The Student Engagement Effect of Team-Based Learning on Student Pharmacists

Objective. The objective of this research was to expand the perspective of student engagement by qualitatively examining how student pharmacists experienced engagement using team-based learning (TBL) pedagogy. Methods. A qualitative case study was adopted. Data were obtained from a purposeful and convenience sampling of student pharmacists (n=14) through semi-structured interviews. Initial data analysis identified common themes, followed by oriented coding of the common themes to the focal concepts of predetermined engagement components. Results. Seven common themes arose from this research: 1) accountability; 2) communication; 3) conflict; 4) learning; 5) preparation; 6) purpose; and 7) teamwork. Results indicated student pharmacists in TBL pedagogy primarily experience student engagement through a relate (41%) component, followed by donate (32%) and create (27%). Conclusion. Findings in this study are consistent with other research that implicates TBL pedagogy, at least in part, a conduit for building student pharmacists’ engagement skills. The novelty of this research is that it characterizes the subjective construal underlying engagement in TBL by recognizing the relate component most important for developing student pharmacists’ engagement skills.¹