Peer teaching as an educational tool for learning basic concepts of the peripheral nervous system

Abstract

Although the lecture approach to educating students provides a means of disseminating subject material, it is a passive learning approach not particularly effective in engaging learners in critically comprehending and understanding the subject material. In our Applied Anatomy course, two student‐centered peer teaching sessions were conducted focusing on general concepts regarding the peripheral nervous system. Prior to each session, students were given a reading assignment, a handout emphasizing major points, learning objectives, and a narrated PowerPoint. At the beginning of the scheduled class period, the students took an ungraded Turning Point quiz to evaluate what they had learned. During the quiz the students discussed their answer choice with their peers in order to better understand the rationale for the correct answer. Following the student's response to each question, a short discussion by the instructor of the correct answer and the distractors followed. After the quiz, additional important points not covered by the quiz were reviewed in a short lecture. This was followed by a second quiz, the grades of which were recorded. Again, during the quiz the students discussed their answer choice with their peers. After the second session a survey was done to evaluate the effectiveness of the learning approach. Ninety‐five percent of the students agreed or strongly agreed that peer teaching is an effective learning approach. (Sponsored by a Herz Faculty Teaching Development Award, Minnesota Medical Foundation)