Boosting Students’ Confidence and Grade Outcomes: Key Findings from NTU's Team-Based Learning Pilot Project

Over the past decade of successful SCALE-UP implementation at NTU, colleagues have shown a strong appetite and passion for Active Collaborative Learning (ACL) across the university. Building on this solid foundation, Team-Based Learning (TBL) was trialled as a complementary ACL approach throughout the 2023-24 academic year. The plan? To offer colleagues greater optionality in choosing ACL strategies for their teaching by piloting TBL across various modules, disciplines, and levels of study to assess its impact on student learning.

So what is Team-Based Learning?

Envision a learning environment where collaboration is thoughtfully structured to turn individual efforts into collective achievements—welcome to Team-Based Learning (TBL). TBL follows a precise pedagogical structure and moves beyond students simply working together on collaborative tasks. In TBL, students work with the same strategically formed team of 5-7 peers for the duration of the module. Lessons take a flipped approach to learning, meaning students are provided with resources which they engage with independently prior to formal classes. The incentive to engage with the pre-class content comes from a Readiness Assurance Process (RAP), which includes an ‘individual Readiness Assurance Test’ (iRAT) immediately followed by an identical ‘team Readiness Assurance Test’ (tRAT) in which students draw upon each other's understanding of the pre-work, fostering discussion, debate and peer learning. This process sets teams up for application exercises by identifying and addressing any particular challenges or misconceptions with the pre-class content. The majority of class time is spent collaboratively solving problems in application exercises. This approach to teaching supports the engagement of classes in effective problem-solving, and preparation (Michaelsen in Sibley & Ostafichuk 2014), improving student engagement (Dearnley et. al., 2018), attainment (Haidet et. al., 2014), and satisfaction (Reimschisel et. al., 2017) across a range of disciplines (Boyer, 2018; Cabrera et. al., 2017; Espey, 2018).

What was the Team-Based Learning Pilot Project?

Sounds exciting… but how do we know TBL works at NTU? The TBL Pilot project was a year-long study that sought to evaluate TBL as an additional ACL strategy across various disciplines and levels of study. The aim of the pilot was to understand the impact of the TBL pedagogy on student attainment; specifically, module grade outcomes. The objective was to consider the influence on students’ academic behavioural confidence, which acted as the hypothesised change mechanism for improving student attainment. The pilot was specifically interested in how TBL might positively impact the attainment of our Success for All beneficiary groups, forming part of NTU’s ongoing commitment to addressing disparities in student outcomes.

The pilot involved 22 modules across seven schools and six professional service departments at NTU. Almost 2000 students were exposed to TBL, with learners experiencing the benefits of this active collaborative teaching method and the passion of our dedicated module leaders. The pilot utilised a mixed-methods evaluation approach, including; pre- and post-surveys to measure students’ Academic Behavioural Confidence (ABC); comparative module outcome analysis; and qualitative data from student focus groups and staff feedback chats.

What were the key findings from the Team-Based Learning Pilot?

There were many insights gained throughout the lifespan of the project, with rich qualitative and quantitative data produced. Here are some of the highlights!

Increased Academic Behavioural Confidence (ABC): Pre- and post-survey analysis was conducted using a paired sample T-test for which there were 112 exact matches. Findings indicated a statistically significant increase in students' ABC across 8 out of 15 survey items, including the following:

• Study effectively on your own in independent/private study
• Respond to questions asked by a lecturer in front of a full lecture theatre
• Manage your workload to meet coursework deadlines
• Give a presentation to a small group of fellow students
• Engage in academic debate with your peers
• Ask lecturers questions about the material they are teaching, during a session
• Write in an academic style
• Pass assessments at the first attempt

The impact on students’ confidence surrounding verbal communication was particularly noteworthy in these results, suggesting TBL’s suitability for modules with learning outcomes that seek to authentically assess students’ development of verbal skills. As one lecturer commented: ‘[T]here were actually some individuals speaking […] within those teams who have never, ever put their hand up in a class before. And it was really nice to see that’.

Improved Module Outcomes: Comparative module outcome analysis was conducted using ART-ANOVA and showed a statistically significant improvement in module grades for students participating in TBL. This was especially prevalent at the lower end of the grade spectrum, where a reduction in the number of fails and third-class classifications was evident. This has potentially significant implications for Success for All beneficiary groups at NTU.

Enhanced Confidence and Belonging: Qualitative data revealed that students appreciated the interactive and collaborative nature of TBL, which fostered a sense of community and belonging. Importantly, lecturers observed increased student confidence, particularly in first-year (Level 4) students transitioning to university life. Learning gains were particularly notable for students’ development of transferrable skills such as teamwork and employability skills, alongside enhanced application of knowledge. As one lecturer commented:

“One of the reasons I like TBL is it does change the power dynamic in the classroom […] if we're talking about where students build a sense of belonging, yes, the students build sense of belonging as a community in the classroom, but what they also build is a relationship with you. […] They're getting ongoing formative feedback throughout the whole session as well. And I think that's really useful for you to check that you're communicating what they understand, and for them to check that they're understanding what you're communicating”.

What are the next steps for Team-Based Learning at NTU?

How will we maximise the benefits of the TBL pilot project? Correlational evidence from the pilot project has shown how TBL in an NTU context can improve the confidence and module grade outcomes of our students, with particular benefits for those students transitioning into university for the first time. Our next steps are to expand the adoption of this pedagogy across the university, understanding how it might exist as a complementary active collaborative pedagogy alongside SCALE-UP, providing colleagues with more optionality about which ACL approaches to adopt. Consequently, TBL and SCALE-UP feature as key activities in NTU’s new Access and Participation Plan (2025-2029), and will continue to be disseminated and evaluated across schools and courses.

For those NTU educators keen to see their students benefit from the TBL pedagogy, there are a wealth of resources and opportunities to develop your teaching practice in order to adopt this active collaborative approach. You can review these resources on THRIVE (internal log-in required) and book onto a workshop to learn more about how to adopt the pedagogy. The TBL Pilot Project report will also be published on the OfS-funded Higher Education Evaluation Library (HEEL) in due course.

To find out more about the findings from the TBL Pilot, please read our project report which provides full details of the project evaluation and its results.