Abstract
Introduction: Peer assisted learning (PAL) is the expansion of knowledge and abilities through active assistance and guidance among groups of people who are not trained teachers, but still assist and support one another’s learning. The aim of this study was evaluation of PAL in teaching skills and learning limb anatomy for medical students. Methods: In this quasi-experimental study, students entering Yasuj University of Medical Sciences (YUMS) in academic year 2012-13 were allocated to two equal groups of 28 participants, with PAL as the intervention group and conventional teaching methods as the comparison group at the beginning of the fourth week of the course. The course content for the PAL group was divided into seven roughly equal parts, the duties of students were determined and the time table was the same for two groups. Formative exams from each topic and summative exams about upper and lower limb anatomy were given. Abilities and skills of peer teachers were assessed by a researcher-made questionnaire through peer assessment. Data was analyzed using a paired t-test. Results: The mean scores of the PAL intervention group showed a significant statistical increase on seven out of ninth formative exams in relation to the comparison group (P<0.05). The mean differences (confidence interval) of the nine formative exams were (-.25, -1.98, 1.48), (-.59, -1.66, 1.43), (-1.75, -3.46, -.04), (-1.99, -3.14, -.86), (-1.61, -1.98, -1.48), (-2.04, -3.66, -.43), (-1.75, -3.46, -.039), (-1.89, -3.14, -.93) and (-1.62, -2.84, -.41), respectively. Scores on both summative exams in the PAL group indicated statistically significant differences compared to those of the comparison group (P<0.05). Mean differences and CI of multiple choice, naming pictures and short answer questions of the midterm exam were (-1.46, -2.52, -.4), (-1.52, -2.2, -.01) and (-1.1, -2.57, -.42), respectively, and for the final exam they were (-1.21, -2.59, -.4), (-1.68, -2.65, -.47) and (-1.09, -2.2, -.01), respectively. Descriptive statistics showed that the abilities and skills of peer teachers in gradually improved in the majority of areas improved. Conclusion: The mean scores of PAL group were higher than those of the comparison group. Since learning in this method occurs through debate and discussion and acquisition of skills and communication grew in students, it could be an accountable approach.
Highlights
Peer assisted learning (PAL) is the expansion of knowledge and abilities through active assistance and guidance among groups of people who are not trained teachers, but still assist and support one another’s learning
In this quasi-experimental study, the primary goal was to examine whether study participants who were taught by their classmates through the PAL method learned better than study participants who were taught by their teachers
Recruitment started in February, the baseline test and randomization occurred in March, PAL started in April, the summative midterm assessment was completed in May, PAL ended in June and the whole project was planned to be finished in June 2013
Summary
Peer assisted learning (PAL) is the expansion of knowledge and abilities through active assistance and guidance among groups of people who are not trained teachers, but still assist and support one another’s learning. Researchers state that students feel more comfortable with their classmates than a teacher because of the understanding of one another’s language that students share.[4,5] The advantages which have been reported for this method, include increased self-confidence, cooperation among groups in health information transfer, learning preferences, participation, leadership and learning opportunities for students and student-teachers' satisfaction and mutual trust, improving psychomotor and cognitive learning skills, student test scores, academic performance, decreasing extra cost for educational institutions, enhancing oral presentation skills, teamwork, decision-making, responsibility, critical thinking skills, improving academic behaviour and helping students to bridge the gap between being a student and a physician in service It is an effective method for controlling stress at the entrance to the clinic.[6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13] The successful implementation of PAL needs infrastructure such as the selection of appropriate trainers, acceptable preparation of educators, motivated educators, changing educational regulations, planning and monitoring.[14] Nowadays, the dominant method in training of medical students, especially in basic sciences, is lecturing, so often students’ education is not aligned with the expected competencies upon graduation, such as communication skills, teaching abilities, elaborated knowledge, selflearning and knowledge management. In order to implement PAL, Yasuj University of Medical Sciences (YUMS) provided some educational infrastructure
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