Tutorial Groups Research Articles

786 A Collaborative, Online, 'Near-Peer' Teaching Programme for Medical Schools with Short Breast Surgery Rotations

Abstract Aim The quality of teaching for breast surgery, a niche specialty that medical schools dedicate little placement time to, can vary from hospital to hospital. This single-centre cross-sectional study investigated whether a new near-peer teaching programme could improve this. Method An online teaching programme was created and executed by final year medical students (‘near-peers’) for penultimate year students rotating through a week-long Breast Surgery placement at a major teaching hospital in London, United Kingdom. It consisted of asynchronous pre-tutorial Single Best Answer questions and an online small group tutorial and was conducted every three weeks for a year. A mix of qualitative and quantitative data were collected using feedback forms. Results Thirty students opted in. The pre-tutorial SBAs were rated 4.07 out of 5, while the near-peer interactive tutorial scored 4.77 out of 5. Students’ self-reported confidence, on a scale of 1 to 5, increased significantly by an average of 1.5 points (p <0.001). Students also rated this programme either the same or more highly than all other teaching modalities available during these their clinical placements. Thematic analysis of free-text responses showed that students enjoyed the interactivity of the sessions, the exam relevance of the content covered, and the utility of this programme in consolidating information at the tail-end of their placements. Conclusions This novel interactive teaching programme was designed and executed relatively easily by near-peers, was received favourably in our pilot, and can be easily implemented for other 'short-rotation specialties' in medical school (e.g., urology, vascular surgery, ENT).

Relationship of Prior Knowledge and Scenario Quality With the Effectiveness of Problem-based Learning Discussion among Medical Students of Universitas Malikussaleh, Aceh, Indonesia

Introduction: Problem-Based Learning (PBL) is a student-centred learning approach that employs clinical case scenarios to trigger learning and is conducted in small group discussions. The familiarity and prior knowledge of the students with the problem affect and stimulate student discussion in the tutorial group. Effective discussion ensures successful PBL learning. This study aimed to determine the relationship between prior knowledge and the scenario quality with the effectiveness of the PBL discussions. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in 2021 and involved 89 undergraduate medical students in the learning of the Immunology and Neoplasm module at the Faculty of Medicine of Universitas Malikussaleh. The Quality of PBL Problem Questionnaire and the Tutorial Group Effectiveness Instrument (TGEI) Questionnaire were used for data collection. The GPAs of the students were obtained as prior knowledge data. The data were analysed using the Chi-square test with a significant level of 0.05. Results: Most of the students had good prior knowledge (51.2% vs 47.8%). The results did not show a significant correlation between prior knowledge and the scenarios with the discussion effectiveness in the PBL group (p = 0.154 and 0.871, respectively). Conclusion: This study suggests that prior knowledge did not affect the effectiveness of discussions within the tutorial groups. Our study discovered a non-significant relationship between the scenario quality and the effectiveness of PBL discussions; however, our data revealed that good scenarios mostly led to effective tutorial group discussions

Programa Institucional de Tutoría Integral: nuevas estrategias de acompañamiento en la Licenciatura de Médico Cirujano

The Tutoring programs in higher education have gained relevance as an educational strategy, oriented to the integral attention of students during their academic career, with the purpose of guiding them to achieve their academic and personal goals. In the case of the Faculty of Medicine, since the update of its Institutional Program of Integral Tutoring FM in 2018, it has sought to contribute to the integral training of students through four actions that implement the program: adaptation, study, academic performance and self-care. These axes have been worked through the modality of traditional academic tutoring, and through the implementation of two new modalities: peer tutoring (given by a student of more advanced years) and group tutoring (given by a teacher to a group). Both modalities are aimed at the population of first and second year as pedagogical strategies of accompaniment in their integral formation. Keywords: Tutoring; group tutoring; integral tutoring; peer tutors; accompaniment

Comparison of Traditional Non-Interactive Tutorial and Interactive Small Group Discussion (SGD) in Pharmacology

