OBJECTIVE This study aims to: 1) Evaluate whether a near-peer program improves perceived OSCE performance; 2) Identify factors motivating students to teach; 3) Evaluate role of near-peer teaching in medical education. METHODS A near-peer OSCE teaching program was implemented at Monash University's Peninsula Clinical School over the 2013 academic year. Forty 3rd-year and thirty final-year medi...

The peer effects literature has established that peers impact each other in the classroom through academic achievement and cognitive ability, but not explored many alternative channels. This paper examines how non-cognitive traits of an individual’s learning outcomes. I estimate a linear-in-means model models with additional terms accounting for “Big Five” personality traits. Controlling select...

Parmalee D, Michaelsen LK, Cook S, Hudes P. Teambased learning: a practical guide. AMEE guide no. 65. Med Teach 2012;34:e275-87. Background: This article provides an excellent introduction to team-based learning (TBL) and a useful practical guide to its implementation. TBL was originally developed in business schools in the early 1990s and has been promoted in health professions programs since ...

Peer Effects and Social Networks in Education This paper studies whether structural properties of friendship networks affect individual outcomes in education. We first develop a model that shows that, at the Nash equilibrium, the outcome of each individual embedded in a network is proportional to her Katz-Bonacich centrality measure. This measure takes into account both direct and indirect frie...

This essay comprises testimony to the Congressional Committee on Government Reform. The Committee’s concern was the possibility of exposure to pornography when children and teens participate in peer-to-peer filesharing networks, which are extremely popular in these age groups. A review of the relevant literature led to three major conclusions: (1) Pornography and related sexual media can influe...

BACKGROUND Peer-assisted learning (PAL) is used throughout all levels of healthcare education. Lack of formalised agreement on different PAL programmes may confuse the literature. Given the increasing interest in PAL as an education philosophy, the terms need clarification. The aim of this review is to 1) describe different PAL programmes, 2) clarify the terminology surrounding PAL, and 3) prop...

The paper examines career choice at age 16 in Northern Ireland using micro data for young people completing compulsory education in 1993. Explanatory variables include resourcerelated school characteristics, ethos-related characteristics and peer-group factors. The results suggest resources, ethos and peer group effects all play a significant role in career choice at age 16. Some of these facto...