Team-Based Learning in Health Professions Education

Team-Based Learning (TBL) is an active learning strategy designed to enhance knowledge acquisition, critical thinking and collaborative skills among health professions students. In its classical form, TBL comprises pre-class preparation, individual and team readiness assurance tests, and application exercises that challenge teams to solve real-world clinical or theoretical problems. Immediate feedback from facilitators and peer interaction reinforce accountability and promote deeper learning. TBL combines the strengths of small-group dynamics with the scalability required for large cohorts, making it an attractive alternative or complement to traditional lectures and problem-based learning. Its structured approach stimulates learner engagement, supports interprofessional education and has been associated with improved examination performance, knowledge retention and learner satisfaction. Globally, TBL has been adapted for diverse content areas—from anatomy and basic sciences to advanced clinical clerkships—and for various delivery modes, including face-to-face, hybrid and fully online programmes. Evaluations consistently highlight gains in teamwork, professional development and self-directed learning, while exposing areas for refinement, such as optimising problem-solving time and integrating robust peer evaluation mechanisms. As health professions education seeks to prepare graduates for collaborative practice in complex healthcare systems, TBL stands out for its capacity to foster both individual accountability and collective competence.

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Team-Based Learning in Health Professions Education publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in team-based learning in health professions education across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Team-Based Learning (TBL): A structured active-learning pedagogy that organises learners into permanent teams to complete preparatory work, readiness tests and application exercises with immediate feedback.

Readiness Assurance Test (RAT): A formative assessment conducted individually (iRAT) and subsequently in teams (tRAT) to ensure learners have grasped pre-class materials before progressing to application tasks.

Interprofessional Education (IPE): An educational approach in which learners from two or more health professions learn with, from and about each other to foster collaborative practice and improve patient care.

Application Exercise: A team-based problem-solving activity designed to apply concepts to authentic scenarios, often involving clinical case studies or simulation-style challenges.

References

1. Training interprofessional teams in geriatric emergency medicine: A modified team-based learning approach. Heliyon (2024).
2. Team- and Problem-Based Learning in Health Services: A Systematic Literature Review of Recent Initiatives in the United States. Education Sciences (2024).
3. Team-based learning: design, facilitation and participation. BMC Medical Education (2020).