The role of students as teachers: four years' experience of a large-scale, peer-led programme.

AIM

This study set out to explore whether a teaching programme developed and delivered by medical students yielded an improvement of attendees' examination performance or their experience of preparing for the target assessment.

METHODS

Over 4 years all students were invited to consent to use of their official examination data. Students were ranked for baseline performance and again for performance in the target assessment. Change in rank was compared for attendees and non-attenders. Additionally, a questionnaire was distributed to students before and after the peer-led programme. Attendees' responses were compared to those of non-attenders.

RESULTS

No statistically significant difference in change in rank was observed between the two groups on evaluation of quantitative performance data. The majority of students (81.0%) scored the programme four or five in terms of perceived usefulness on a five-point Likert scale. Attendees reported statistically significant increases in preparedness for the examination (p=0.001) and in familiarity with the style of examination questions (p=0.004) compared to students who did not attend.

CONCLUSION

This study suggests that teaching from peers may improve students' perception of their preparedness for official assessments. However, such interventions may be limited in their ability to produce a demonstrable benefit in terms of examination performance.