Introduction: With the increasing changes in teaching trends, students prefer to learn with interactive teaching instead of traditional one-way teaching lectures and tutorials.
 Objectives: investigate the comparative role of traditional tutorial and small group discussion on student’s learning.
 Methods:This is a cross sectional questionnaire-based study, conducted in Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics of Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan Medical and Dental College for a period of 1 week. Ninety students of pharmacology department were selected for this study. For tutorial 3 batches of 30 students were taught for 2 hours, whereas for SGD each batch was further subdivided into three batches of 10 students per group. A validated questionnaire was given to students after each teaching strategy. All the students who were present and willing to participate in this study were included.
 Results: In our study > 70% students found SGD to be interactive, had better learning, relevant to the topic, improved their confidence level and they were better able to solve the problems.
 Conclusions: SGD is better way of conducting a tutorial as compared to traditional way, in which no of students per group is much bigger. Students find it more interactive, therefore staff should be trained to conduct SGD on regular basis.

Teaching feedback skills to veterinary students by peer-assisted learning

Feedback is considered an essential element of effective learning. Students who receive feedback from peers can improve their clinical and communication skills. This paper aims to testify for whether peer-assisted learning (PAL) is successful in teaching students with the ability to give feedback. The study was design as tutors (n=20), tutees (n=20) and control group (n=20). Tutors were educated to provide constructive feedback, and this group trained tutees in PAL to increase their skills in providing feedback. After the training, tutors and tutees used role play about veterinarian-client consultation. At the end of the consultations, each tutee provided feedback to the tutor about his/her communication skills. As findings, there was a statistically significant change between the mean scores of both “tutor and control groups” (P<0.004) and “tutors and tutees” (P<0.001). However, there was no statistically significant difference in terms of the academic year and gender between groups. Tutees benefited from being trained by peers, and tutors also improved their feedback skills by training peers. Conspicuously, PAL was found to be effective for not only tutors but also tutees. With this argument, it is predicted that other veterinary fields can also benefit from PAL throughout veterinary training.

Effect of problem-based learning tutor seniority on medical students’ emotions: an equivalence study

BackgroundThe effectiveness of peer learning has been recognized and discussed by many scholars, and implemented in the formal curriculums of medical schools internationally. However, there is a general dearth of studies in measuring the objective outcomes in learning.MethodsWe investigated the objective effect of near-peer learning on tutee’s emotions and its equivalence within the formal curriculum of a clinical reasoning Problem Based Learning session in a Japanese medical school. Fourth-year medical students were assigned to the group tutored by 6th-year students or by faculties. The positive activating emotion, positive deactivating emotion, negative activating emotion, negative deactivating emotion, Neutral emotion were measured using the Japanese version of the Medical Emotion Scale (J-MES), and self-efficacy scores were also assessed. We calculated the mean differences of these variables between the faculty and the peer tutor groups and were statistically analyzed the equivalence of these scores. The equivalence margin was defined as a score of 0.4 for J-MES and 10.0 for the self-efficacy score, respectively.ResultsOf the 143 eligible participant students, 90 were allocated to the peer tutor group and 53 were allocated to the faculty group. There was no significant difference between the groups. The 95% confidence interval of the mean score difference for positive activating emotions (–0.22 to 0.15), positive deactivating emotions (–0.35 to 0.18), negative activating emotions (–0.20 to 0.22), negative deactivating emotions (–0.20 to 0.23), and self-efficacy (–6.83 to 5.04) were withing the predetermined equivalence margins for emotion scores, meaning that equivalence was confirmed for these variables.ConclusionsEmotional outcomes were equivalent between near-peer PBL sessions and faculty-led sessions. This comparative measurement of the emotional outcomes in near-peer learning contributes to understanding PBL in the field of medical education.

