Getting Students to Do Economics: An Introduction to Team-Based Learning

Abstract

Team-Based Learning (TBL) is a highly structured form of cooperative learning that facilitates development of higher-order cognitive skills such as application, analysis and evaluation. In this paper, I discuss the basics of the TBL approach in the context of a data analysis course for economics majors and address some of the questions and concerns about TBL that are common among instructors new to the pedagogy. Data from student surveys suggest that this approach is highly engaging for students and encourages them to work more effectively on much more complex problems than would otherwise be possible.