Interactive, Team‐Based Learning Environment Enhances Students Learning and Confidence

Abstract

Many students enter a class lacking appropriate self‐confidence, which can negatively impact their performance in the course. Active learning environments lend to a milieu whereby strategies that allow students to fully participate in the course even when understanding is low are used, which could provide opportunities for confidence to grow among these students. Additionally, research has shown that active‐learning strategies can improve both student’s exam performance and their satisfaction with the course. A flipped teaching model is an interactive pedagogical approach that focuses on learner‐centered instruction by employing learning strategies in the classroom. Coupled with team‐based methodology, such a learner‐centered model can facilitate collaboration‐based discussion and small group work that ask students to engage in higher order thinking, possibility leading to a gain in confidence that translates into an improvement in performance. While evidence that supports the effectiveness of a learner‐centered approach on the benefits of student learning is well established, a growing body of research has shown this approach to have a positive impact on student’s self‐confidence and its relationship to grades. In this preliminary study, students enrolled in a team‐based, flipped undergraduate Human Anatomy and Physiology course were asked to anonymously self‐assess their level of confidence in learning the course material both before the course and after it. 54% of students (n=28) reported either highest or high increases in their confidence from the start of the course to the end of it, whereas, 15% reported their confidence levels as neutral (no change) and 2% of students reported low confidence. Additionally, students were asked to assess the impact team‐based quizzes and active learning activities had on their confidence in learning the course material. 56% of students of students enrolled in the course noted an increase in confidence as a result of the team‐based quizzes, and 52.4% reported that the in‐class active learning activities positively boosted their confidence in learning the material. 4% indicated that team‐based quizzes had a no impact on confidence. Not one student indicated that the in‐class activities did not increase their confidence in some way. Taken together, these preliminary results suggest that an interactive, team‐based learning approach in a Human Anatomy and Physiology course can have a positive impact on confidence and should be further explored.