Evaluating the Effectiveness of Peer-Assisted Learning at the School of Medicine, Ahfad University for Women: A Quasi-Experimental Pre- and Post-Test Study

Background Peer-Assisted Learning (PAL), where students teach and support each other, is common in health professions education and reflects the idea that learning happens best through social interaction. While PAL is informally practiced at Ahfad University for Women-School of Medicine, its effectiveness has never been formally studied. This presents an opportunity to better understand and improve how students learn from one another. Methods We conducted a quasi-experimental design using pre- and post-tests to evaluate the impact of peer-led instruction. second-year medical students were split into two groups of 15—one received three one-hour teaching sessions from trained fourth-year student tutors, while the other served as a control. To measure academic improvement, we compared exam scores from before and after the teaching sessions using two modules from the Basic Medical Sciences course. This allowed us to assess whether peer teaching made a real difference in student performance. Results Both the intervention group and the control group showed improvement in post-intervention exam scores. Yet, these changes weren’t statistically significant at all: the intervention group had a mean improvement of 9.4 points (p = 0.091), and the control group had a mean improvement of 6.7 points (p = 0.076). And when you look at the scores of the two groups, no significant difference can be found in pre-intervention scores (p = 0.648) or post-intervention scores (p = 0.819). Oh, and in case you’re wondering, there wasn’t a meaningfully negative association between tutor performance and tutee performance either—if there had been, we would have said there was a pretty strong negative association going on. Conclusion This study found that peer-assisted learning (PAL) didn’t lead to better exam results for medical students. Tutors and learners showed little performance connection; this is likely due to gaps in tutor knowledge. Strengthening PAL may require better tutor training and formally integrating it into the curriculum. Future research should also explore how PAL shapes clinical skills and professional development, not just academic outcomes.