TY - JOUR T1 - Undergraduate peer assisted learning tutors’ performance in summative anatomy examinations: a pilot study AU - Agius, A. AU - Stabile, I. KW - peer assisted learning KW - anatomy KW - spotting exams KW - medical education KW - PY - 2018/03/30 Y1 - 2018/03/10 VL - 9 N1 - doi: 10.5116/ijme.5aa3.e2a6 DO - 10.5116/ijme.5aa3.e2a6 M3 - doi: 10.5116/ijme.5aa3.e2a6 JO - Int J Med Educ SP - 93 EP - 98 PB - IJME SN - 2042-6372 UR - http://www.ijme.net/archive/9/summative-anatomy-examinations/ L1 - http://www.ijme.net/archive/9/summative-anatomy-examinations.pdf N2 - Objectives: To compare summative anatomy examination results of Peer Assisted Learning (PAL) tutors and learners in the same undergraduate classroom. Methods: Comparative study of Year-1 medical students who did/did not serve as PAL tutors. PAL tutors gave six hours of teaching in lower limb anatomy. Percent marks for written and spotting examinations were compared between PAL tutors and PAL learners. Results: The 12 self-selected PAL tutors were not significantly different from their peers (n=191) in terms of age or nationality, but 20% were female compared to 51% of PAL learners. Except for upper limb anatomy, PAL tutors performed at the same level as their tutees in all basic science examinations taken before PAL was introduced. PAL tutors performed better (M=89.0, SD=8.2) in the lower limb examinations than PAL learners (M=79.7, SD=13.0), but these differences were only statistically significantly bigger in the subject they had taught (t = 2.40, p=0.002). Overall PAL tutors performed better in all anatomy spotting exams in both pre-clinical years (Year-1: M=80.4, SD=7.4; Year-2: M=74.8, SD=3.4) compared to PAL learners (Year-1: M=75.1, SD=6.6; Year-2: M=67.2, SD=3.0; (t = 4.2, p=0.07). Conclusions: Undergraduate PAL tutors performed better than PAL learners in the subject they taught and continued to do so in all anatomy spotting exams, even after the PAL experience had ended, suggesting that actively involving anatomy students as PAL tutors should be encouraged especially among undergraduate medical students. ER -