Using a Team-Based Learning Approach at National Meetings to Teach Residents Genomic Pathology

Accumulating data suggest that team-based learning (TBL) is more effective than lecture-based teaching strategies. Educational sessions at national meetings, however, tend to be lecture-based, and unlike most examples of TBL, involve participants who do not know each other or the instructor.

We evaluated a 1-day TBL genomic pathology workshop for residents held at 3 national meetings.

A committee of experts developed the workshop. Prior to attending, participants were provided access to readings and asked to answer preparation questions. Each of the 4 modules within the workshop consisted of a 60-minute TBL activity flanked by 15- to 30-minute preactivity and postactivity lectures. We used surveys to acquire participant evaluation of the workshop.

From 2013-2014, 86 pathology residents from 61 programs participated in 3 workshops at national meetings. All workshops were well received, with over 90% of attendees indicating that they would recommend them to other residents and that the material would help them as practicing pathologists. An incremental approach facilitated decreasing faculty presence at the workshops: the first 2 workshops had 7 faculty each (1 facilitator for each team and 1 circulating faculty member), while the final workshop involved only 2 faculty for 6 teams. For this final session, participants agreed that circulating faculty provided adequate support. Participant "buy-in" (requiring completion of a preworkshop survey) was critical in enabling a TBL approach.

These results demonstrate that TBL is a feasible and effective strategy for teaching genomic medicine that is acceptable to pathology residents at national meetings.