title: Active learning in a Year 2 pathology curriculum.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Team-based learning (TBL) has been successfully used in non-medical curricula, but its effectiveness in medical education has not been studied extensively. We evaluated the impact of TBL on the academic performance of Year 2 medical students at Wright State University by comparing this active learning strategy against a traditional method of case-based group discussion (CBGD).
  
  
  METHODS
  A prospective crossover design assigned 83 Year 2 medical students to either CBGD or TBL for 8 pathology modules in the systems-based curriculum. The effectiveness of both learning methods was assessed by performance on pathology-based examination questions contained in end-of-course examinations. The highest and lowest academic quartiles of students were evaluated separately. Students' opinions of both methods were surveyed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  No significant differences in whole group performance on pathology-based examination questions were observed as a consequence of experiencing TBL versus CBGD. However, students in the lowest academic quartile showed better examination performance after experiencing TBL than CBGD in 4 of 8 modules (P = 0.035). Students perceived that the contributions of peers to learning were more helpful during TBL than CBGD (P = 0.003).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study demonstrates that TBL and CBGD are equally effective active learning strategies when employed in a systems-based pre-clinical pathology curriculum, but students with lower academic performance may benefit more from TBL than CBGD.
authors.affiliation: Wright State University School of Medicine, Dayton, Ohio 45435-0001, USA. paul.koles@wright.edu
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Koles
authors.forename: Stuart
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Nelson
authors.forename: Adrienne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Stolfi
authors.forename: Dean
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Parmelee
authors.forename: Dan
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Destephen
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003479:Curriculum; D004504:Education, Medical, Undergraduate / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006126:Group Processes; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010338:Pathology, Clinical / Q000193:education*; D018794:Problem-Based Learning / Q000379:methods*; D011446:Prospective Studies; D013663:Teaching / Q000379:methods*