The Role of Peer Teachers in Dental Skills Education - A Phenomenological Study

Learning a new clinical skill in dentistry is stressful as it is, coupled with large student to teacher ratios, this can sometimes lead to students being overlooked. Peer teaching was piloted at The Faculty of Dentistry, Oral and Craniofacial Sciences (FoDOCS) and seemed to be positively received amongst the students. Furthermore, cross collaboration with data from Harvard School of Dental Medicine (HSDM) helped to understand the lived experience of the students in relation to peer teaching from both the student’s point of view and the peer teacher’s point of view. The hope was to identify from the student’s perspective, if the scheme had any benefits and/or if improvements were needed. The study group consisted of 10 students from FoDOCS and 9 students from HSDM who were interviewed after clinical skills sessions with both staff teachers and peer teachers. Data was analysed using interpretive phenomenological analysis to identify key themes. A number of important themes were identified that highlight the overall positive effect that peer teaching has had on both students and peer teachers.