Effectiveness of a BOPPPS-based peer instruction approach in undergraduate physiology: a quasi-experimental study

We introduced a BOPPPS-based peer instruction approach supported by the Chaoxing Xuexitong platform and examined its association with examination performance and students' learning experiences.

This study employed a total of 180 s-year undergraduate clinical medicine students from six pre-existing administrative classes at Northwest Minzu University. Three classes received lecture-based teaching (control group, n = 85), while the other three received the BOPPPS-based peer-assisted learning intervention (intervention group, n = 95). Outcomes included final examination scores and responses to end-of-course questionnaires.

The BOPPPS-based peer instruction approach was associated with higher final examination scores than lecture-based teaching (75.29 ± 8.40 vs. 71.29 ± 9.48, P = 0.003). Students in the intervention group reported higher scores than controls across all four shared domains, including learning engagement and classroom participation, self-directed learning and learning regulation, understanding/basic-to-clinical integration, and overall learning experience (all P < 0.001). In the intervention-specific questionnaire, mean scores across the four domains were above 4.2 on a five-point scale.

In this single-institution quasi-experimental study, a BOPPPS based peer instruction model was associated with better examination performance and more positive student-reported learning experiences than lecture-based teaching. The model appears feasible for undergraduate physiology teaching, although multicentre studies with stronger control of confounding and longer follow-up are still needed.