Values and Knowledge Education combined with Team Based Learning for
medical students.
Abstract
Background: Team-based learning (TBL) is a structured form of
small-group learning for students which emphasizes out-of-class
preparation towards guided application of knowledge in class. Values and
knowledge education (VaKE) is a teaching method in which a “dilemma”
is used as a motivation and trigger of knowledge acquisition. The goal
of this study was to compare and evaluate medical students’ knowledge
and achievements in a combination of these two methods (TBL+VaKE) vs.
TBL alone. Methods: Every academic year we teach 3-4 groups of 8-10
medical students in each group, at their 5th year of MD studies. We
recruited all groups of students since we started the study and
alternately used one of the educational approaches on them, TBL or
TBL+VaKE. Our study’s module was “diabetes in pregnancy”. Results: On
all issues, the TBL+VaKE received higher scores. The difference for
“complexity of decision making” question reached statistical
significance. Furthermore, when we compared the two groups questionnaire
answers, we detected statistical significance of p=0.02 (T test) for the
difference between the two sets of scores. Conclusions: “Diabetes and
pregnancy” module for 5th year meducal school students had better
knowledge acquisition when a moral dilemma was added to the module
(TBL+VaKE vs TBL).