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Medical Student Teaching Assistants Foster Learning in Histology Laboratory

The Histology course laboratory became ‘Virtual’ at Mount Sinai School of Medicine two years ago. Peer teaching has since become an increasingly valuable part of the course. Each year, 12 teaching assistants (TAs) were selected from the second year medical students based on their class performance and commitment to peer teaching. Two TAs led the team and distributed assignments to run weekly review sessions throughout the course. For nine weeks, TAs gave a 90‐minute laboratory oriented presentation that reinforced and paralleled two topics from the week. To engage student participation, TAs presented PowerPoint slides scanned mostly from ‘Virtual Histology’ in an interactive question and answer format. The presentations were posted at the course website for review afterward. In both years, attendance was 50 to 60%. TA leaders also worked with faculty to compile questions for midterm and final mock practical examinations. These were given in a small‐group setting in which 20 students were assigned per one to two TAs. Students were shown 28 images on a large screen and asked to identify specific structures and state their functions on a worksheet. At completion, the images and correct answers were reviewed with relevant discussion. In these two years, 63% and 82% of the students rated these peer‐teaching sessions as ‘Superior’ or ‘Very good,’ reflecting a positive outcome. More data are needed to evaluate their efficacy.