Abstract :
Introduction: Teaching and learning in medical education has always been challenging
for medical educators. There are various teaching and learning methods used in
medical education with inherent strengths and limitations of each method. This study
was aimed to assess the effectiveness of peer-assisted learning (PAL) and lecture
method in medical students in a teaching hospital in Delhi.
Materials and Methods: An intervention comparative study was conducted to assess
the effect of PAL as compared to conventional lecture method among undergraduate
medical students. Out of 250 students, only one batch of 50 was selected for the
intervention. The students of the same batch were taught two different topics in
community medicine - occupational health and malaria.Occupationalhealthwastaught
using lecture as a teachingmethod. Malaria wastaught using assisted-learningmethod
where groups of students were told to prepare and discuss among themselves. Ten
multiple-choice questions were prepared on each topic for evaluation of theirlearning
in cognitive domain. Scores were calculated before and after the interventions and
compared. Paired t-test was used in pre-and post-interventionscoreswhereas between
the two methods scores, Mann Whitney U test was used.
Results: Out of 50, only 36 students had complete pre and post evaluation
questionnaire. There were 20 male and 16 female students. Mean (SD) pre-score for
lecture method was 3.22 (1.75) and post-score was 4.94 (1.39). The difference in preand post-scores was statistically significant with p-value=0.001. The mean (SD) prescore for PAL was 4.27 (1.77) and post-score was 5.65 (1.67). The difference in pre-and
post-scores was statistically significant with p value=0.002. Thisshowsthat there was
no significant difference in two teaching methods when differences in pre-and postscores were compared.
Conclusion: It can be concluded that both lectures and PAL are effective ways of
teaching in medical education which can fulfill different needs of students. A
combination of both can be used in medical institutions.
Keyword :
Lecture, Peer-assisted learning, Medical students, Cognitive domain, Delhi.