Efektivitas Layanan Bimbingan Kelompok dengan Teknik Brainstorming untuk Meningkatkan Kepercayaan Diri pada Siswa Kelas X SMA di Kota Kisaran

The purpose of this study was to investigate the extent to which grade X students at SMAS Taman Kisaran, who showed a lack of confidence, behaved calmly during teaching and learning activities, and refrained from asking questions about concepts they did not understand through the use of group tutoring services that used brainstorming strategies. This study used a quantitative approach with one group pretest-posttest design experiment design. This research method uses a confidence questionnaire. In this study, we used SPSS 25 For Windows to perform a Paired Sample T-Test analysis of the data. The results showed that while the average pre-treatment score on the self-confidence survey was 70.30 (still in the middle range), the average post-treatment score was 95.60 (in the high range). The normality test used is Shapiro-Wilk. The results of the statistical test with the calculation of Paired Samples T-test showed tcount = -7.698 ≥ ttable -2.306 so that Ho was rejected and Ha was accepted. Thus group tutoring services using brainstorming techniques are quite effective can increase students' confidence. These findings are further supported by observations made by the researchers and interviews conducted with participants, both of which show that students have the ability to honestly express their sentiments, to solve problems, to control their emotions, and to make decisions quickly and appropriately.

Teaching About Climate Change Impacts on Health: Capturing the Experience for Educators

Climate change is a wicked problem. It is valuable for those working in public health to understand the causes, impacts, and possible responses that affect human health. Educators disagree on effective pedagogical strategies that are both engaging and motivating for students. This research evaluated a course involving climate change and health taught to first-year undergraduate students using a survey codesigned and analyzed through a student–staff partnership. The survey found strong correlations between curiosity and interest in learning and motivation to act. The student respondents preferred educational delivery for best learning outcomes included accessible preparatory material, small group tutorials, and guest lecturers providing specialist disciplinary perspectives. The majority considered there is a link between learning about and subsequently acting on climate change, although a need was identified for educators to promote intrinsic motivation within students in addition to disseminating information in classes. In considering the human health impacts of complex health issues, this article provides a valuable capture of course design and teaching methods that can enhance students’ motivation to act beyond the completion of a university course.

PERAN GURU DALAM LAYANAN BIMBINGAN BELAJAR KELOMPOK UNTUK MENINGKATKAN KERJASAMA DAN KEPERCAYAAN DIRI SISWA KELAS IV SD NEGERI BALFAI KABUPATEN KUPANG

This study aims to describe the teacher's role in group tutoring services to increase the cooperation and self-confidence of fourth-grade students at SD Negeri Balfai, Kupang Regency. This type of research uses descriptive qualitative research. Data collection techniques used by researchers in this study are observation techniques, interview techniques, and documentation study techniques. The focus of the research in this study was the teachers and students of class IV which consisted of 25 students with 12 female students and 13 male students. Based on the results of this study, it can be concluded that the role of the teacher in group tutoring services to increase and self-confidence of fourth-grade students at SD Negeri Balfai Kupang Regency, is as follows. (1) The background for implementing group guidance is to guide students who lack self-confidence. (2) The forms of group guidance used to increase student cooperation and self-confidence are group activities and group discussions. (3) The contribution of group guidance made by the supervising teacher is directing students to continue to apply the values ​​taught by the teacher, not only in the learning process but also in collaborating in group guidance in class IV of SD Negeri Balfai Kupang Regency.

Impact of ethnobiology-based instruction and peer tutoring on the achievement of senior secondary school biology students in Ogun state southwest Nigeria

This study investigated the impact of Ethnobiology-Based instruction Peer Tutoring on Achievement of Senior Secondary School Biology Students in Ogun State. The study employed Explanatory sequential mixed-methods approach. The quantitative approach was quasi experimental pretest-posttest non-equivalent group design. Three research questions and one hypothesis was formulated to guide the study. The population of the study comprised of all Biology students in public Senior Secondary Schools in Abeokuta zone. Purposive sampling technique was used to select six Public Schools from two zones (Abeokuta South and Abeokuta North). Biology students in six intact classes of SSS III took part in the study. The sample size of 313 biology students with 101 students in the experimental group 1 (48 male and 53 female), 117 students in the experimental group 2 (57 male and 60 female) and 95 students in control group (38 male and 57 female) which were taught the same biology content for a period of four weeks. The experimental groups received instructions through the use of Ethnobiology-Based Instruction and Peer Tutoring while the control group was taught using lecture method. The data gathering instruments were Biology Achievement Test (BAT) and Students Semi-structured Interview Guide (SSIG). The reliability coefficient of the BAT was established using test- retest and yielded 0.87. Descriptive statistics in form of mean, standard deviation and histogram plot were used to answer the research question while the hypothesis was tested using ANCOVA at 0.05 level of significance. The inferential analysis of hypothesis one has a significant difference on Students’ academic achievement in Biology (F (2,309) = 386.85; p < 0.05), this indicated that the hypothesis is hereby rejected since a significant difference is obtained. The results from the study revealed that the treatments positively improved the academic achievements of students and the students taught using ethnobiology-based instruction had higher test result and outperformed those in Peer Tutoring and lecture method group, but the students in Peer tutoring group also performed better than those in lecture method group. This implies that Ethnobiology-Based instruction is more effective in enhancing Students’ performance in biology and it helps to break barriers to meaningful learning of biology. Based on the findings of this study, it was recommended that Biology teachers should relate learning to students’ cultural views and encourage peer tutoring.

