Two years of experience with near‐peer anatomists in a new medical school's setting

Abstract

In response to the shortage of medical doctors in Israel, a new Faculty of Medicine was established in a remote locale (Galilee). Here we report on a 2 years of our near‐peer teaching program of cooperative learning. Our near‐peer teacher course was designed for 1st year medical students who successfully finished the Anatomy block, in order to develop their anatomy teaching skills, mostly for dissection, and their didactic ability, to be applied in the next academic year. In a debriefing questionnaire administered at the end of the course, on the five‐point Likert scale the overall rating for the “elective course” was 4.33. Learning prosection and anatomy demonstration skills scored 4.3 and 4.15, respectively. Importantly, the participants appeared at ease in the dissecting room amongst their peers; they were able to prepare and confidentially lead a case‐based learning session. The top course graduates (selected based on their peer evaluations to serve as near‐peer teachers) were then evaluated by their more junior peers (first‐year students), at the end of the next year's Anatomy block. On the Likert scale, the average score was 4.10, somewhat lower than the general satisfaction score for the preclinical teachers during the first‐year classes (4.22). We conclude that students as peer teachers can make a valuable contribution to the teaching faculty, especially in a new school. Personal gain in terms of confidence, focus and motivation are at least as important as practical dissection and teaching skills.