Team-Based Learning Enhances Long-Term Retention and Critical Thinking in an Undergraduate Microbial Physiology Course

Abstract

We used team-based learning to improve comprehension and critical thinking of students in an undergraduate microbial metabolism-physiology course. The course used well-known bacterial pathways to highlight themes of energy conservation and biodegradation. Prior to the introduction of team-based learning, student recall of this information was poor and students had difficulty extrapolating information to new organisms. Initially, individual and group quizzes were added to promote problem-solving and critical-thinking skills. This significantly improved student attitudes about the amount of information they learned and whether the instructor promoted critical thinking. However, retention of the material as judged by final examination scores was still poor. In the next year, two challenging projects were added to the course to complement the above themes: (i) postulating a pathway for the metabolism of a substrate by a bacterium, and (ii) modifying the current model for anaerobic sulfate reduction by incorporating recent genetic information. The inclusion of the team projects significantly improved final examination scores compared to the previous year without team projects. Overall, team-based learning with challenging projects improved the students’ comprehension and retention of information, critical thinking, and attitudes about the course and focused student-instructor interactions on learning rather than grades.