EDUKASI PEMILIH MUDA DALAM PILKADA DI OGAN ILIR SUMATERA SELATAN

At present, especially in Ogan Ilir District, the COVID-19 pandemic conditions had triggered a food war between candidates in the 2020 Ogan Ilir Regional Election (pilkada). Although social media, particularly Facebook, facilitates voter participation in various political issues in the regional elections, voters had the potential to became political victims because they consumed fake news, slander, and hate speech. One of the layers of the population that was vulnerable to becoming victims was youth voters (17-23 years old). As youth voters will continue the political leadership relay in Ogan Ilir District, there should be a systematic effort to increase their thinking and political awareness. Even though every day they was presented with patronage practices and emotional political relations, youth voters should be given the opportunity to understand and elaborate election contestation from a different perspective. Money politics may not be prevented, but the young generation must still be introduced to the concept of the ideal pilkada. This service activity was designed to increase the political knowledge of the officials/members of the Karang Taruna in Ogan Ilir District with the tutorial lecture and group discussion methods. The contribution of this service activity to the increase in knowledge and political insight of the participants was proven statistically, t(52) = 11.25, p <0.001. This article recommends that similar activities be carried out in a sustainable manner by various parties with an interest in the process of empowering the younger generation.

Pelaksanaan Bimbingan Belajar Siswa-Siswi SDK Kekandere 2

Education is one thing that cannot be separated from life, both formally and informally and school is one of the facilities for obtaining an education. However, with a large number of students in one class, the teacher cannot guide students one by one. Likewise, the large number of subjects that must be studied every day makes it difficult for students to remember all the lessons given by the teacher, so students still need study guidance outside of school. This service is carried out to help develop learning and discover the learning habits of elementary school students in grades 4, 5 and 6 at Kekandere 2 Nangapanda Elementary School. The method of implementing tutoring is to compile and design a guidance program for students during the learning process in class and group tutoring in the afternoon to increase students' understanding of mathematics by providing continuous practice questions based on the mathematics subject matter that has been studied in the school environment. The results of this study were to provide good results for students in mathematics as seen from the enthusiasm of students in solving math problems and the effect on the daily test scores carried out by the teacher during the learning process

Evaluation of Virtual Reality High-Fidelity Adult Mannequin-based Simulation of Real-Life Clinical Scenarios in Teaching Clinical Pharmacology to Medical Students

BackgroundPresently, competency-based medical (CBME) curriculum challenges the medical educators to provide continuing education with new approaches to make learning more stimulating, motivating, and entertaining, fostering excellence in clinical practice. To address these issues, educators have advocated the use of virtual reality and mannequins to teach clinical pharmacology.ObjectivesTo study the effect, perception, and feedback of virtual reality high-fidelity adult mannequin-based (VHFM) simulation of real-life clinical scenarios over conventional tutorials in teaching clinical pharmacology to medical students.Material and MethodsAn interventional study was designed for 2nd year MBBS students for a period of 6 months. The enrolled students were randomly assigned to the test group (VHFM) or control group (tutorials). The CAE Healthcare Ltd. maestro, high-fidelity prehospital mannequin (APOLLO) was used in the test group. Three sessions consisting of six different cases were discussed, and multiple-choice questions (MCQs)-based pre-test, post–test, and retest after a month were conducted in both groups and compared. The perception and feedback of faculty and students were obtained by using a modified and revalidated questionnaire.ResultsThe test group outperformed the control group ( p <.001) in all sessions based on pre-test, post-test, and retest scores, and within-group comparisons revealed significant improvements in both groups. Students’ perceptions and feedback regarding VHFM were more enthusiastic and promising than in the tutorial group.ConclusionsVHFM is student-centered, provides an active learning environment, and aids in skill development. We strongly suggest VHFM-based learning as a complement to traditional teaching strategies in pharmacology, especially for teaching clinical reasoning to medical students.

