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Exploring Team-Based Teaching of Basic Sciences and Clinical Practice: Experiences of Pharmacy Students at a Malaysian Pharmacy School

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Abstract

Interdisciplinary learning combining foundational science concepts and clinical practice applications is important in many healthcare-related programmes, including pharmacy. The coherent, structured interdisciplinary curricula designed by specialists may not always be perceived as integrated by students. Team teaching, an education approach where two or more instructors share teaching responsibilities within a classroom setting, may help eliminate this perception. This study aims to explore whether team teaching can improve Asian students’ experience of learning in an undergraduate pharmacy programme in Malaysia. A single 2-h interactive lecture session was delivered using a team-based approach to year 4 undergraduate pharmacy students enrolled at the School of Pharmacy, Monash University Malaysia, from 2015 to 2017. All students who attended the team-based teaching lectures were provided with an anonymous link, which requested responses on their views towards team-based teaching. Fifty out of 104 participants from three different cohorts responded to the survey of this study. Over 75% of students reported that they learnt better with the team teaching approach compared to traditional lectures delivered by one lecturer and that the team teaching approach was superior to private study. About 60% of the participants agreed that the team-based teaching approach helped develop their information-synthesising and problem-solving skills. This study provides evidence for using team teaching for design and delivery in an Asian context. The approach was well received by the participants.

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Availability of Data

The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank all participants for their generous cooperation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Pharmacy, Monash University Malaysia, Jalan Lagoon Selatan, Bandar Sunway, Selangor, 47500, Malaysia

    Kim San Tang & Shaun Wen Huey Lee

  2. Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Monash University, 381 Royal Parade, Parkville, VIC, 3052, Australia

    Sheryl Maher

  3. Asian Centre for Evidence Synthesis in Population, Implementation and Clinical Outcomes (PICO), Health and Well-Being Cluster, Global Asia in the 21st Century (GA21) Platform, Monash University Malaysia, Jalan Lagoon Selatan, Bandar Sunway, Selangor, 47500, Malaysia

    Shaun Wen Huey Lee

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  1. Kim San Tang
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  2. Sheryl Maher
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Correspondence to Kim San Tang.

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Tang, K.S., Maher, S. & Lee, S.W.H. Exploring Team-Based Teaching of Basic Sciences and Clinical Practice: Experiences of Pharmacy Students at a Malaysian Pharmacy School. Med.Sci.Educ. 33, 83–89 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40670-022-01703-w

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