Disrupting the Classroom Status Quo: Evaluating Team-Based Learning in Sociology

• In Event: Sociology and Critical Data Literacy in a Changing Knowledge Eco-system

Abstract

Team-Based Learning (TBL) is widely promoted as an effective active-learning strategy, particularly for supporting student belonging and persistence in diverse undergraduate populations. Yet sociology instructors often lack systematic, classroom-based evidence about how specific components of TBL operate within sociology courses and how instructional supports shape students’ experiences of team-based pedagogy. This roundtable presents findings from a multi-semester, mixed-methods classroom evaluation examining the implementation of TBL across upper-level undergraduate sociology courses at an East Asian satellite campus of a large northeastern U.S. public university.
The study examines how core components of TBL, including team functioning, the Readiness Assurance Process, application activities, and collaborative project work, are associated with student learning outcomes, course evaluations, and students’ sense of belonging in the classroom. Using repeated measures within academic terms and comparisons across cohorts, the project draws on course-level assessment data, peer-based team evaluations, standardized university course evaluations, and longitudinal measures of student sense of belonging administered at the beginning and end of the term. The analysis also compares course sections with and without undergraduate teaching assistants (TAs) to assess how instructional support structures shape the implementation and evaluation of team-based learning.
Preliminary findings indicate that course sections supported by a teaching assistant receive stronger overall course and instructor evaluations than comparable sections without TA support, highlighting the role of instructional support in students’ experiences of team-based classrooms. Rather than advancing claims about causal learning effects, the roundtable centers on how these findings inform pedagogical decision-making, instructional labor, and the sustainable design of team-based courses. Structured as a collaborative discussion, the session invites instructors and educational researchers to exchange practical strategies for assessing active learning and developing shared tools for evaluating teaching and curriculum innovation in sociology.

Authors

• Misty L Harris, University at Buffalo

• Ying Xin Yong, University at Buffalo

• Jolene Cheng Chin Goh, University at Buffalo