The future integrated care workforce.

The future integrated care workforce.

Helping medical undergraduate students to understand healthcare costs.

Developing clinical leadership competencies in medical students ideally would be an experiential process. One crucial leadership competency in the UK Faculty of Medical Leadership and Management leadership framework, is ‘managing services’; a key aspect of this is being aware of healthcare costs. This is challenging within the crowded MBBS curriculum, with students naturally focused on their emergent diagnostic and clinical management skills. A pre-existing epidemiology assessment at St George's University of London (SGUL), the case analysis project (CAP), requires first year clinical students to investigate the sensitivity and specificity of screening and diagnostic tests and the treatment evidence base for a patient condition they have encountered clinically. To give students an appreciation of the cost of healthcare, this innovative extension of the project required that students additionally estimate the costs of both their chosen diagnostic tests and treatment. The students are provided with a tailored form of the English National Cost Collection for the NHS,1 an annually published spreadsheet of average costs for every test and treatment, ranging from phlebotomy to heart transplantation. The resource was downloaded, irrelevant content removed, and a simple costing methodology created, ignoring the database's subtle categorisations such as 'case complexity'. Students were directed to the British National Formulary for drug costs. A pre-recorded lecture and worked examples were prepared on the SGUL online learning platform, demonstrating the use of the tailored spreadsheet, and other resources, in estimating costs. Students are supported with their project by clinical and epidemiological tutors in two separate small group tutorials. A training session and access to student resources were provided to tutors, as this was unfamiliar content for them. During implementation, student queries which tutors could not answer were escalated to the CAP clinical academic lead. The tutor training session generated improvements in presentation of material and offered an opportunity to pilot the intervention with educators. Keeping the task simple, and our focus on developing clear training resources for students and tutors, were successful approaches as there were few student queries requiring escalation. Delivering the tutorials required no additional tutor time. Nearly all students costed investigations and treatments correctly. Tutors reported lively and engaged discussions around healthcare costs and encouraged students to use this resource in their future discussions and learning around health economics. The innovation was successful in achieving an appreciation of health service costs for medical students and giving them the opportunity to practise scholarship relating to a crucial leadership competency. Two challenges encountered by students were the different terminology used for tests in the database compared with clinical terms and locating the test or treatment, both issues were resolved within the tutorials. Finally, an important limitation is that the costings in the NHS database do not take account of ‘care’ provision, admission duration, costs for co-morbidities or indirect costs such as building maintenance/utilities. However, these limitations could be a focus for further expansion of this educational intervention, thus continuing the development of our future clinical managers and leaders.

Investigating and Improving Student Understanding of Conductors and Insulators

Concepts involving conductors and insulators are challenging at all levels of instruction. Here, we summarized an investigation of the difficulties that introductory students have pertaining to the charging of conductors and insulators and how that research was used as a resource to develop, validate, and evaluate a conceptual tutorial on this challenging topic. The tutorial uses guided inquiry-based teaching–learning sequences and focuses on helping students develop conceptual understanding of charging conductors and insulators using concrete examples. At a large university in the US, we first evaluated whether there was any statistically significant difference on the pretest (before college instruction) between the performance of students who had any high school physics instruction and those who did not on relevant questions. Then, we compared the performance of introductory physics students in the experimental group who engaged with the tutorial and the control group who did not engage with the tutorial and only had traditional, lecture-based instruction. Our analysis shows large improvements from pre- to post-tests (i.e., from before to after instruction) for the tutorial group and large gaps in post-test scores between the nontutorial and tutorial groups.

