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Can medical students teach? A near-peer-led teaching program for year 1 students
1Brighton and Sussex Medical School, Brighton, East Sussex, United Kingdom.
Advances in Physiology Education
|September 7, 2012
Summary
Medical students can effectively teach their peers, enhancing learning in physiology. This near-peer teaching program was well-received by first-year students, improving their understanding and potentially their exam performance.
Area of Science:
- Medical Education
- Physiology Education
- Undergraduate Medical Training
Background:
- The General Medical Council mandates that UK medical graduates be effective educators.
- Evidence supports integrating medical students as teachers within curricula.
- Near-peer teaching offers a novel pedagogical approach in medical schools.
Purpose of the Study:
- To design and implement a near-peer-led teaching program for first-year medical students.
- To assess the acceptability and perceived usefulness of this program among students.
- To evaluate the program's impact on student learning and outcomes.
Main Methods:
- A voluntary, near-peer-led tutorial program was implemented for first-year medical students at Brighton and Sussex Medical School.
- Six tutorials focused on cardiac, respiratory, and blood physiology, utilizing active learning in small groups.
- Anonymous evaluations collected quantitative and qualitative feedback on the program and individual tutorials.
Main Results:
- The program was popular and well-attended, with 94 out of 138 first-year students participating.
- Students reported that the near-peer tutorials were highly useful for consolidating module material.
- The active, small-group teaching style was found to facilitate the learning experience effectively.
Conclusions:
- Near-peer tutorial programs can be successfully integrated into undergraduate medical curricula.
- First-year medical students are receptive to near-peer teaching and find it beneficial for their learning.
- The program showed a potential positive effect on student examination outcomes, warranting further investigation.
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