Preparing Tomorrow’s Professionals for a Complex World
Whitney M. Schlegel, Biology Department, Indiana University Bloomington
The integrity of the discipline leads to a sense of what is best for the students. The community expects no less from us; and we expect no less from ourselves.
” Lee Shulman

(Wiggins and McTighe, 1998)
• What will a student who completes this course (Human
Physiology) be able to do?
What do they “ look like ” ?
(knowledge, skills, ethic)
• How will you know what the student has learned?
(assessments)
• How will you scaffold the learning environment to support your learning objectives and goals?
(pedagogy)

• How will team-based learning explicitly facilitate your course/disciplinary learning
outcomes?
• What do you want student teams to accomplish and specifically
understand about team work?
• How will you make your team learning goals explicit to
students?
• How will you know if students have met your goals for team
work?

• How will you use the physical learning
environment to facilitate your desired learning outcomes with a team-based pedagogy?

Student Centered Learning
Theory and Practice
What theoretical
frames and
evidence exist to support your teaching practice and learning goals?
Select Theoretical Constructs that
Support Features of the Learning
Environment in Physiology
Intellectual Development -
Scaffolded Learning (Perry, 1970)
Context-Dependent - Case-Based
Learning (Herreid, 2007)
Socially Mediated - Team-Based
Learning (Michaelson et al., 2002)
Scholarly Approach to Teaching Innovation

“Intellectual and Ethical
Development” (Perry, 1970)
From an authority-driven and dualistic view of knowledge… to
Recognition of complexity and evidence-based decision-
making and reflective thinking with changing answers and uncertainty.
Backward Design
Scaffolding

Collaborative and Contextual Learning
Build instruction around complex problems
Make learning experiences as authentic as possible
Guide students to understand and apply central concepts
Offer opportunities to apply learning to new contexts

P451: Integrative Human Physiology (4 cr)
• Lecture/Lab
• Senior Level
• Biology Majors
• Considered a Capstone Course in the Major

-Highly Motivated
-Extremely Competitive
-Exclusively Junior/ Senior, Pre-Professional
-Science (Biology) Majors
-Gifted at Memorization

STUDENT LEARNING
CONTENT PROCESS
HUMAN
PHYSIOLOGY
TEAM-BASED CASE-BASED
INTERNAL ENVIRONMENT
ORGAN SYSTEMS
HOMEOSTASIS
SKILLS
PROBLEM-SOLVING
COMMUNICATION
EVIDENCE-BASED
REASONING
DISCIPLINARY THINKER
DISCIPLINARY PROFESSIONAL

•
•
Students are placed in teams of
5 at the start of the semester
Teams are randomly assigned and controlled for gender only.

• Case Study
Discussion
• Laboratory
Exercises
• Lab Reports
• Case Study Reports
• Electronic Portfolio
• Exams
• Inquiry Project

In Class Outside Class
• Mini-Lectures
• Team Case work
• Whole Class Case
Work
– Grand Rounds
• Peer Review
• Exams
• Team Lab Reports
• Team Case Reports
• Preparation for
Class and Exams
• Evaluation and
Reflection
• Team E-Chart
• Inquiry Project

• I am more motivated than my group members.
• My group will hinder my ability to get the grade I want in this course.
• I have a better science background than my group members.
• My schedule is too busy to try to study with other people. I study much better on my own.
LISTENING TO
THE STUDENT
VOICE
Recognize Peers But Do Not
Know Names…
Students do not know how to work in teams!

Observation: My Students Do Not Necessarily Know
How To Intellectually Engage In Focused, Discipline-
Based Discussion within Small Groups Comprised of
Their Peers.
Can I help students to learn how to work collaboratively and guide their own learning in the discipline of physiology and science more broadly using a case-based and team-based learning environment?
How will I know if I have enhanced their learning and specifically their ability to critically evaluate evidence/data and employ evidencebased reasoning to solve complex, unstructured problems?

