Using Peer–Assisted Learning and Role–Playing to Teach Generic Skills to Dental Students: The Health Care Simulation Model

Abstract

Increasing importance is attached to teaching generic skills to undergraduate students in various disciplines. This article describes an extracurricular, student-led activity for teaching generic skills using the Model United Nations over three months. The activity used the Health Care Simulation Model (HCSM) with peer learning and role-playing to accomplish its objectives. An interview was used to select from undergraduate and postgraduate dental students at Alexandria University, Alexandria, Egypt, to develop a group of staff to act as peer teachers after receiving training (n=77). These peer teachers provided training for 123 undergraduate dental students to serve as delegates who acted as trainees or peer learners. At the end of the training sessions, a conference was held in which the students played the roles of delegates representing oficials responsible for health care systems in ten countries. The students reported improvement in generic skills, enjoyed several aspects of the experience, and disliked other aspects of the model to a lesser extent. In multivariate analysis, perceived usefulness of the HCSM was signiicantly greater for staff than delegates and increased as self-reported improvement in knowledge of health care systems increased. This study suggests that innovative, student-centered educational methods can be effective for teaching generic skills and factual information.

Dentists’ Perceptions of Their Peer Learning Experiences in Dental School and Effects on Practice

“…PAL has been affirmed in studies conducted around the world as creating a teaching environment in which health professions students have learned leadership and teamwork skills 2 , 7 , 9 , 13 , 14 , 18 . Though the benefits of PAL have thus been documented in research, we found only a few published articles about PAL programs in U.S. dental schools 4 , 9 , 19 .…”

“…Other studies have found that peer‐assisted learning (PAL) was a means to emphasize professional skills in preparing students for the workforce 3 – 6 . PAL has been defined as the development of one's knowledge and skills through the support of status equals 7 …”

“…Since then, PAL has been identified in research on educational programs in medicine, allied health services, and recently in dentistry as an adult reciprocal learning model 13 – 19 . Paired professional students have been found to help each other to learn and thereby learned themselves by teaching others 7 , 20 – 22 . Other researchers reported that PAL offered opportunities for the pair to make comparisons between observed performance of their partner, receive feedback from each other, and together understand the professional standards expected of them 9 , 13 , 19 .…”

Generic Skills: Expectation and Reality

“…The efforts to improve generic skills can be conducted through learning. Some researchers recommended to integrate generic skills into each learning, to use portfolios of each student, to apply blended learning method [4], [24] and also to conduct learning by using Peer-Assisted Learning strategy [25], [26], [27].…”

Simulation‐Based Medical Emergencies Education for Dental Students: A Three‐Year Evaluation

“…This training model was designed to prepare second‐year dental students to manage common in‐office medical emergencies prior to the start of their clinical experience in the patient clinics. Role‐playing as an educational method has been found to be an effective method for learner acquisition of knowledge, attitudes and communication skills 17 . It draws on Kolb's experiential learning theory 18 and Kneebone's theory‐based approach to learning clinical skills in simulation, which focuses on supporting learners with expert tutoring in an authentic professional context while considering the emotional elements of learning 19 …”