Pediatric Asthma Team-Based Learning Module

Abstract Introduction This resource is a part of a six-module curriculum that uses TBL approaches to teach medical students clinical applications of general pediatric topics. This case is one of six used for third-year medical students during their pediatric clerkship at the University of Michigan during a weekly 2-hour time slot. The six pediatric modules cover topics of asthma, nutrition, fever, abdominal pain, anemia, and pneumonia. Methods This module is on pediatric asthma. Included are questions, answer keys, citations for reference articles, and descriptions of how to facilitate and evaluate a TBL exercise. A prior version of this module was previously published in MedEdPORTAL in 2010, but it has been revised in 2015 to reflect updated readings as well as to address student concerns that there were too many readiness questions and too few application questions. Results After implementation of TBL in our clerkship, National Board of Medical Examiners Pediatric Shelf examination scores improved by 3.04 points (from 79.46 to 82.50; p <.0001). Students' scores on a Pediatric Asthma Observed Clinical Skills Examination administered the subsequent year also improved by 2.6 points (from 73.0 to 75.6; p = .01). Discussion After the six modules, students demonstrated a greater appreciation for teamwork on the Value of Teams survey. Students also reported higher levels of personal contribution and engagement, compared to didactic lectures