BACKGROUND: Near-peer teaching is used in anatomy education because of its benefits to the learner, teacher and faculty members. Despite the range of reports focusing on the learner, the advantages for the teacher, which are thought to include communication skills, subject knowledge and employability, are only beginning to be explored. METHOD: A questionnaire was distributed to the teachers involved in anatomy near-peer teaching at the University of Southampton and Brighton and Sussex Medical School (BSMS). This questionnaire was designed using a rating scale of 0-10 to assess teacher perspectives on their level of knowledge, teaching skills and enjoyment of teaching. Free-text responses determined the teachers' motivation and perceived benefits from the teaching. RESULTS: Twenty-eight questionnaires were gathered (54.9% response rate), including 20 from Southampton and eight from BSMS. Long-term knowledge retention and better understanding of the material were rated 8.1 and 7.9 out of 10, respectively. Eight responses were from currently practising doctors, who rated how much they now use their teaching skills as doctors as 8.9 out of 10. Of the eight doctors, seven gained points for their foundation programme applications as a direct result of near-peer teaching. The most common motivator for engaging in teaching was to improve subject matter knowledge and the most common benefit was improved communication skills. There are numerous advantages to being a near-peer teacher in medical school DISCUSSION: There are numerous advantages to being a near-peer teacher in medical school, which include knowledge improvement, transferrable professional skills and employability. These initial results support the hypothesised benefits to the teachers and provide a foundation for further longitudinal studies.
BACKGROUND: Near-peer teaching is used in anatomy education because of its benefits to the learner, teacher and faculty members. Despite the range of reports focusing on the learner, the advantages for the teacher, which are thought to include communication skills, subject knowledge and employability, are only beginning to be explored. METHOD: A questionnaire was distributed to the teachers involved in anatomy near-peer teaching at the University of Southampton and Brighton and Sussex Medical School (BSMS). This questionnaire was designed using a rating scale of 0-10 to assess teacher perspectives on their level of knowledge, teaching skills and enjoyment of teaching. Free-text responses determined the teachers' motivation and perceived benefits from the teaching. RESULTS: Twenty-eight questionnaires were gathered (54.9% response rate), including 20 from Southampton and eight from BSMS. Long-term knowledge retention and better understanding of the material were rated 8.1 and 7.9 out of 10, respectively. Eight responses were from currently practising doctors, who rated how much they now use their teaching skills as doctors as 8.9 out of 10. Of the eight doctors, seven gained points for their foundation programme applications as a direct result of near-peer teaching. The most common motivator for engaging in teaching was to improve subject matter knowledge and the most common benefit was improved communication skills. There are numerous advantages to being a near-peer teacher in medical school DISCUSSION: There are numerous advantages to being a near-peer teacher in medical school, which include knowledge improvement, transferrable professional skills and employability. These initial results support the hypothesised benefits to the teachers and provide a foundation for further longitudinal studies.
Authors: Charles F C Taylor; Octavia R Kurn; Steven P Glautier; Deepika Anbu; Oliver Dean; Eva Nagy; Kate R Geoghan; Charlie H Harrison; December R Payne; Sam Hall; Scott Border Journal: Med Sci Educ Date: 2021-02-19
Authors: Ester Orsini; Marilisa Quaranta; Giulia Adalgisa Mariani; Sara Mongiorgi; Lucio Cocco; Anna Maria Billi; Lucia Manzoli; Stefano Ratti Journal: Int J Environ Res Public Health Date: 2021-12-30 Impact factor: 3.390
Authors: Daniel R Bacon; Keri Cowles; Diwash Thapa; Alexander White; Austin J Allen; John Doughton; Gary Beck Dallaghan; Sheryl G Jordan Journal: Adv Med Educ Pract Date: 2021-09-24
Authors: Simon Schwill; Johanna Fahrbach-Veeser; Andreas Moeltner; Christiane Eicher; Sonia Kurczyk; David Pfisterer; Joachim Szecsenyi; Svetla Loukanova Journal: BMC Med Educ Date: 2020-01-16 Impact factor: 2.463