Dear Sir
We read Professor Alkhail’s paper (Aba Alkhail Citation2015) with interest. We agree that measuring all educational activity is an important aspect of educational governance. Our organisation routinely collects this data as part of NHS Education for Scotland’s “Measurement of Teaching” project (“Measurement of Teaching (MoT) Project” Citation2015); this may be of interest to the author and to others.
As clinical teaching fellows we recognise and appreciate the significant value that near-peer learning adds to medical students’ educational experience. We were concerned however that formal mentoring training was not offered to near-peer teachers in this study. In our experience this is essential for effective teacher and learner experiences, and reduces the potential for negative role-modelling or other harmful behaviours. In this context we are uncertain that any changes in students’ examination performance could be definitely attributed to mentors or near-peer teaching. Furthermore, the study’s positive results are largely based upon questionnaires completed after students participated in a focus group on the same topic; this must surely have primed participants and biased the subsequent questionnaire answers.
Declaration of interest: The authors report no declarations of interest.
References
- Aba Alkhail B. 2015. Near-peer-assisted learning (NPAL) in undergraduate medical students and their perception of having medical interns as their near peer teacher. Med Teach 37(Suppl 1):S33–39
- Measurement of Teaching (MoT) Project. 2015. Accessed 16 February 2015. Available from http://www.nes.scot.nhs.uk/education-and-training/by-discipline/medicine/about-medical-training/undergraduate-education/medical-act-performance-management-framework/measurement-of-teaching-(mot)-project.aspx