Peer Instruction Fosters Student Engagement During Anatomy Large Group Active Learning Sessions

Abstract

At Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine (LECOM), each unit of the Medical Gross Anatomy course is reviewed through a large group active learning session that has been traditionally termed a “forum”. Medical students are given a list of 10–15 open‐ended questions covering clinically relevant anatomy for each regional area of anatomy prior to each session. During this two hour session, students are randomly selected to answer the open‐ended questions in front of their peers. Student surveys highly rate these sessions and students traditionally have requested more of these sessions throughout the 13 week course. However, a downfall of the forum is that only 10–15 students get to participate in each of these sessions while the other students passively listen to their peers. In order to involve more students in the session, Peer Instruction was utilized during the Pelvis and Perineum forum. Peer Instruction, as introduced by Eric Mazur in 1991, has been used in large undergraduate introductory courses to encourage student engagement and learning. Our modified Peer Instruction activity asked learners to independently answer multiple choice questions through the online classroom response system DirectPoll, which covered similar topics as asked in the open‐ended questions given out prior to the session. If student performance was below 80%, the class would be asked to converse with their classmates and then answer the question again. Regardless of class performance, a student was randomly selected to answer the question and provide a rationale for how they answered that question. Further, the student was then asked follow up questions that covered the material relevant to the question. Our study hypothesized that students that participated in the Peer Instruction Forum will perform better on the Pelvis and Perineum anatomy exam when compared to performance in the previous year. Overall, the average performance on the pelvis and perineum exam between 2018 and 2019 was unchanged. However, student survey data suggests the students were more engaged during the sessions and found the Peer Instruction activity helped solidify concepts. In conclusion, Peer Instruction was well received by our students and we hope to expand its use throughout the anatomy curriculum.