Disadvantages Of Peer Assisted Learning

PAL as defined by Topping (1996) is “people from similar social groupings who are not professional teachers but help each other to learn and learn themselves from teaching.” Peer assisted learning is also known as peer instruction, peer teaching, peer tutoring, reciprocal PAL, team-based learning (TBL), the principle of peer-assisted learning is that students can help other to learn, and in the same time for them to learn (Topping, 1996, Krych et al., 2005);(Shankar and Roopa, 2009). Peer learning have been supported as learning by teaching approach from the old saying (to teach is to learn twice) (Topping, 1996). Peer learning could be implemented in a one-to–one tutoring, which medical school use the most, or a in a group fashion (Ebbert et al., 1999, Slavin et al., 2003, Wadoodi and Crosby, 2002); (Lockspeiser et al., 2008).

In health care institutes education, the

They perform teaching and learning without any prior training to patients, junior students, colleagues, and residence in lectures or in the clinic. A 2009 senior survey conducted by the American Dental Education Association found that 44.3% of graduates plan to teach at some point in their career, which did not receive any formal teaching training during their study which is a component that the dental field is in high need of (Hum et al., 2014). Therefore, the emphasis on providing training in teaching and learning for future graduates is essential. The students will learn to communicate, express their opinions, thoughts, and interact to each other. A study by El Tantawi et al (2014) reported peer-assisted educational methods could be effective for teaching generic skills to dental students. The skills included communication skills, team skills, stress management, presentation skills, interviewing skills, and planning. Therefore, preparing future dental students employability and academic career (El Tantawi et al.,