MEDICAL EDUCATION Reciprocal Peer Teaching: Students Teaching Students in the Gross Anatomy Laboratory AARON J. KRYCH, 1 CRYSTAL N. MARCH, 1 ROSS E. BRYAN, 1 BEN J. PEAKE, 1 WOJCIECH PAWLINA, 2 AND STEPHEN W. CARMICHAEL 2 * 1 Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, Rochester, Minnesota 2 Department of Anatomy, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, Rochester, Minnesota Three common instructional strategies used to teach gross anatomy are lecture, discovery or inquiry-based learning, and cooperative learning. One form of cooperative learning, called reciprocal peer teaching (RPT), illustrates circumstances where students alternate roles as teacher and student. By assuming the responsibility of teaching their peers, stu- dents not only improve their understanding of course content, but also develop communi- cation skills, teamwork, leadership, confidence and respect for peers that are vital to developing professionalism early in their medical careers. Traditionally in our Anatomy department, students dissect the entire body using a standard dissection manual. More non- traditionally, however, we have increased cooperative learning in the dissection laboratory by involving students in a series of supplementary RPT activities. During these exercises, 10% of the class practiced their demonstration with course instructors until the students felt prepared to demonstrate the exercise to their classmates. We designed one peer demonstration emphasizing three to six teaching objectives for most of the 40 dissection units. This resulted in a compendium of peer demonstrations for implementation through- out the course. The multitude of diverse exercises permitted each student many opportu- nities to teach their peers. A debriefing questionnaire was administered at the end of the course demonstrating that 100% of students agreed the RPT experience increased their understanding of the topics they taught and 97% agreed it increased their retention of information they taught to their peers. In addition, 92% agreed that RPT improved their communication skills, which can be applied beyond anatomy to their careers as future phy- sicians. Clin. Anat. 18:296–301, 2005. ' 2005 Wiley-Liss, Inc. Key words: medical education; professionalism; tutoring; cooperative learning INTRODUCTION Peer teaching has been used in classrooms for many centuries. The Roman philosopher, Lucius Annaeus Seneca (4BC–AD65), advocated cooperative learning through such statements as, ‘‘Qui Docet Discet,’’ or ‘‘Those who teach learn’’ (Johnson et al., 1998). Although in existence for thousands of years, peer teaching is an underutilized, yet highly valuable resource for higher education. Three common instructional strategies used to teach Anatomy are lecture, discovery or inquiry- based learning, and cooperative learning (Jensen, 1996). Research has shown that cooperative learning, such as pairing senior and junior students, provides psychological support and aids professional and per- sonal development (Walker-Bartnick et al., 1984). Allen and Boraks (1978) first proposed the term reci- procal peer teaching (RPT) to illustrate circum- stances where students alternate roles as teacher and student (Allen and Boraks, 1978). They found that *Correspondence to: Dr. Stephen W. Carmichael, Department of Anatomy, Mayo Clinic, Stabile 9-38, Rochester, MN 55905. E-mail: carmichael.stephen@mayo.edu Received 27 March 2004; Revised 8 August 2004; Accepted 2 September 2004 Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/ca.20090 V V C 2005 Wiley-Liss, Inc. Clinical Anatomy 18:296–301 (2005)