Megan Woolford, Sam Houston State University College of Osteopathic Medicine
Yuan Zhao, Sam Houston State University College of Osteopathic Medicine
Rebecca Andrews-Dickert, Sam Houston State University College of Osteopathic Medicine
Purpose
Peer evaluation of students’ learning behaviors within teams has the potential to support the development and assessment of teamwork skills, which are critical for healthcare collaboration and quality patient care. To effectively implement peer evaluation in undergraduate medical education, it is essential to assess medical students’ ability to evaluate their peers' learning behaviors. This project examines associations between peer ratings of student behaviors in team learning activities and their performance on course examinations in a preclinical UME course.
Methods
Two cohorts of second-year osteopathic medical students participated in a preclinical Endocrine-Reproductive Systems course utilizing Team-Based Learning (TBL). Cohort 1 (104 students) and Cohort 2 (147 students) completed three TBL modules and anonymously rated peer team members’ performance using an 8-item Likert-scale rubric. The first four items evaluated team member's preparation and engagement, and the last four evaluated collaborative effort. Pearson correlation analyses and ANOVA were performed to assess relationships between peer ratings and individual quizzes, team quizzes, and final exam scores.
Results
Significant correlations were found between ratings for the rubric item "Actively participated" (Q2) and specific individual quiz and final exam scores in both cohorts (r= 0.18-0.28, p<0.05). In Cohort 1, ratings for "Comes to class prepared""(Q1) and "Responsible and dependable" (Q3) also correlated with individual exam performance (r= 0.21-0.35, p<0.05). ANOVA indicated that for Cohort 1, Q1 and Q2 were significant predictors of exam performance, and Q2 and Q3 for Cohort 2. No correlation was observed between peer ratings and team quiz performance.
Conclusions
Specific peer-rated behaviors, such as active participation and preparation in team activity, correlate with individual academic performance, highlighting the potential of peer evaluation to identify behaviors that contribute to success. These findings support further exploration of peer evaluation to improve teamwork skills and individual learning outcomes in medical education.