As a peer-assisted learning process, minilectures on physiology were conducted by students. During this process, students lecture to their colleagues in the presence of faculty staff members. These lectures were evaluated by faculty staff and students simultaneously. The aim of this study was to compare feedback from faculty members and students on 66 minilectures conducted by students. Their perception of different qualities of lecture was assessed using a questionnaire. There were significant

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... correlations between students and faculty members for many qualities of the lecture, including the speed of the lecture, retaining attention, clear introduction, and the overall quality of the lecture. However, ratings for gesture, eye contact, language usage, illustration usage, audiovisuals, voice usage, and important points stressed were significantly different between students and faculty members. Multiple regression analysis was performed to assess the degree of effect of different aspects of a lecture on its overall quality. Aspects such as gesture, eye contact, and language usage showed very low ␤-values, suggesting a poor contribution of these factors to the overall quality of the lecture for both students and faculty members. The speed of the lecture, retaining attention, and clear introduction were qualities that faculty members and students rated equally, and these were the main contributors to the overall quality of the lecture. Awareness about the possible discrepancy between ratings given by faculty members and students may be important when interpreting the evaluation results of formal lectures by these two groups. student feedback; faculty feedback; peer evaluation; peer-assisted learning PEER-ASSISTED LEARNING (PAL) is a process of acquiring of knowledge and skills through active help and support from status-equal or matched companions (16). Although teachers in PAL are not professional teachers or "experts" in the subject, previous studies (4, 8, 17) have shown that the effectiveness of PAL is equal to the main teaching process. PAL has several advantages, such as providing an informal environment for better learning, improving communication skills, increasing intrinsic motivation, facilitating cooperation among students, learning to respect colleagues' views, facilitating social interactions, and reducing the cost compared with professional teacher-assisted conventional learning (3, 6, 11, 15, 18) . The curriculum in the medical school of the University of Ruhuna (Galle, Sri Lanka) is of the traditional type. During the first and second years, students study physiology together with Address for reprint requests and other correspondence: M. Kommalage,