EVALUATION OF PEER ASSISTED LEARNING IN EVIDENCE BASED MEDICINE COURSE: A PILOT STUDY AT UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW
Abstract
Background: Peer Assisted Learning (PAL) is a well-established approach in learning and is increasingly being utilized in the medical education system. It is a process where active help of peer group members is taken for learning. This study aimed to look at the impact of peer assisted learning on the students at the end of the session. Methods: Sixteen Postgraduate students attending Evidence Based Medicine (EBM) course spanning over two semesters (6 months each) were recruited. It was a cross sectional study and non-probability convenience sampling technique was used for gathering data. All students enrolled in EBM course conducted an hour-long PAL session during the coursework. At the end of the semester a link to an online questionnaire was sent to all the participants. A set of both open and closed ended questions were included in the questionnaire. Results: Response rate was 87.5%, 14 out of the 16 students completed the questionnaire. The results showed an affirmative change in the behaviour and attitude of the participants’ after the workshops. Majority of the respondents were of the opinion that it was a valuable experience and they benefitted through involvement in the process. Most of the post-graduate students suggested that it should be implemented in post graduate studies especially medical education. Conclusion: PAL is more interactive and informal way of teaching and it helps in the professional development, if peers from different specialties are gathered. However, study with a larger sample size are suggested to prove the generalizability of this assertion.Keywords: Peer Assisted Learning; Peer Learning; Evidence Based MedicineReferences
Burke J, Fayaz S, Graham K, Matthew R, Field M. Peer-assisted learning in the acquisition of clinical skills: a supplementary approach to musculoskeletal system training. Med Teach 2007;29(6):577–82.
Nestel D, Kidd J. Peer tutoring in patient-centred interviewing skills: experience of a project for first-year students. Med Teach 2003;25(4):398–403.
Fantuzzo JW, Dimeff LA, Fox SL. Reciprocal peer tutoring: A multimodal assessment of effectiveness with college students. Teach Psychol 1989;16(3):133–5.
Topping KJ. The effectiveness of peer tutoring in further and higher education: A typology and review of the literature. High Educ 1996;32(3):321–45.
Topping K, Ehly S. Peer-assisted learning: Routledge; 1998.
Parr JM, Townsend MA. Environments, processes, and mechanisms in peer learning. Int J Educ Res 2002;37(5):403–23.
Lambiotte JG, Dansereau DF, O'donnell AM, Young MD, Skaggs LP, Hall RH, et al. Manipulating cooperative scripts for teaching and learning. J Educ Psychol 1987;79(4):424.
Perry ME, Burke JM, Friel L, Field M. Can training in musculoskeletal examination skills be effectively delivered by undergraduate students as part of the standard curriculum? Rheumatology 2010;49(9):1756–61.
Glynn LG, MacFarlane A, Kelly M, Cantillon P, Murphy AW. Helping each other to learn–a process evaluation of peer assisted learning. BMC Med Educ 2006;6(1):18.
Tariq VN. Introduction and evaluation of peer-assisted learning in first-year undergraduate bioscience. Biosci Educ 2005;6(1):1–19.
Field M, Burke JM, McAllister D, Lloyd DM. Peer-assisted learning: a novel approach to clinical skills learning for medical students. Med Educ 2007;41(4):411–8.
Rodrigues J, Sengupta A, Mitchell A, Kane C, Kane C, Maxwell S, et al. The South-east Scotland Foundation Doctor Teaching Programme—Is “near-peer” teaching feasible, efficacious and sustainable on a regional scale? Med Teach 2009;31(2):e51–7.
Nikendei C, Andreesen S, Hoffmann K, Jünger J. Cross-year peer tutoring on internal medicine wards: Effects on self-assessed clinical competencies–A group control design study. Med Teach 2009;31(2):e32–5.
Wadoodi A, Crosby JR. Twelve tips for peer-assisted learning: a classic concept revisited. Med Teach 2002;24(3):241–4.
Abedini M, Mortazavi F, Javadinia SA, Moonaghi HK. A new teaching approach in basic sciences: Peer assisted learning. Procedia-Soc Behav Sci 2013;83:39–43.
Ten Cate O, Durning S. Peer teaching in medical education: twelve reasons to move from theory to practice. Med Teach 2007;29(6):591–9.
Nelson AJ, Nelson SV, Linn AM, Raw LE, Kildea HB, Tonkin AL. Tomorrow's educators…today? Implementing near-peer teaching for medical students. Med Teach 2013;35(2):156–9.
Published
Issue
Section
License
Journal of Ayub Medical College, Abbottabad is an OPEN ACCESS JOURNAL which means that all content is FREELY available without charge to all users whether registered with the journal or not. The work published by J Ayub Med Coll Abbottabad is licensed and distributed under the creative commons License CC BY ND Attribution-NoDerivs. Material printed in this journal is OPEN to access, and are FREE for use in academic and research work with proper citation. J Ayub Med Coll Abbottabad accepts only original material for publication with the understanding that except for abstracts, no part of the data has been published or will be submitted for publication elsewhere before appearing in J Ayub Med Coll Abbottabad. The Editorial Board of J Ayub Med Coll Abbottabad makes every effort to ensure the accuracy and authenticity of material printed in J Ayub Med Coll Abbottabad. However, conclusions and statements expressed are views of the authors and do not reflect the opinion/policy of J Ayub Med Coll Abbottabad or the Editorial Board.
USERS are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author. This is in accordance with the BOAI definition of open access.
AUTHORS retain the rights of free downloading/unlimited e-print of full text and sharing/disseminating the article without any restriction, by any means including twitter, scholarly collaboration networks such as ResearchGate, Academia.eu, and social media sites such as Twitter, LinkedIn, Google Scholar and any other professional or academic networking site.
