Benefits of Peer-led Study Groups

Cecilia Li, PharmD

PGY1 Pharmacy Resident

University of Maryland Medical Center

As a pharmacy school student, I was involved in peer-to-peer led study groups throughout my didactic training both as a participant, a study group leader, and eventually the student coordinator for the study group program. In this blog post, I am excited to share some of my own experiences with you on the benefits of participating in a peer-led study group from the perspective of a student and a facilitator. As a study group participant, I have found that weekly study group helped me keep up with new lecture material that we were exposed to every week and provided a safe space for students to brainstorm solutions and learn from one another. My institution, along with several healthcare professional graduate programs, have recognized and implemented peer-led study groups as an effective learning tool to supplement and reinforce classroom material outside of the classroom. Doctor of Pharmacy programs are challenging, fast-paced, and require an immense amount of time and dedication in order to successfully complete four years of didactic and experiential training1. Despite a rigorous and selective application progress for admission to a college of pharmacy, students still may struggle with the academic courses. Typically, Student Affairs offices will monitor student performance closely with methods such as tracking exam scores, meeting with faculty and deans, ongoing follow up meetings who may have consistently struggled, and providing counseling and referral to appropriate support services if a student is facing personal or medical concerns outside of class. As part of many PharmD programs, there also are a few ways to obtain academic support depending on the institution. Those opportunities may include meeting one on one with a faculty member or teacher assistant, peer led exam review sessions, or individual tutoring outside of school. However, there are added benefits of study groups for students who are struggling as well as for students would like to reinforce their overall understanding and keep on top of lecture material.

Anecdotally, the three more difficult courses in a PharmD curriculum are medicinal pharmacology, therapeutics, and pharmaceutical sciences or some variation of these core components. My institution offered peer-led study groups for each of these courses in effort to help students succeed academically in these tougher courses. Through study groups, facilitators are able to enrich and tailor student learning more specifically and well as provide opportunities for students to teach materials and help each other learn. This strategy offers an effective and feasible way to reinforce and disseminate knowledge through “active learning, easing faculty teaching burden, providing role models for less-advanced students, increasing intrinsic motivation, and providing peer-leaders with academic experience.”1 Existing literature studying the effectiveness of study groups lie mainly in undergraduate, medical, nursing, and dental education but all uniformly conclude that there is significant benefit to the learner, for student facilitators, as well as for the organization.2-4 While not as abundant, studies regarding pharmacy school study groups have also showed similar results.1,5

Later as a study group leader, I felt that the opportunity to facilitate a small group of students strengthened my overall confidence as a leader and teacher. In addition to students benefiting from study group, being a peer study group leader also has notable benefits, specifically being able to have a large impact on a student’s academic performance. In class, students are presented with large amount of information and material that can be overwhelming to organize and process. Students may struggle with comprehending how the material was taught and could benefit from a different point of view. Therefore, peer study group leaders need to exercise organization, patience, and creativity in order to help their students learn. Leaders at my college of pharmacy were encouraged to create worksheets that help organize course information, example test questions, mock case studies, and use various learning platforms such as Kahoot, Jeopardy, and Google Slides to actively engage their students. Leaders were also challenged to critically think and strengthen their communication skills when students ask questions or request an alternative explanation for a confusing concept.

As a previous study group leader, my role involved a heavy dose of problem-solving and personnel management. I had to learn more about balancing supervision oversight but also allow autonomy of the students to teach each other. At the end of each semester, the feedback I received from participating students were overwhelmingly positive. Students noted that their study group experience enable them to achieve their desired course grade while other voices that working with their peers in a small group setting gave them more confidence to speak out when volunteering answers or asking questions. Other leaders have commented that seeing their peers succeed academically was one of the greatest rewards of this position. Mentorship and the act of paying it forward are key values to the pharmacy profession and having the opportunity to participate in these acts of service can help students establish a strong foundation of being lifelong learners. Overall, the experience of peer-led study groups can contribute to the success of a student in a difficult program as well as provide leadership opportunities for upperclassmen to lead their younger peers. My hope is that more colleges of pharmacy will be able to adapt a similar structure to further academic achievement and student support in rigorous pharmacy programs.

References:

1. Varshney N, Mason NA. Evaluation of peer-led study groups in a PharmD program. Curr Pharm Teach Learn. 2019 May;11(5):485-491. doi: 10.1016/j.cptl.2019.02.005. Epub 2019 May 10. PMID: 31171250.

2. Ten Cate O, Durning S. Peer teaching in medical education: twelve reasons to move from theory to practice. Medical Teacher. 2007;29:591–599. doi: 10.1080/01421590701606799.

3. Clarke B, Feltham W. Facilitating peer group teaching within nurse education. Nurse Educ Today. 1990;10:54-7.

4. Hill E, Liuzzi F, Giles J. Peer-assisted learning from three perspectives: student, tutor and co-ordinator. Clin Teach. 2010 Dec;7(4):244-6. doi: 10.1111/j.1743-498X.2010.00399.x. PMID: 21134199.

5. Etzel AM, Alqifari SF, Shields KM, Wang Y, Bileck NB. Impact of student to student peer mentoring program in first year of pharmacy program. Curr Pharm Teach Learn. 2018 Jun;10(6):762-770. doi: 10.1016/j.cptl.2018.03.009. Epub 2018 Mar 22. PMID: 30025778.