Funded mini-projects
(535) Online peer assisted learning in the dental undergraduate course (removable prosthodontics) involving early phase and late phase clinical students.
N.B. The information below is authored by the mini-project applicants, not by staff of the subject centre.
This text represents the views and opinions of the mini-project team
only, not those of the subject centre or its affiliates.
Principal investigator
Shona Mason, University of Dundee
Full list of project partners
Dr Allen Thurston, Programme Leader Medical Education & Management, Faculty of Education
Topic
This is a MINI-PROJECT proposal ,support dissemination of good practice to a wider audience ,promote collaboration to enhance new and existing partnerships ,promote evaluation and high quality educational research studies including systematic review
Background
There is well documented evidence that peer assisted learning (PAL) works in primary and secondary education (Topping and Ehly, 1998). There is documented evidence about its use in medical education, but I wish to use the wealth of research and literature dealing with HOW students learn and apply that to our own research areas and thereby improve the quality of the teaching and enhance the learning for the dental undergraduate. By using peers to assist learning it is far more likely that the student will still be working within the zone of proximal development (Vygotsky, 1978) thus enhancing the learning experience.
By using discussion boards and formative assessment online, modern, useful adjuncts to teaching will be explored and assessed while at the same time projecting PAL in to the dental course and documenting its effect on the knowledge attainment and attitudes of the students taking part. It will allow students who are temporally and spatially separated to come together to enhance each other’s learning.
Online formative assessments would be linked to discussion boards for small groups to enable peer feedback, education and tutoring. Dialogue will be monitored to assess its impact on student attainment. It would be relatively easy to analyse that data qualitatively from a discussion board (Mercer, Littleton and Wegerif, 2004).
I propose to use the SOLO model (Structure of the Observed Learning Outcome) (Biggs and Collis 1982; Reid, Duvall and Evans 2005) to help construct the formative assessments (though there may be other methods recognised in the educational field which would be more appropriate).
I want to do this work as I think, from the evidence available, that PAL would be an extremely valuable part of the dental undergraduate course. There are several sceptics in this institution who will only be swayed by evidence that applies specifically to dentistry. This proposal has been developed as part of undertaking a Doctorate in Educational Psychology but the funding for registering for the Doctorate is not forthcoming. I am excited about the work, however, and wish to pursue this collaboration with Dr Thurston for its own sake even if not for as part of my DEdPsy.
The funding would allow me to obtain practical help with the manual collection of data, preparing the late phase students for being peer tutors and for disseminating the results widely.
References
Biggs, J.B. and Collis, K. (1982) Evaluating the Quality of Learning: The SOLO Taxonomy, New York: Academic Press
Mercer, N., Littleton, K. and Wegerif, R. (2004) Methods for studying the processes of interaction and collaborative activity in computer-based educational activities. Technology, Pedagogy and Education, 13 (2): 195-212
Reid, W.A., Duvall, E. and Evans, P. (2005). Can we influence medical students’ approaches to learning?, Medical Teacher, 27 (5): 401-407
Topping, K. and Ehly, S. 1998 Introduction to Peer-Assisted learning. In Topping and Ehly (Eds) Peer-Assisted Learning (1-23) Lawrence Erlbaum Associates
Vygotsky,L. (1978) Mind in Society. Harvard University Press
Proposed activities
-Training for the 5th year ‘tutors’: feedback should be immediate, useful and directive. (To be carried out in December 07/January 08)
-Formation of tutoring groups: 1 late phase student will be responsible for 2 3rd year students. Two tutor groups will be assigned to each discussion board allowing 6-8 students per board after evening out the numbers. (Can be worked out in semester 1 after summer 2007 once final numbers for years are known.)
-A series of short, valid formative online assessments is to be constructed to coincide with the learning objectives of the partial denture course (current and till end of year, to be ready for January 2008).
-In January 2008 both year groups will take a pre-test online to assess attainment in understanding of removable partial denture treatment. The formative assessments with discussion boards will then be set to run for 3 months. The timing of this is between the end of the formal teaching in the partial denture course and the beginning of the complete denture course in April, a time when the 3rd years should be treating their second partial denture case patient. At the end of March 2008 the same students will take a post-test.
-At the pre- and post-time times the students will also submit short questionnaires online to assess their attitude to denture treatment and their self-worth as a learner.
-There will be monitoring of the discussion board as it happens and qualitative analysis afterwards.
Proposed outcomes
-There are least three papers which could be published as a result of this study – the effect of this type of PAL on knowledge attainment, the effect on attitudes as a learner, and the effect on self-worth as a learner. The aim is to be able to publish in dental education literature and in the wider educational field.
-I also aim to present the research at an ADEE conference.
-The benefits of PAL are documented out with dentistry and I would hope that this research would enable PAL to be more widely accepted within dental education.
-56 late phase and 92 early phase (depending on results of resists in August) will be directly involved in this project. If it proves successful then I would envisage future years of students being able to take part in PAL in this, or a modified, manner.
-The use of PAL should improve learning in line with General Dental Council guidelines. We will also be promoting the use of online assessment as early preparation for summative assessments online.
Expertise of grant holder and project team
-I have been a Clinical Lecturer in Removable Prosthodontics since January 2006.
-I have AHEA due to completing the new lecturer’s course run by The Centre for Medical Education here in Dundee.
-I completed a 10 week course run by the University on the use of Blackboard, our online-learning/communication system last year.
-I have some experience with the QuestionMark Perception Online Assessment tool having completed the University’s ‘Assessment Online’ 6 week course last year.
Similar work
There is much evidence for the success of peer assisted learning in primary and secondary education, and in some areas of higher education, especially medicine (see Glynn, Macfarlane, Kelly, Cant and Murphy. Helping each other to learn – a process evaluation of peer assisted learning. BMC medical Education 2006, 6:18). I have found no published evidence on the use of peer assisted learning in dentistry.
Contact details
Grant holder: Shona Mason,
University of Dundee
Amount awarded: £500
Subject centre project contact: Suzanne Hardy
Reports
