Impact of Near-Peer Teaching on Learning Outcomes and Teaching Confidence among Undergraduate Medical Students

Abstract

Background: Near-peer teaching is a teaching method that is increasingly becoming commonplace in undergraduate medical education, whereby a senior student helps to teach a junior student. It can enhance academic accomplishment, active involvement, communicative competence, and teacher confidence via co-learning and mutual learning in class.

Objective: To evaluate the impact of near-peer teaching on learning outcomes and teaching confidence among undergraduate medical students.

Methodology: A single-group pretest–posttest educational evaluation framework was developed for 77 undergraduate medical students at Women Medical College, Abbottabad, during January–June 2025. Structured knowledge tests before and after near-peer teaching, teaching-confidence rating amongst student tutors, session attendance and student satisfaction were proposed as assessment measures. The software used for data analysis was IBM SPSS Statistics version 26, paired-samples t-test, independent-samples t-test, correlation and 95% confidence intervals.

Results: In the dataset of 77 participants, 22 (28.6%) were tutors and 55 (71.4%) were learners. The mean knowledge assessment score increased from 53.35 ± 8.43 to 71.40 ± 11.34, with a mean improvement of 18.05 points (95% CI: 16.49–19.61; p<0.001). Among tutors, mean teaching-confidence ratings increased from 2.91 ± 0.81 to 3.91 ± 1.11 (p<0.001). Knowledge improvement did not differ significantly between tutors and learners (p=0.716). Session attendance showed a weak, nonsignificant positive correlation with knowledge improvement (rₛ=0.186; p=0.106). Favorable satisfaction ratings were recorded for 73 (94.8%) participants.

Conclusion: Near-peer teaching offers a potentially useful approach to strengthening undergraduate medical learning and developing teaching confidence. Evaluation using verified pre-intervention and post-intervention assessments is necessary to establish its effectiveness at the study institution.