I nnovative Journal of Medical and Health Sciences IJMHS 9 (1), 225–229 (2019) ISSN (O) 2277-4939| (P) 2589-9341 STUDENT PERCEPTION OF PEER ASSISTED LEARNING IN A CLINICAL ENVIRONMENT: EXPERIENCE AT MELAKA MANIPAL MEDICAL COLLEGE, MALAYSIA Nishikanta Verma ⋆, †,1 , Somsubhra De ‡,2 , Yashodhara BM. §,3 , Manonmani V ¶ ,4 1 Associate Professor of E.N.T. Melaka Manipal Medical College (MAHE), Melaka,, Malaysia. Tel.: +60126507859 2 Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology Melaka Manipal Medical College (MAHE) Melaka, Malaysia 3 Professor of Medicine Melaka Manipal Medical College (MAHE) Melaka, Malaysia 4 Professor of Pediatrics Melaka Manipal Medical College (MAHE) Melaka, Malaysia DOI: https://doi.org/10.15520/ijmhs.v9i1.2371 Accepted 17 Jan 2019; Received 14 Dec 2018; Publish Online 28 Jan 2019 Reviewed By: Dr Daniel V Department: ABSTRACT Context and Purpose: Peer Assisted Learning (PAL) is gaining traction as a sup- plement to conventional teacher-led teaching. The advantages of PAL include a more informal learning environment making it easier for learners to ask questions and clar- ify concepts. However, PAL may be insufcient as a stand-alone method of content delivery as the learners may feel that time is being wasted or that a trained teacher would better identify learner’s needs in knowledge and for examinations. This paper examines student perceptions of PAL in a clinical environment. Setting: Melaka Manipal Medical College (MAHE), Melaka and Melaka General Hospital, Melaka, Malaysia Methods: The study was conducted over one semester (six months). 129 students from the Final Year of the MBBS course acted as peer teachers to 120 students of the third year. The teaching was done in small groups of 10-12 students at a time. At the end of the semester, students were invited to answer a questionnaire regarding their perceptions. Results: A majority of students in both the student and the peer teacher cohorts felt that PAL benefted them in various ways including improvement in communication skills, clinical skills, interpersonal relationships and better examination preparation. Conclusions: PAL is a useful adjunct to teaching. It fosters team spirit and can fll in gaps in teaching or student needs which may occur by conventional teaching. However, caution should be exercised that PAL not replace a taught curriculum entirely as a student-led teaching session will necessarily be incomplete in terms of the breadth of the subject covered. We recommend PAL as part of a more comprehensive curriculum with regular feedback from both the student and the teacher cohorts to develop it further. Key words: Alternative teaching–informal learning–peer-assisted learning–clinical skills–medical education–student perceptions ⋆ Corresponding author. † Email: Nishikanta.verma@manipal.edu.my ‡ Email: somsubhra@manipal.edu.my § Email: yashodhara@manipal.edu.my ¶ Email: manonmani@manipal.edu.my 1 INTRODUCTION Anyone who has ever taught knows that the best way to learn something is to have to teach it to someone else [1]. This fundamental principle underpins the concept of peer tutoring or PAL (Peer Assisted Learning) [1] which has been defned by Topping [2] as ‘people from similar social group-