Lessons learned: Assessing team creation by personality inventories in pharmacy students

Area of Science:

• Educational research
• Pharmacy education
• Team dynamics

Background:

• Effective team formation is crucial for team-based learning (TBL) success.
• Stratifying students by resources is recommended, but optimal team creation methods for TBL remain unclear.
• This study explored personality-based stratification versus randomization in pharmacy TBL.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the impact of team stratification by personality strengths on student performance in graded activities and peer evaluations.
• To compare student perceptions of team dynamics between strength-stratified and randomized teams.
• To identify lessons learned and research considerations for future TBL team creation studies.

Main Methods:

• Compared team stratification by CliftonStrengths domains against randomization within the same cohort across two semesters.
• Analyzed student performance on graded team activities and peer evaluations.
• Assessed student perceptions of team dynamics.

Main Results:

• The distribution of CliftonStrengths domains was similar between strength-stratified and randomized teams.
• Negligible differences were observed in student performance and perceptions of team dynamics.
• The study's methodology was limited by the homogeneity of student strengths and the small variation in team composition.

Conclusions:

• Stratification by personality strengths did not yield significantly different outcomes compared to randomization in this TBL setting.
• Methodological limitations impacted the ability to draw definitive conclusions.
• Future studies should consider diverse stratification methods, control groups, and multiple cohorts for robust findings.