Incorporation of peer learning in first MBBS curriculum to enhance metacognition skills

Abstract

Peer learning can be incorporated in the first MBBS curriculum along with didactic lectures and tutorials. Peer learning is when a student learns from another student who has been trained to explain the topic and discuss it. Peer learning improves domain-specific inquiry skills, supports self-directed learning, and improves metacognition skills. Metacognition is the ability to plan, reason, judge and regulate ways to approach learning a skill or concept. In the midst of curriculum reforms that frequently call for reducing lectures and increasing small-group teaching, there arises a crisis in faculty time for teaching. Peer learning can alleviate the faculty’s burden and provide a conducive environment where the student learns not as a passive listener but as an active participator in learning. Peer learning can inculcate in the student the will to learn and to recognize and identify his own learning strategies. Peer learning benefits not only the learner but also the peer or near-peer acting as teacher. This method can be well received in all cross-sections of students if the peer teacher is well-trained, compassionate, able to relate with others and have the wish to participate.

Keywords

• Peer Learning
• medical students
• metacognition