student participation (51 students, 94%) and involved greater effort on the part of students (53 students, 98%), as compared to traditional teaching methods. Most of the students (43 students, 79%) opined that more such sessions should be organized in the future.
Conclusions: Responses from students show that the modified TBL classes could be utilized judiciously along with the traditional didactic lectures for teaching embryology.