Yu Sui Chen¹
Sushela Devi Somanath¹
1 International Medical University 

Peer Assisted Learning (PAL) has been shown to promote student-centered learning in academic achievement [1]. It was introduced in our medical program in 2020. The main objective was to provide additional academic support to year 1 students to pass the first progression examination. 

This study examined the impact of PAL on 2 cohorts of year 1 students in the old curriculum (OC) and 3 cohorts in the present curriculum (PC) which commenced in 2021. Peer tutors (PT) were senior students with good academic grades. The PT met the tutees for at least three 2- hour sessions per semester. The PAL started in semester 2 and ran for two semesters in OC and one semester in PC. The difference is due to the timing of the progression exams. The students used these sessions to prepare for the examinations. The examination results between peer-tutored students (PTS) and non- peer-tutored students (NPTS) were compared using two- tailed paired student-t test. 

The results showed a significantly higher percentage of the number of students obtaining As (39% vs 27% in ME120; 35% vs 27% in ME220) and lesser percentage of the number of students failing (7% vs 10% in ME120; 14% vs 17% in ME220) the continuous assessments and the progression exam in PTS compared to NPTS respectively in the OC. However, such difference wasn't consistently observed in PC. 

Overall, PTS performed better than NPTS in OC but this finding was not consistent in PC possibly due to a shorter PAL duration. This suggests that PAL is effective in improving students’ academic performance and passing the progression exam provided it is run at least for a year. 

PAL promotes student learning in a social context and with sufficient length of time, it helps to improve students’ academic performance. 

1. Gary Packham & Christopher Miller (2000) Peer-Assisted Student Support: a new approach to learning. Journal of Further and Higher Education, 24 (1), pp 55-65