Peer-Assisted Learning in Clinical Education: A Review of Terms and Learning Principles

The practice of physical therapy has undergone dramatic change in the past 20 years. Traditional one-on-one teaching, with a focus on apprenticeship, has evolved into more student-centered teaching and learning approaches. For example, in the past 10 years, there has been an increasing focus on using group-based or peer-assisted learning (PAL) methods in the clinical setting. However, the terminology that is used to describe the PAL strategy is often incorrect or subsumed under a general label. This paper provides an in-depth review of the common terminology used in physical therapy clinical education to describe PAL, in particular: cooperative learning, collaborative learning, peer tutoring, and peer coaching. The underlying pedagogical features of each of these learning strategies are defined to assist clinical educators in correctly describing and understanding their educational initiatives.