Claire L Donohoe1, John B Conneely2, Nathan Zilbert3, Martina Hennessy4, Susie Schofield5, John V Reynolds6. 1. Department of Surgery, St. James's Hospital and Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland. 2. Department of Surgery, St. James's Hospital and Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland; Department of Surgery, Mater Private Hospital, Dublin, Ireland. 3. Division of HPB Surgery and Abdominal Organ Transplantation, Toronto General Hospital, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada. 4. Department of Medical Education, St. James's Hospital and Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland. 5. Centre for Medical Education, University of Dundee, Dundee, Scotland. 6. Department of Surgery, St. James's Hospital and Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland. Electronic address: reynoljv@tcd.ie.
Abstract
OBJECTIVES: Peer-assisted learning (PAL) is a form of collaborative learning where members of a peer group act as teachers for each other. A reciprocal PAL program was designed to investigate whether there were differential gains in knowledge acquisition among tutors compared with tutees. DESIGN: Bayesian statistical analysis was used to quantitatively assess the effect of tutor status on performance in a knowledge-based examination. Subgroup analysis according to student achievement and question difficulty was performed. PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING: Final year undergraduate medical students in a 5-year degree program (n = 126). RESULTS: The overall probability of getting a correct answer on the knowledge examination was 49.7%. For questions on topics where a student had acted as a tutor this improved to 57.3%. However, students who performed in the upper quartile had a greater percentage gain in the probability of a correct answer in topics that they had taught vs students who performed in the lowest quartile. CONCLUSIONS: There was demonstrable overall knowledge gain associated with acting as a tutor in a PAL program but the greatest gain occurred in students of highest academic ability.
OBJECTIVES: Peer-assisted learning (PAL) is a form of collaborative learning where members of a peer group act as teachers for each other. A reciprocal PAL program was designed to investigate whether there were differential gains in knowledge acquisition among tutors compared with tutees. DESIGN: Bayesian statistical analysis was used to quantitatively assess the effect of tutor status on performance in a knowledge-based examination. Subgroup analysis according to student achievement and question difficulty was performed. PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING: Final year undergraduate medical students in a 5-year degree program (n = 126). RESULTS: The overall probability of getting a correct answer on the knowledge examination was 49.7%. For questions on topics where a student had acted as a tutor this improved to 57.3%. However, students who performed in the upper quartile had a greater percentage gain in the probability of a correct answer in topics that they had taught vs students who performed in the lowest quartile. CONCLUSIONS: There was demonstrable overall knowledge gain associated with acting as a tutor in a PAL program but the greatest gain occurred in students of highest academic ability.