A silver bullet to higher performance in human learning and development

In this episode we speak to Dr. Steve Cayzer about Team Based Learning, a highlight effective framework for teaching large groups using peer based learning techniques.  Dr. Cayzer is  a senior lecturer at the University of Bath teaching students across a range of MSc programmes covering innovation, project management, product development and sustainability.  He is a board member of the Team Based Learning Collaborative and runs a community of practice in the University of Bath and beyond.  Dr. Cayzer has a PhD in computational neuroscience from Cambridge and a degree in physiology. 

Team Based Learning (TBL) has been around since the late 1970's and a body of work has built up around the effective application in higher education.  Having experimented with TBL since 2017, Dr Cayzer has replicated some of the staggering results promised by this method in his own courses at Bath University.   This precise and prescriptive framework for learning and development is delivering on average of 20% higher test scores across the student body.  Not only are the individual performance scores better but teams are also able to solve complex problems that they would not be able to solve as individuals.  The process works as follows:

In TBL activities, individual students are initially provided with lecture content and prescribed reading etc. This will cover the basic concepts and principles. A ‘flipped classroom’ method applies where the responsibility of initially learning  of the content is placed outside of the classroom and is the accountability of the student. After the content is consumed students are assessed on their individual mastery of the content via an assessment. Following the individual testing, students retake the exact same test (closed book) in their pre-assigned teams, and submit a single best answer for their team. This time, the team immediately finds out if their team consensus submission was correct or not. Following this session, the teams are given a practically oriented problem and apply the knowledge gained so far in order to answer questions related to the case. One of the advantages of TBL, for faculty, is that it is a well-defined, structured process that, if followed, will give good academic results and can serve to minimize the variability of the content expert.  

Students have to follow the process and the team based activities means that many problems that individuals may have, are triaged by the group.  This means that clarification lectures that follow the group activities, can focus on the  2 or 3 key problems that are common across multiple teams on the course.   

As a whole, the body of available evidence suggests that TBL is an effective method of instruction that results in improved learning outcomes for students.  Dr Cayzer is driving the expansion of the the method and working collaboratively with industry and other universities to build awareness, understanding and adoption.  It might be a silver bullet but it is not without its challenges. It takes dedication to convert course content and    Dr. Cayzer gives us an inspiring look at the bleeding edge of higher education and what impact if might have on development in the corporate world as well.

Access TBLC resources here

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Get the TBL Book here

Access Steve on the Research Portal here his website here

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