Student peer teaching in the anatomy lab enhances anatomy performance in the lowest quartile of allied health students (211.5)

Abstract

The gross anatomy lab provides an opportunity for reciprocal peer teaching (RPT), which enables students to develop communication skills and enhance content understanding. Students alternate dissections and are responsible for providing a review of their dissection to the opposite dissection group. This study examines whether students who led reviews do better on exam questions related to their review topic compared to students who did not lead reviews. It is hypothesized that lower performing students will do better on questions that pertain to their review topic, while higher performing students will do well regardless of providing a review. To assess the influence of RPT, students were divided by grade into four quartiles: 66‐80.6, 80.7‐84.3, 84.4‐90.6, 90.7‐99%. Preliminary results suggest that students in the lowest quartile do better on exam questions that pertain to their review topic (72.3%) compared to students in the quartile who did not give a review (65.2%). For students in the upper three quartiles, there was no difference in performance on questions related to their review topic compared to students within their quartile who did not perform a review. Thus, RPT may be more beneficial to students who may otherwise perform at a lower level. Further investigation, including data collected from other reviews, may increase the sample size and establish significance within other quartiles.