Peer Learning in Medical Scientific Research in Nigeria.
Main Article Content
Abstract
The economic downturn globally, and particularly in Nigeria, has hindered access to premium healthcare and medications, such as insulin, highlighting the need for local innovation. Historically, Nigeria has established key research institutions like the Nigerian Institute of Medical Research (NIMR) and the National Institute for Pharmaceutical Research and Development (NIPRD), and leveraged partnerships with entities such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Innovators like Dr. Abasi Ene-Obong and Temie Giwa-Tubosun have made strides with 54gene and LifeBank, but their works are not global and revenue generating. Despite these efforts, Nigeria has yet to fully harness its creative potential, necessitating enhanced peer learning for targeted problem-solving. This article seeks to link peer learning in the medical education field, with research, partnership and scientific innovations. Learning theories, including constructivism, social learning theory, and cognitive load theory, underscore the value of collaborative, active, and reflective learning processes. Peer learning facilitates the development of scientific reasoning, critical thinking, and communication skills among medical researchers. Effective peer learning groups are characterised by accountability, motivation, and positive feedback. However, challenges such as diverse learning paces and potential negative competition need addressing. To improve research capacity, peer groups for research can be formed to focus on areas including funding, resource generation, capacity building, policy enhancement, and public-private partnerships. Institutions should encourage continuous professional development and engage policymakers to advocate for research-supportive policies. By fostering collaborative peer-learning environments and supporting bold research initiatives, Nigeria can cultivate competent and confident medical researchers, advancing local and global healthcare innovation.
Downloads
Article Details
Section
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
The Journal is owned, published and copyrighted by the Nigerian Medical Association, River state Branch. The copyright of papers published are vested in the journal and the publisher. In line with our open access policy and the Creative Commons Attribution License policy authors are allowed to share their work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
This is an open access journal which means that all content is freely available without charge to the user or his/her institution. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles in this journal without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author.
The use of general descriptive names, trade names, trademarks, and so forth in this publication, even if not specifically identified, does not imply that these names are not protected by the relevant laws and regulations. While the advice and information in this journal are believed to be true and accurate on the date of its going to press, neither the authors, the editors, nor the publisher can accept any legal responsibility for any errors or omissions that may be made. The publisher makes no warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein.
TNHJ also supports open access archiving of articles published in the journal after three months of publication. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g, in institutional repositories or on their website) within the stated period, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access). All requests for permission for open access archiving outside this period should be sent to the editor via email to editor@tnhjph.com.
How to Cite
References
1. Rowlands A, Ameyaw E, Rutagarama F et al. Insights from the WHO and National Lists of Essential Medicines: Focus on Pediatric Diabetes Care in Africa. Horm Res Paediatr. 2018;90(2):82-92.
2. Boldrin M, Levine DK. The case against patents. Journal of Economic Perspectives. 2013;27(1):3-22.
3. Beyeler N, Liu J, Sieverding M. A systematic review of the role of proprietary and patent medicine vendors in healthcare provision in Nigeria. PloS one. 2015;10(1)
4. Spulber DF. How patents provide the foundation of the market for inventions. Journal of Competition Law & Economics. 2015
5. Mike JH. A re-evaluation of the framework for the protection of patents, women’s health in Nigeria and the issue of accessing pharmaceutical innovation in Africa: Designing strategies for medicines The Journal of World Intellectual Property. 2019;22(3-4):162-204.
6. Ezeali BO. Impact of TETFund intervention on human resources development in government owned tertiary institutions in South Eastern Nigeria (2011-2016). International Journal of Finance and Management in Practice. 2017;5(2):68-80.
7. Godwin BA. An appraisal of the impact of grant-in-aids (Tetfund) and donations in sustaining academic library services in Nigeria: The Cross River State experience. International Journal of Library and Information Science. 2017;9(8):78 -788.
8. Jacob O, Boroh I. The Role of TETfund in National Development (2011-2021). Otuoke Journal of Social Sciences. 2023
9. Leknes B. The bill and melinda gates foundation versus the carnegie foundation for the advancement of teaching: A historical comparison of two philanthropic powerhouses in education. Momentum. 2012;1 (1)
10. Pock AR, Durning SJ, Gilliland WR, Pangaro LN. Post-Carnegie II curricular reform: a north American survey of emerging trends & challenges. BMC Medical Education. 2019;19(260):1-12.
11. Szustakowski JD, Balasubramanian S, Kvikstad… E. Advancing human genetics research and drug discovery through exome sequencing of the UK Biobank. Nature Genetics. 2021;53:942-948.
12. Damilola AO. FinTech and Financial Inclusion in West Africa: Nigeria’s SMEs Market. International Journal of Multidisciplinary and Current Research. 2022;4(1):210 - 8.
13. Ariyo S, Olufemi E. The Role of Technology in Nation Building. Available at SSRN 4025782. 2022
14. Adie PI, Bisong AE, Obuop OM. Offline Internet for remote learning in low-resource environments. libraryoapenorg. 2023
15. Niohuru I. Social Media and Technology Use. In: Niohuru I, editor. Healthcare and disease burden in Africa: the impact of socioeconomic factors on public health. Cambridge, MA: Foundation Medicine Inc; 2023. p. 121-130.
