Objective and subjective assessment of reciprocal peer teaching in medical gross anatomy laboratory

Abstract

Reciprocal peer teaching (RPT), wherein students alternate roles as teacher and learner, has been applied in several educational arenas with varying success. Here, we describe the implementation of a reciprocal peer teaching protocol in a human gross anatomy laboratory curriculum. We compared the outcomes of the RPT class with those of previous classes in which RPT was not employed. Objective data (i.e., course grades) show no significant differences in gross anatomy laboratory grades between students in the RPT and non-RPT classes. To subjectively evaluate the relative success of RPT in the laboratory, we analyzed student opinions obtained through anonymous surveys. These data show that a powerful majority of student respondents felt that RPT was beneficial and should be used in future classes. The greatest disadvantage was unreliable quality of teaching from peers; however, most students still felt that RPT should be continued. Students who felt that they had insufficient hands-on experience (by virtue of dissecting only half the time) were significantly more likely to recommend abandoning RPT. These results underscore the importance of active student dissection, and suggest that a modified version of the described RPT protocol may satisfy more of the needs of large, diverse student populations. Several hidden benefits of RPT exist for faculty, administration, and students, including reduced need for large numbers of cadavers, attendant reduction in operating costs, and smaller student-to-teacher ratios.

An Evaluation of Peer Teaching Across the Curriculum: Student Perspectives

“…Additionally, near peers by virtue of being students have similar social roles which create a comfort level whereby learners can ask near peers questions they may not ask their instructor [8]. Furthermore, near-peer teaching is an effective way to deliver high quality education to smaller groups allowing for a more student-centered approach to learning [1,[9][10] Regardless of the field of study, the process is considered a valuable supplement to traditional education.…”

Anatomy teaching assistants: Facilitating teaching skills for medical students through apprenticeship and mentoring

“…Through the Human Structure course at Mayo Medical School, the Mayo Clinic incorporates a three-tier teaching model that involves: learning through faculty-driven activities, near-peer teaching (Bulte et al 2007;Evans & Cuffe 2009), and peer teaching Bentley & Hill 2009). The course is run over seven weeks (120 hours) and employs modified team-based exercises in both classroom and laboratory to meet clinical anatomy and radiology learning objectives (Hofer et al 2011) that concentrate on building knowledge of gross, developmental, and radiologic anatomy and skills in the personal/interpersonal arenas.…”

Academic achievement of students tutored by near-peers

“…[12][13][14][15][16] De Volder and colleagues suggested a contradiction of the 'congruence' hypothesis, as in one of three PBL modules studied, students of teacherled groups performed better than those in student-led groups, while both other modules showed no significant difference. 17 While other studies report no significant difference 18,19 , some authors found a significant benefit for students taught by peers. 12,20 Except for the De Volder study 17 , all of these experiments were specifically designed to test the hypothesis that students do not learn less if taught by peers and included random assignment of students to one of two conditions.…”