36 | JADE
ARTICLE #3 | 37
DAVID S BLANCHARD AND ELIOT REES
peer-teaching (ten Cate 2007, Field et al 2007, Silbert & Lake 2012).
Ten Cate et al (2012), however, looked at the academic achievements
of medical students tutored by near-peers and medical students
tutored by faculty over a 5 year period. They used test scores
for individual courses and demonstrated improved knowledge
acquisition, information retention and exam performance in students
that were tutored by peers. Furthermore, they found that student
peer-teaching was at least as good as faculty tutoring. Nevertheless,
it remains to be shown that the benefits of peer-teaching are due,
as has been suggested, at least in part, to the social and cognitive
congruence between learners and teachers (Lockspeiser et al 2008,
ten Cate et al 2012), or that peer- teaching is appropriate for all
medical students (Lockspeiser et al 2008).
But the even longer term effects of peer-teaching may be more
difficult to measure. For example, how does learning to teach as
a medical student affect abilities as a qualified doctor? Does it
lead, for example, to enhanced skills in patient education? Will
attendance on a TST course promote interest and involvement in
a career in academic medicine? Will involvement in peer-teaching
lead to a better development of professional values and behaviour
as suggested by Dandavino et al (2007). With expansion of teacher
training and peer-teaching within undergraduate medical curricula
these questions may be answered.
One way we have evaluated our TST course is by contacting
attendees one year after the course, once they had completed their
undergraduate studies. Over 50% of the students responded and
all offered positive comments concerning the value of the course
to their final year of study. It would be interesting to follow these
students further to see if attendance on the course had any bearing
on subsequent career choice or performance as a doctor. However,
such evaluation would be severely limited by the relatively small
numbers involved and the lack of adequate controls.
Tip11: Develop an educational environment that
encourages spontaneous peer-teaching
Wadoodi & Crosby (2002) stated that ‘peer learning initiatives
must be seen as a student-led initiative to maximise the potential
for free expression’ and that ‘involvement of the medical school
should be seen as being as minimal as possible’. However, we
believe that active promotion of peer- teac