Effectiveness of Team-Based Learning Compared with Lecture-Based Learning in Clinical Medicine: A Meta-Analysis

A comprehensive comparison and evaluation of the effects of team-based learning (TBL) and lecture-based learning (LBL) in clinical medical education (CME) was conducted. A thorough search was carried out over PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, and Cochrane Library databases for publications about the utilisation of TBL and LBL in clinical medicine. The search was performed until 20 September 2023. After the initial screening of the literature, following the inclusion and exclusion criteria, extracting data and evaluating the methodological quality, a meta-analysis was performed using RevMan 5.3 software and Stata 17.0 software. Thereby, nine studies were included. TBL was superior to LBL in total scores (SMD = 0.84, 95% CI: 0.19~1.48, p = 0.012), with significant differences in short-term theoretical scores (SMD = 0.46, 95% CI: 0.22~0.70, p <0.001), practice scores (SMD = 0.88, 95% CI: 0.17~1.58, p = 0.015), student satisfaction (SMD = 1.13, 95% CI: 0.97~1.29, p <0.001), and long-term theoretical scores (SMD = 1.12, 95% CI: 0.73~1.51, p <0.001). The TBL teaching model appears to be superior to the LBL teaching model in all aspects of clinical medicine education, including total scores, short-term theoretical scores, practice scores, long-term theoretical scores, and student satisfaction. However, these findings need further confirmation from high-quality studies. Key Words: Team-based learning, Clinical medicine, Lecture-based learning.