Comparison of Peer-Assisted Learning with Traditional Faculty-led Teaching in Family Medicine Clerkship: An Experimental Study.

Objective: To compare the effects of reciprocal peer-assisted learning (PAL) with traditional faculty-led teaching on the academic performance of fourth-year medical students in Family Medicine clerkship.

Study Design: An experimental study.

Place And Duration Of Study: Department of Health Professions Education and Department of Family Medicine, Shifa College of Medicine, Islamabad, Pakistan, from 22nd February 2019 to 25th February 2020.

Methodology: The study was conducted longitudinally in three clerkship rounds of Family Medicine with 77 fourth-year students separated into a control group and an intervention group taught by faculty and peers respectively. All peer tutors were trained prior to their sessions and there were parallel peer-led and faculty-led sessions. Both groups were given a pre-test prior to the intervention and a post-test after the intervention. The data were entered in SPSS version 24 and analysed using chi-square, independent and paired sample t-tests.

Results: Participants of both intervention (PAL) and control (non-PAL) groups demonstrated a significant difference in post and pre-test scores with a p-value <0.05. However, the mean difference in the post-and pre-test scores between the two groups was not significant with a p-value >0.05.

Conclusion: Students taught by peers performed as well as students taught by the faculty in this study, as depicted by their academic scores. Henceforth PAL is comparable to faculty-led teaching in acquisition of knowledge in Family Medicine clerkship.

Key Words: Peer-assisted learning, Reciprocal peer-assisted learning, Traditional teaching, Family medicine.