TITLE:
Students’ Perceptions of an Outcome Based Peer Approach to Promote Self-Directed Learning in a Dental School Course in Biomaterials
AUTHORS:
Shivaughn M. Marchan
KEYWORDS:
Dental Biomaterials, Self -Directed Learning, Peer Assisted Learning, Teaching/Learning Strategies
JOURNAL NAME:
Creative Education,
Vol.12 No.1,
January
14,
2021
ABSTRACT: Background and Objective: The curricula of dental schools have evolved over the last two decades in an attempt to develop graduates that are critical thinkers that can solve problems related to the overallcompetency basedmanagement of patients. Inherent to this process is the introduction of teaching and learning strategies that assist professional students in becoming self-directedlearners early in their training. At the UWI-SODself-directedlearning influenced by peer interaction is used in part as a teaching/learning strategy in the delivery of a dental biomaterials course in the second year of study. This study aims to examine student perceptions of this strategy compared tofaculty driveninstruction. Methods: A 25-item survey, which was previously subjected to a face validity exercise was deployed to the Year 2 cohort after all assessments for the course were completed and final course grades published. Items explored perceptions related to the process ofpeer assistedlearning, peer interaction during group learning, preferences between didactic lectures andpeer basedlearning, preferences on other types of active learning strategies, and preparedness for this type of learning strategy. Items were scored on a 5-point Likert scale from 1-strongly disagree to 5-strongly agree. Overall mean scores for each item were calculated using SPSS (Version 24, IBM, Chicago). Responses were grouped as follows: scores of 1-strongly disagree and 2-disagree were groupedtogetherto show disagreement, scores of 4-agree and 5-strongly agree to show agreement. Results: There was a response rate of 92%. When the process was compared to PBL, 78% of surveyed students preferred this methodology as a learning strategyand60% preferred didactic lectures over thispeer basedlearning strategy.Sixty-five percent of students agreed that theylearntand assimilated knowledge from their peers during PAL. Only 29% of students preferred PAL over purely didactic lectures. Conclusion: While more than half of the surveyed students claimed they learned from their group peers during peer sessions, the vast majority of students preferred afaculty driveninstruction method for the delivery of this course.