The Impact of a High-Dosage Tutoring Program on Reading Achievement of Beginning Readers: A Multi-Level Analysis

The purpose of this randomized control trial (RCT) was to examine the impact of one-to-one high-dosage tutoring on reading achievement of kindergarten and first grade students, many at risk of reading failure. This nearly two-year study collected reading assessment data from 185 students, from across 13 classrooms, randomly assigned to either the one-to-one high-dosage tutoring group or the teacher-instruction-only group. Treatment students received tutoring support 2-3 times per week across the school year from specially trained tutors using a digital literacy platform. Tutoring focused on sequenced skills beginning with letter identification and sounds and moved to reading stories. The results of the Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM) analysis, from both Chapter One assessments as well as the nationally recognized assessments, indicate that Chapter One’s high impact tutoring program is highly effective in helping at-risk kindergarten and first grade students achieve reading proficiency. Tutored students outperformed non-tutored students on multiple measures of reading achievement.

The Online Studio: Cultures, Perceptions and Questions for the Future

AbstractWe investigated the impact of the transition to online architectural design studios in response to the COVID‐19 pandemic at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. The study focussed specifically on student and tutor perceptions of online design studio before the sudden transition to online delivery, and how those perceptions shifted through the initial months of online delivery. We consider the pedagogical context in which the shift to online teaching took place and the evident successes and failures in the early iterations of online studio. We discuss similar and contrasting perceptions in student and tutor groups and observe the changes in these perceptions prior to and after teaching and learning in online studios. The paper concludes with a series of questions directed to the architectural design studio teaching community regarding the apparent inevitability of a future in which both FTF and online‐only studios are surpassed with hybrid design studios.

Stakeholder perspectives on the use of VoiceThread as a multimodal alternative to conventional discussion board in distance education

This pilot study explores and documents online students’ and their lecturer’s debut experiences of utilising VoiceThread (VT), a digital multimodal platform, as an alternative discussion space via Open Universities Australia (OUA). Feedback from the lecturer’s teaching log and interview was corroborated with his OUA students’ survey responses, and analysed in relation to student online learning experiences with VT and Discussion Board, as well as technological and affective aspects of both platforms. Findings indicate that VT has a stronger potential in boosting stakeholders’ online engagement and enjoyment of distance learning, thus fostering online community building. Specifically, VT creates not only a multimodal and dynamic platform in lieu of Discussion Board, but a supportive online learning environment that promotes more inclusive and ongoing interactions. Despite the positive results, VT was viewed by some students as technologically demanding, causing them to only read peer posts without responding. It is suggested that orientation training sessions and trial threads be made available to ease the students into VT. Aspects of tutorial group size and instructor support should also be considered for future online course delivery.

Does prior knowledge affect interaction dynamics and learning achievement in digital problem-based learning? A pilot study.

Previous research on problem-based learning (PBL) describes that videotaped observations develop meaningful insights into cognitive processes in tutorial groups. Analysis regarding the amount of prior knowledge on learning achievement has not been investigated in medical education so far, although both are key factors of PBL success. Thus, we intended to analyse videos of digital problem-based learning (dPBL) sessions, focusing on knowledge acquisition and interaction dynamics among groups with different levels of prior knowledge to reveal any distinctions. This study employed a pilot design by dividing 60 dental students into twelve subgroups with less or more prior knowledge, determined by a pre-semester multiple choice test (MCQ). The groups engaged in videotaped dPBL cases, which were examined regarding group interactions and tutor effectiveness. The learning achievement was assessed through a post-semester MCQ, an oral and practical exam. The video analysis showed that dPBL groups with less prior knowledge achieved significantly higher tutor effectiveness and group interaction utterances, but that the percentage of time in which utterances occurred was similar in both groups. Related to the MCQ results, the students with less prior knowledge learned four times more than those with profound previous abilities, but no significant difference was found in the results of the oral exam and practical exam. The interaction dynamics in dPBL depend on the group's amount of prior knowledge. Especially groups including participants with less prior knowledge seemed to benefit from dPBL in comparison to groups with more prior knowledge. The dPBL groups acquired knowledge in different ways during the courses but, finally, all students arrived at a similar level of knowledge.