16. Burgess N, Maguire EA, O’Keefe J. The human hippocampus and spatial and episodic memory. Neuron. 2002;35(4):625-641.
17. Maguire E A, Valentine E R, Wilding J M, N K. Routes to remembering: the brains behind superior memory. Nature neuroscience. 2003;6(1):90-95.
18. Kumaran D, Maguire EA. The human hippocampus: cognitive maps or relational memory. Journal of Neuroscience. 2005;25(31):7254-7259.
19. Maguire EA, Nannery R, Spiers HJ. Navigation around London by a taxi driver with bilateral hippocampal lesions. Brain. 2006;129(11):2894-2907.
20. Lyons LC. Critical role of the circadian clock in memory formation: lessons from Aplysia. Front Mol Neurosci. 2011;4:52.
21. Brem AK, Ran K, Pascual-Leone A. Learning and memory. Handbook of clinical neurology. 2013;116:693 -6737.; Mullally SL, Maguire EA. Memory, imagination, and predicting the future: A common brain mechanism. The Neuroscientist. 2014;20(3):220-234.
22. Tyng CM, Amin HU, Saad MNM, Malik AS. The influences of emotion on learning and memory. Frontiers in psychology. 2017;8(1454):doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01454.
23. Barry DN, Maguire EA. Remote memory and the hippocampus: A constructive critique. Trends in cognitive sciences. 2019;23(2):128-142.
24. Brierley C, Ellis L, Reid ER. Peer‐assisted learning in medical education: A systematic review and meta‐analysis. Medical education. 2022;56(4):365-373.
25. Sampson J, Cohen R. Strategies for peer learning: Some examples. 2014:35.
26. Horsburgh J, Ippolito K. A skill to be worked at: using social learning theory to explore the process of learning from role models in clinical settings. BMC medical education. 2018;18 (156):1 -18.
27. Kapetanakis C, Conflitti S, Abdo S, Wright LK, Newman DL. Constructing analogies: Developing critical thinking through a collaborative task. Biochem Mol Biol Educ. 2024;doi: 10.1002/bmb.21843.
28. Afshar M, Zarei A, Moghaddam MR, Shoorei H. Flipped and Peer-Assisted teaching: a new model in virtual anatomy education. BMC Med Educ. 2024;24(1):722.
29. Hussin S. Creating A Bigger Z.P.D. For ESL Learners Via Online Forum In Malaysia. College Teaching Methods & Styles Journal (CTMS). 2011;4(11):1-10.
30. Shokouhi M, Shakouri N. Revisiting Vygotsky’s Concept of Zone of Proximal Development: Towards a Stage of Proximity. J Eng Lit Cult. 2015;3(2):60-63.
31. Sideeg A. Bloom’s Taxonomy, Backward Design, and Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development in Crafting Learning Outcomes. International journal of linguistics. 2016;8(2):158-186.
32. Silalahi RM. Understanding Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development for learning. Polyglot: Jurnal Ilmiah. 2019;15(2):169 - 86.
33. McLeod S. Albert Bandura’s social learning theory. Simply Psychology. 2011
34. Sweller J. Cognitive load theory. In: Ross JPMBH, editor. The Psychology of Learning and Motivation: Cognition in Education. Elsevier Academic Press; 2011. p. 37-76.
35. Almeida LS, Prieto MD, Ferreira A et al. Structural invariance of multiple intelligences, based on the level of execution. Psicothema. 2011;23(4):832-838.
36. Chetlen AL, Petscavage-Thomas J, Cherian RA et al. Collaborative learning in radiology: from peer review to peer learning and peer coaching. Academic radiology. 2020;27(9):1261-1267.
37. Chun J, Cennamo K. A theoretical model of peer learning incorporating scaffolding strategies. International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education. 2022;33(3):385-397.
38. Tai JHM, Canny BJ, Haines TP, Molloy EK. Implementing peer learning in clinical education: a framework to address challenges in the “real world”. Teaching and learning in medicine. 2017;29(2):162-172.
39. Sasson I, Yehuda I, Malkinson N. Fostering the skills of critical thinking and question-posing in a project-based learning environment. Thinking Skills and Creativity. 2018;29:203-212.
40. Osagie ER, Wesselink R, Runhaar P, Mulder M. Unraveling the competence development of corporate social responsibility leaders: The importance of peer learning, learning goal orientation, and learning climate. Journal of Business Ethics. 2018;151:891-906.
41. Meschitti V. Can peer learning support doctoral education? Evidence from an ethnography of a research team. Studies in Higher Education. 2019;44(7):1209-1221.
42. Heller R. A new bloom–adding ‘collaborate’ to Bloom’s taxonomy. Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education. 2022;(24):1 -22.
43. Gong HJ, Kwon J, Brock M. Experiential learning through a peer learning assistant model in STEM. Educational Research. 2022;64(3):317-333.
44. Illeris K. An overview of the history of learning theory. European Journal of Education. 2018;53(5)
45. Tomar S AA, Gupta S, Sharma M. Digital assessment: impact on student motivation, peer learning, group dynamics. Journal of Education and Learning (Edulearn). 2024;18(1):9-17.