Adapting Team-Based Learning for Application in the Basic Electric Circuit Theory Sequence

Abstract

Team-based learning (TBL) is a form of student-centered active learning in which students independently study new conceptual material before it is treated in the classroom, and then subsequently spend considerable classroom time working in groups on increasingly challenging problems and applications based on that new material. TBL provides students with opportunities to not only learn course content better than in the traditional lecture-based setting, but also to develop various transferable professional skills, such as self-directed independent learning, problem solving, and interpersonal team skills. Because of these potential benefits, TBL was adapted as the principal teaching and learning strategy in a two-course sophomore-level electric circuit theory sequence, where it has been used since 2010. This paper describes beneficial changes that have evolved in the implementation of TBL in the circuit theory sequence. Those changes have been based, in part, on student evaluations of the strategy, which are described. Finally, instruments used to assess student learning in the TBL-taught courses are also described. They provide evaluation information that suggests the described revised version of TBL is an effective way to facilitate learning of both technical content and several professional skills in the sophomore-level electric circuit theory sequence.