Effectiveness of peer teaching in health professions education: A systematic review and meta-analysis

The reform in health professions education requires the focus to shift from fact memorization to exploring, analyzing, assimilating, and synthesizing information to promote active and collaborative learning. Peer teaching is one of the educational strategies. This review aimed to explore and synthesize quantitative evidence to determine the overall effect of peer teaching in enhancing students' theoretical knowledge and practical skills (e.g., procedural skills and resuscitation) in health professions education. PubMed, ScienceDirect, CINAHL, ERIC, ProQuest, reference lists of relevant studies, and reviews were searched till November 2021. Results were pooled using random-effects meta-analysis or narrative synthesis. A total of 44 RCTs were included. This review showed a significant effect of peer teaching on procedural skills improvement and a comparable effect on theoretical knowledge and resuscitation skills acquisition compared to the conventional teaching method. Near-peer teaching seemed to be the most effective method for skill improvement. Subgroup analysis showed no significant differences between peer teaching and conventional teaching groups (e.g., expert/faculty teaching, self-study or lectures). Peer teaching seems to be a promising teaching and learning strategy in health professions education, positively affecting theoretical knowledge and procedural skills. Future research should explore the effect of peer teaching in developing countries to provide a comprehensive picture of peer teaching. •An extensive review with meta-analysis on peer teaching in health professions education•Peer teaching is more effective than faculty/expert teaching in procedural skills improvement.•Peer teaching is comparable with faculty/expert teaching in theoretical knowledge acquisition.•Near-peer teaching is likely the most effective peer teaching method in improving procedural skills.