Teenage Pregnancy: Team-Based Learning Exercise

Abstract Introduction: This team-based learning (TBL) session is used in a first-year medical curriculum and contains a video case presentation of a pregnant teen, her issues and concerns, and her decisions about her pregnancy and the baby. It is well suited to the first-year medical student curriculum. It is one of seven modules featured in our Human Development: Health Across the Lifespan course: Introduction to Population Health, Normal Child Development, Child Abuse, Adolescence (the current resource), Adulthood, Middle Age, and Aging. Methods: Learning involves preclass reading and completion of a tutorial by students, in-class viewing of the video case, analysis and discussion of a clinical scenario, and brainstorming for a community-level teen pregnancy intervention. Assessment of student learning includes an in-class quiz and class discussion. Materials include the preclass readings and tutorial, a description of the video case, a Readiness Assurance Test (RAT), and an application exercise. This session works well with up to about 100 students organized in groups of six. Results: This TBL was developed in 2010 and has been implemented three times. In a preclass assessment in 2011, only 7% of students indicated they felt confident or very confident in their “ability to explain the characteristics of successful community-level interventions for adolescent risk behaviors.” In the postclass assessment of the same students, that number increased to 79%. Course evaluation data for the TBL sessions for the last 3 years averaged 4.05 (with 5 being the highest) for the graded part (individual and group RATs) and 4.18 for the ungraded application exercise. This Adolescence module was rated a 4.52 by the students, meaning they felt confident in their ability to master the objectives for the topic of adolescence. Discussion: This TBL generated considerable discussion among the students regarding how to handle the difficult social and cultural factors that contribute to patients' health status. Students often shared information about the culture and norms of their own hometowns and how these factors contribute to adolescent risk behaviors such as sexual activity, drinking, and drug use. Students said they enjoyed working together to brainstorm community-level interventions.