Li Zhuoyang, Wang Quan, Wu Junsong
Department of Orthopedics, The First Affiliated Hospital, College of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China.
PLoS One. 2025 Sep 2;20(9):e0329605. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0329605. eCollection 2025.
The objective of this meta-analysis was to compare the effects of peer-assisted learning (PAL) and traditional teaching methods on the theoretical knowledge and practical skill education in clinical medicine by summarizing the relevant randomized controlled trial (RCT) studies reported to date. A comprehensive search was conducted across several medical literature databases, including PubMed, EMBASE, Springer, Ovid, Cochrane Library, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), and China Biology Medicine Disc (CBMdisc). All pertinent articles, reviews, and references published from January 1970 to May 2023 were analyzed using Review Manager 5.4 software. A total of 81 RCTs were included in this analysis. The findings indicated that PAL surpassed traditional teaching methods in enhancing the transfer of theoretical knowledge and the acquisition of practical skills, especially in terms of student satisfaction and acceptance. It was also observed that, although PAL displayed advantages in certain areas, its effectiveness might not be substantial in fields demanding high levels of specialized knowledge. Furthermore, the reliability of the findings could be constrained by small sample sizes and inadequate implementation of blinding methods. Consequently, it is concluded that PAL is an effective and promising teaching method. Nonetheless, more rigorous research is required in the future to comprehensively explore the role of PAL in medical education.
本荟萃分析的目的是通过总结迄今为止报道的相关随机对照试验（RCT）研究，比较同伴辅助学习（PAL）和传统教学方法对临床医学理论知识和实践技能教育的影响。对多个医学文献数据库进行了全面检索，包括PubMed、EMBASE、Springer、Ovid、Cochrane图书馆、中国知网（CNKI）和中国生物医学光盘数据库（CBMdisc）。使用Review Manager 5.4软件对1970年1月至2023年5月发表的所有相关文章、综述和参考文献进行分析。本分析共纳入81项随机对照试验。研究结果表明，在促进理论知识的迁移和实践技能的获得方面，同伴辅助学习超过了传统教学方法，尤其是在学生满意度和接受度方面。研究还发现，尽管同伴辅助学习在某些方面显示出优势，但其在需要高水平专业知识的领域的有效性可能并不显著。此外，研究结果的可靠性可能受到样本量小和盲法实施不充分的限制。因此，得出结论，同伴辅助学习是一种有效且有前景的教学方法。尽管如此，未来还需要更严谨的研究来全面探索同伴辅助学习在医学教育中的作用。
