Examining Student Perceptions of Their Experience ina TBL Formatted Capstone Course

摘要

While shown to be less effective than active learning strategies, traditional methods of contentdelivery in post-secondary classrooms are the most prominent. Flipped classrooms, an example ofan active learning approach, have been shown to be effective in long-term student outcomes. TeamBasedLearning (TBL), a specific application of the flipped approach, has been linked to anincrease in student performance, engagement, and satisfaction. TBL emphasizes the application ofcontent knowledge through structured problem solving and decision making activities. Thecapstone farm management course at Iowa State University was recently restructured to implementTBL. This course revision sought to emphasize the development of skills necessary for success inan evolving workforce. The purpose of this study was to examine student perceptions concerningtheir attitudes and beliefs about learning, their motivation to learn, and their professionaldevelopment through critical thinking. Pretest and posttest measures were compared and showedstatistically significant increases across all three areas. These results offer valuable insight for theadoption of student-centered teaching methods, specifically TBL. Further examination of thisteaching method compared to traditional teaching methods is warranted and recommended.