Near-peer Facilitated Learning in a Dental School: A Student Reflection

---

Original Article

Author Details : Gregory D. Luk, Mary H. Glasheen, Ryan L. Quock

Volume : 4, Issue : 2, Year : 2016

Article Page : 60-65

Suggest article by email

Get Permission

---

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the value of initial student near-peer directed study sessions for a dental school biomedical science core course.
Methods: A standardized pre-post questionnaire was administered prior to and immediately after the designated block of study sessions to collect subjective, experiential participant response to near-peer study sessions. Comparison analysis of participants’ final grades in the course selected for coverage in near-peer study sessions was retrospectively performed.
Results: 17% of first year dental students voluntarily participated in the near-peer study sessions. Frequency of participation in the study sessions seemed inversely related to student confidence levels and grade achievement in the biomedical science core course.
Conclusions: Near-peer led study sessions in a dental school are valuable to students who enter dental school with low confidence in their pre-dental educational preparation. Survey instruments that gauge student confidence levels at baseline may be predictive of student need for near-peer or other additional learning opportunities.

Key Words: Basic sciences; Critical thinking; Dental school; Near-peer

How to cite : Luk G D, Glasheen M H, Quock R L, Near-peer Facilitated Learning in a Dental School: A Student Reflection. Int Dent J Stud Res 2016;4(2):60-65

This is an Open Access (OA) journal, and articles are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 License, which allows others to remix, tweak, and build upon the work non-commercially, as long as appropriate credit is given and the new creations are licensed under the identical terms.