Enhancing clinical reasoning skills in medical students through team-based learning: a mixed-methods study.

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Cognitive Science

Background:

• Clinical reasoning is a critical competency for medical students worldwide.
• Effective, evidence-informed teaching methodologies are crucial for developing these skills.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the benefits of team-based learning (TBL) for enhancing medical students' clinical reasoning skills.
• To evaluate the impact of TBL on both objective performance and self-assessed competency.

Main Methods:

• A mixed-methods sequential explanatory design was employed with 92 fourth-year medical students.
• Quantitative data collected via Script Concordance Test (SCT) and Likert scale self-assessments before and after TBL intervention.
• Qualitative content analysis of TBL advantages using Fink's taxonomy of significant learning.

Main Results:

• Significant improvement in student performance on the SCT post-intervention (p < 0.05).
• Marked increase in self-assessed clinical reasoning competencies, including hypothesis generation, differential diagnosis, and self-reflection (p < 0.001).
• Qualitative analysis identified 23 subcategories of TBL advantages across all six levels of Fink's taxonomy.

Conclusions:

• Team-based learning (TBL) is an effective pedagogical strategy for developing critical clinical reasoning skills in medical students.
• TBL positively impacts multiple facets of learning, from foundational knowledge to the human dimension and learning how to learn.