Students-4-Students: A Mutually Beneficial Near-Peer Teaching Program
Date
2025
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Title: Students4Students—A mutually beneficial near-peer teaching program
Presenters: Justin Abe (MS3), Jacey Mitchell (MS1), Brooke Yasuda (MS1)
Faculty: Dr. Jason Higa PhD
Affiliation: John A. Burns School of Medicine (JABSOM) Office of Medical Education
Context: Whether it be upperclassmen medical students teaching underclassmen, residents teaching medical students, or upper residents teaching interns, near-peer teaching is a long-standing tradition within medical education. As near-peer teachers often have a similar knowledge base and a less significant power dynamic imbalance with their learners than formal professors, it allows for more effective learning and a more comfortable and supportive learning environment [1]. Although there is an overlap in content between undergraduate physiology classes and pre-clinical physiology content for medical students, there is no formal near-peer teaching opportunity to connect these two populations at the University of Hawaii.
Objective: The purpose of this innovation was to provide near-peer teaching sessions to improve undergraduate students’ knowledge of anatomy and physiology as well as to give medical students an opportunity to review board-relevant content
Description of Innovation: We recruited six medical student volunteers on a volunteer basis to be physiology teachers for our program “Students4Students” (S4S). These students held a forty-five-minute virtual teaching session that reviewed a physiological system before the undergraduate students took the corresponding exam. Through seven teaching sessions, S4S sessions reviewed the Cardiovascular, Pulmonary, Immunology, Digestive System & Metabolism, Urinary System & Fluid Balance, and Reproductive Systems, which were tested by Exam 2 and Exam 3 in a introductory physiology course. The medical student teachers also provided personal time to answer questions about the content or their professional journey at the end of each session.
Evaluation of Innovation: Scores from students who attended S4S sessions were compared with other students who did not attend S4S. There was a total of 18 students in the group that attended S4S sessions and a total of 394 students in the group that did not attend S4S sessions. The students in the S4S group were recruited on a voluntary basis. For exam 2, the average score for S4S attendees was significantly higher (p=<0.01), with S4S attendees scoring a mean percentage of 84% and S4S non-attendees scoring a mean percentage of 72%. Similarly, for exam 3, the average score for S4S attendees was significantly higher (p=0.011), with S4S attendees scoring a mean percentage of 82% and S4S non-attendees scoring a mean percentage of 65%.
Discussion/Key Message: The evaluation of our innovation suggests that Students4Students may be effective in improving undergraduate students’ knowledge of physiology. This is an example of how a student-driven, student-created project can benefit the learning experience of near peers. One limitation of this study is that there could have been other confounding factors that led to a significant difference in scores between the S4S-attendees and non-S4S attendees. For example, it is possible that students who voluntarily attended the sessions have a baseline higher level of intrinsic motivation and better studying habits than students who did not attend the sessions. Additionally, this study is limited by our relatively small sample size and increasing the sample size in future iterations could enhance the generalizability of your findings. Students4Students will continue to serve undergraduate students, and future studies can re-evaluate the effects of Students4Students with a greater sample size of students. Future efforts can also explore the effect of the Students4Students sessions on the medical student teachers’ knowledge base and explore how near-peer teaching between graduate and undergraduate students can be adapted for other educational contexts.
Target Audience: Medical students, undergraduate students
Citations
Hall, S., Harrison, C. H., Stephens, J., Andrade, M. G., Seaby, E. G., Parton, W., McElligott, S., Myers, M. A., Elmansouri, A., Ahn, M., Parrott, R., Smith, C. F., & Border, S. (2018). The benefits of being a near-peer teacher. The clinical teacher, 15(5), 403–407. https://doi.org/10.1111/tct.12784
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