• Four Semester exams, case-based and all objective format, are designed to examine students' ability to apply their problem-solving, critical thinking, and team skills to organ system physiology.
• Semester exams are given during a 2-hour class period.
– Hour 1: Individual
– Hour 2: Team
25 questions on exam
Each question: 2 points
Individual exam: 50 pts**
Team exam: 50 pts**
Total Possible Points: 100 points

•
•

EVALUATI ON EXERCI SE: EXAM 1
1.
Overall, how effectively did your group work together on this exam?
Poorly Adequately Well Extremely well
2.
How many of your group members participated actively most of the time?
None One Two Three Four
3.
How many of your group members were fully prepared for the exam?
Five
None One Two Three Four Five
4.
How many of your group members did you study with in preparation for this exam?
None One Two Three Four Five
5. My performance as an individual directly affected how well the group as a whole performed?
Strongly disagree
Leader
Disagree
Facilitator
Other: ____________________________
Uncertain
Investigator
Agree Strongly agree
6.
What role did you play in your group discussions/interactions during the exam?
Circle all that apply.
Mediator Recorder
7. Suggest one change the group could make to improve its performance.
8.
Suggest one change you could make to improve the performance and/or dynamic of your group.
9.
Would you prefer to have new groups formed at some point in the semester r ather than keeping the same group member composition throughout the semester?
YES NO
10.
Explain why you answered what you did in Question #9?
Focus on
Group
Process
(and Self)

P431 EVALUATI ON EXAM 3 GROUP NUM BER: _______ EVALUATOR:________________________
Please assess the performance of everyone in your group, including yourself. To do so, fill in a point number in the blank next to each statement that indicates the extent to which you agree the statement applies to the person you're assessing.
4 pts = strong agreement
Statements
3 pts = agreement 2 pts = weak agreement 1 pt = weak disagreement 0 pt = strong disagreement
GROUP M EM BER [Name of each member in the box below]
1. Participates fully in group exam discussion.
2. Demonstrates preparedness for exam.
3. Listens and shows respect for the ideas and opinions of others.
4. Does not dominate the discussion.
5. Brings information to the group that's relevant to the discussion.
6. Communicates ideas and information clearly.
7. Asks questions that promote clearer and deeper understanding.
8. Helps group to identify ways in which its function can improve.
9. Helps take action to bring about the improvement.
10. Adheres to the ground rules established for the group exam.

A Brief History
Human Physiology [P431] - 4 credit hours

‘ Team-Taught ’ Lecture-Lab [Fall 1998 - Spring 2001]
 One Instructor Lecture-Lab, Team-Based, Case-Based with Peer Evaluation [Fall 2001 - Spring 2003]
 One Instructor Lecture-Lab, Team-Based, Case-Based with Peer Evaluation and Team History Portfolio and
Presentation [Fall 2003 - Fall 2005]
Mining the Data
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Exam Score Average
Final Exam
Fall 1998 Spring 1999 Fall 1999 Spring 2000 Fall 2000 Spring 2001 Fall 2001 Spring 2002 team taught; standard lecture and exam format; 3
FI GURE 4 semester exams team taught; more case-directed learning emphasis;
3 semester exams with group exam component outside class team taught; controlled exam environment;
3 semester exams; peer evaluation no team teaching; case-directed learning; 4 semester exams; peer evaluation

M e a n Com pr e h e n sive Fin a l Ex a m Scor e s
P4 3 1 Fa ll 1 9 9 8 - Spr in g 2 0 0 5
78
76
74
72
70
68
66
64
62
84
82
80
Fa ll
19
98
S pr in g
19
99
Fa ll
19
99
S pr in g
20
00
Fa ll
20
00
S pr in g
20
01
Fa ll
20
01
S pr in g
20
02
Fa ll
20
02
S pr in g
20
03
Fa ll
20
03
S pr in g
20
04
Fa ll
20
04
S pr in g
20
05
The structured team exam model with 5-student semester teams and a peer evaluation and reflective team process contributed to a 9% increase
on the individual comprehensive final exam over prior semesters.

There are 12 teams of 5.
I = Individual T = Team

-Team and Peer Review Process
-Team E-Chart
-Documented Problem Solving in Class

• Team 10
– Developed collaborative strategy and understanding late in the semester.
– “ I ”
– Did not reflect upon the application of experience beyond the immediate situation.
• Team 5
– Developed collaborative strategy and understanding early in the semester.
– “ We ”
– Reflected upon the application of their experience beyond the immediate situation.

Early team development and the ability to envision future applications of lessons learned from the collaborative process may be critical to team success in this collaborative learning environment.