Facilitating small group learning in the health professions
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Facilitating small group learning in the health professions Annette Burgess1,2*, Christie van Diggele2,3, Chris Roberts1,2 and Craig Mellis4
Abstract There is now good evidence that small group teaching provides a fruitful academic environment, which optimises learning, particularly in the healthcare setting, and especially when compared to lectures. An individual student’s understanding of knowledge is increased when they are able to actively compare and build on their own understanding in conjunction with their peers. Small group teaching provides opportunities for learners to work collaboratively, and promotes team-building skills – skills that are essential to work within healthcare settings. The aim of this paper is to provide health professional students and early career health professionals involved in peer and near peer teaching, with an overview of approaches and tips to improve learner engagement when facilitating small groups. Keywords: Small group learning, Team building skills, Facilitation, Peer assisted learning, Health professional students
Background Health professional education occurs in a variety of contexts, including those within university, hospital, community-based and clinical settings. Curricula activities at the university target development of students’ knowledge of the basic sciences of healthcare (such as physiology, pathology, and anatomy), which are then integrated into the clinical setting, thus contextualising this knowledge. The clinical setting also plays a crucial role in developing students’ clinical skills, communication skills, and professionalism. The clinical application of the basic sciences also occurs in case scenario based small group teaching methods, such as problem based learning (PBL), Team-based learning (TBL), Case based learning (CBL), in the university setting [1–7]; and communication skills, clinical skills, and procedural skills teaching in the clinical, patient-based setting [8, 9]. Compared to lecture based teaching, these small group methods provide a more fruitful * Correspondence: [email protected] 1 The University of Sydney, Faculty of Medicine and Health, Sydney Medical School - Education Office, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia 2 The University of Sydney, Faculty of Medicine and Health, Sydney Health Professional Education Research Network, The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia Full list of author information is available at the end of the article
academic environment, and maximise student learning [10], and remain the preferred approach to pedagogy in health professional education [5]. An individual student’s understanding of knowledge is increased when they are able to actively compare and build on their own understanding in conjunction with their peers [11–16]. Small group teaching provides opportunities for learners to work collaboratively with their peers, and promotes team building skills – skills that are essential to working within healthcare settings [17, 18]. However, all learning
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