The efficacy of peer teaching for medical microbiology lectures

This article was migrated. The article was not marked as recommended. Background: A thorough understanding of infectious diseases is needed by medical professionals; therefore effective microbiological teaching is critical. Although faculty lectures are a convenient means of educating large groups of students, they may fail to engage students and convey an understanding of the subject. Therefore, we developed peer teaching methods based on game-based learning. Methods: A group of student representatives were trained to lecture to a class of 300 third-year medical students via a game show format over a 3-year period (2013-2015). Results: The students reported a higher level of understanding (3.6-4.2 vs 3.6-3.9 out of 5; p < 0.001) and more satisfaction (3.9-4.3 vs 3.6-3.8 out of 5; p < 0.001). Peer teaching also significantly improved the teaching skills of the students (8.9-9.2 vs 8.4-8.7 out of 10; p < 0.001). However, equivalent knowledge outcomes were observed between the two methods and peer teaching demanded more out-of-class time for preparation (44 vs 16 hours for 2013, 49 vs 19 hours for 2014 and 2015). Conclusions: Peer teaching did improve the students' attitude towards learning and conferred teaching skills, but the learning activity needs adjustment to reduce the out-of-class preparation time.