A novel instrument of cognitive and social congruence within peer-assisted learning in medical training: construction of a questionnaire by factor analyses

Abstract

Background: Peer-assisted learning is effective due to cognitive and social congruence. Cognitive congruence is created by sharing a similar knowledge base between students and student tutors. Social congruence is defined as having similar social roles. A questionnaire of these concepts was newly constructed, and this study explored the factor analysis of the instrument. Methods: In a cross-sectional method design cognitive and social congruence were operationalised by exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. Cognitive and social congruence were assessed by validated questionnaires and through self-developed items that were collected through semi-structured interviews.. The questionnaire consisted of 26 items that were rated on a five-point Likert scale, from 0 = I strongly disagree to 4 = I strongly agree. Results: 676 medical students participated in the study. Exploratory factor analysis for students resulted in a twofactor solution with cognitive and social congruence as confirming factors. New findings showed that the items "non-judgmental learning atmosphere" and "informal communication" were associated to cognitive congruence, "effectiveness" and "comprehensible explanations" belonged to social congruence. Confirmatory factor analysis for student tutors confirmed the resulting two-factor solution. Conclusions: As one of the largest investigation of cognitive and social congruence, this study investigated the underlying mechanisms of effective PAL using factor analysis. Cognitive congruence was created by sharing the same knowledge. Knowledge transfer might play a relevant role in cognitive congruence. Social congruence focused on the relationship between student tutors and students, which might impact the content level. Practical recommended actions (using the same language) could be implemented.

Peer-mentoring na educação em saúde: quais as suas aplicações, limitações e estratégias para o sucesso?

“…Outra importante contribuição do método Peer-Mentoring diz respeito à fluidez do processo de aprendizagem (Loda, Erschens, Nikendei, Giel, et al, 2020;Rompolski & Dallaire, 2020), facilitada pela liberdade em que o mentee possui em opinar sobre os objetivos (Krishna et al, 2020), suas peculiaridades e escolha dos conteúdos que mais sente dificuldade (Engels et al, 2018). Além disso, essa maleabilidade garanti maior proximidade estabelecida entre os pares e a criação de valiosos momentos de troca de experiências.…”

“…O processo de ensino por meio do Peer-Mentoring também se baseia na empatia entre tutores e alunos, gerando o que os autores denominam de "congruência social" (Loda, Erschens, Nikendei, Giel, et al, 2020;. Esta parece representar a base de um relacionamento sólido e transparente, que culmina em um cenário confortável e convidativo.…”

“…Itens como motivação, amplo conhecimento e experiência como professor, monitor ou pesquisador não são suficientes para ser um bom mentor ou estabelecer uma relação de mentoria satisfatória (Loda, Erschens, Nikendei, Giel, et al, 2020;Masterson Creber et al, 2019). Para além disso, faz-se necessário capacitações longitudinais (e não somente iniciais) (Abrahamson et al, 2019;Celebi et al, 2019;Patel et al, 2021;Prunuske et al, 2019;Scott et al, 2019;Smith et al, 2018;Tamachi et al, 2018;Tsuei et al, 2019;Wareing et al, 2018), bem como a coleta de feedbacks para o melhoramento do programa de ensino (Hossain et al, 2021).…”

“…Ressaltamos que o treinamento contínuo dos mentores pode ser decisivo para experiências exitosas no desenvolvimento da mentoria entre pares. Inclusive, no transcurso das reuniões, o mentorado deve ser estimulado a trazer demandas que evocam a necessidade de uma abordagem diferenciada e íntima, de modo síncrono com as peculiaridades do mentee (Abrahamson et al, 2019;Loda, Erschens, Nikendei, Giel, et al, 2020;Scott et al, 2019).…”

Development and Validation of Teacher and Student Questionnaires Measuring Inhibitors of Curriculum Viability

“…Absolute t indices assess the overall theoretical model against the observed data, incremental or comparative t indices compare the hypothesised model with the baseline or minimal model, whereas the parsimonious t model index assesses the complexity of the model [27,28]. The indices used for absolute t are root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) < .05 as a close t, < .08 as an acceptable t [29], and goodness-of-t index (GFI) > .90 as a good t [30]. For incremental t, the indices considered acceptable are comparative t index (CFI) > .90, adjusted goodness of t index (AGFI) > .90, Tucker Lewis Index (TLI) > .90 [31], and normed t index > .90 [32].…”