Enhancement of student performance in a gross anatomy course with the use of peer tutoring

ABSTRACT. The design of this study was to assess the effectiveness of a compeer tutoring system developed for a gros anatomy course using one as well as the other academic performance and perceived value of mate tutoring as measures. The controls were students enrolled in the first professional year of a physical therapy program. Grades from 117 pupils enrolled in a gross anatomy course were compared with their grades from a previous anatomy course. Forty-eight scholars took the course prior to the exhibition of a peer tutoring combination of parts to form a whole and 69 students took the course following induction of match tutoring. In addition to the review of scholar grades, students who were involved in the mate tutoring system were surveyed about by what mode they valued the peer titoring sessions. There was a decline in grades the scholars received in the clinical gros anatomy course when compared with their grades in the introductory anatomy course in the couple tutored and nontutored groups. The decline, however was significantly les (P=015) in the tutored cluster of students than in the nontutored collection of students. Tutored students reacted real favorably to the tutoring sessions and press outed a desire to see tutoring expanded to other courses. This was the first demonstration of the effectiveness of mate tutoring in college science teaching. mate tutoring appears to be effective in enhancing learner performance as well as being perceived as beneficial by the agency of the students. Key Words: Anatomy, compeer tutoring, Student performance, Teaching methodology.

INTRODUCTION

As pupils move into the more difficult courses of a professional physical therapy curriculum, they many times have academic difficulty. With increased class sizes in physical therapy programs, faculty can lay out less time with students having academic difficulties. As a rise new ways to help pupils in academic difficulties must be used. individual way to help students in academic difficulty is match tutoring.

Cohen and colleagues,1 in a meta-analysis of the tutoring literature at the primary and secondary education horizontals found that peer tutoring benefited one as well as the other the tutee and the tutor. Beck and colleagues2 base that peer tutoring benefits tutored pupils in undergraduate English courses. There has been relatively little research, however, upon the efficacy of peer tutoring in college-level science courses.

Walker-Barmick and colleagues3 reported succes in a tutoring combination of parts to form a whole in the basic science courses in a medical institute Tutoring was done using a one-to-one tutor/tutee relationship and was lay open only to those students who were identified as having difficulty. This investigation involved 122 pairs of tutors and tutee in 9 of 10 basic science courses. Overall, 84% of the tutored scholars received passing grades. In this investigation 8 of 10 (80%) of tutored learners in a gross anatomy course passed their examinations. This close attention however, had no control clumps for the tutored students and showed no evidence that these learners would have failed without the tutoring combination of parts to form a whole There also was no attempt to compare the performance of "at risk" scholars from previous years when tutoring was not available with the tutored scholars in this study. In addition, there was no attempt to contemplate the perceptions of the tutee about their perceptions of the tutoring sessions.

Student perceptions of match tutoring have been studied in sum of two units biochemistry courses within a medical academy curriculum.4 In the first course, teaching was done in small tutorial sessions, with a faculty tutor and an upperclass learner acting as a peer "co-tutor" to the first-year pupils In this teaching style, 80% to 90% of the first-year learners thought that the peer tutor was a beneficial facilitator, was well-prepared, and assisted them in understanding the course material.4 These proceeds were comparable to those of the near study, which showed an average perceived value of equal tutoring of 8.3 on a 10-point Likert scale and a herculean desire to have tutoring sessions in futurity courses, which averaged 8.7 upon a 10-point Likert scale. The proceeds of the study by Carroll4 would move that peer tutoring is real positively received by the tutored learners

The second biochemistry course was taught in larger prelection sections.4 Although the students perceived that the compeer tutors had a good knowledge of the material, were beneficial discussion facilitators, and were highly approachable, the mate tutors were seen as les effective than the academic faculty in knowledge of biochemistry and the ability to answer questions. A major vexed question with the study done by dint of Carroll4 was that it examined sole student perceptions, and there was no attempt to evaluate the effectiveness of the match tutoring based on student performance.

Saunders5 reviewed the experiences of match tutoring over a 3-year period in an engineering curriculum. In this research 71% of the tutored scholars felt that they had received benefit from the compeer tutoring in a course in computer studies, 72% felt that the use of equal tutoring should be continued in this course, and 47% felt that compeer tutoring should be expanded to include other courses. Again, a major riddle with the study reported by dint of Saunders5 was that it examined sole student perceptions, and there was no attempt to evaluate the effectiveness of the equal tutoring based on student performance.