Peer Tutoring in Preclinical Medical Education: A Review of the Literature.

Peer-assisted learning (PAL) is an educational method where students teach their peers. PAL has been increasingly integrated into medical education in various formats including near-peer tutoring (NPT), reciprocal-peer tutoring (RPT), and peer-to-peer tutoring. This review adds to current literature by focusing exclusively on outcomes from PAL peer tutoring programs implemented in conjunction with basic science courses in medical education. Although the programs differ in size, duration, course, resource availability, and method of evaluation and thus can be difficult to compare, PAL programs overall demonstrate benefits for both tutors and tutees and merit further investigation into optimal methods of implementation.