Introduction: Participation of students in learning determines their scholastic achievements. Current teaching systems do not assess student participation in learning, rather provide grades based on knowledge recall. Objective: To develop and evaluate a teaching strategy that can provide a standardized measure of student engagement in the learning process. Materials & Methods: A quasi-experimental study undertaken in Rehman Medical College, Peshawar, KP, Pakistan (March-May 2018) involved 96 medical students (16 groups) of third professional MBBS present in Small Group Format (SGF) session on medical research. Participation Assurance Test (PAT), administered after the lesson involved i) written iPAT for individual performance, ii) written tPAT for team performance, iii) perception-based peer evaluation pPAT for rating team members, and iv) Observer based oPAT by facilitator for intra-group and inter-group dynamics. Scores in numerical and Likert scales were analyzed by SPSS 22.0 for descriptive and comparative analysis and correlations, keeping p≤0.05 significant. Results: Mean iPAT was 54.66?12.80 compared to mean tPAT 75.96?19.85 (p≤0.001), mean pPAT was 20.83?5.14 compared to mean oPAT of 16.50?4.99 (p≤0.001), and mean Closed Group oPAT was 4.19?1.90 compared to Open Group oPAT of 12.31?3.40 (p≤0.001). Significant correlation was obtained for iPAT and tPAT (r=0.564, p=0.023). The groups achieving ≥60 iPAT marks showed significant correlations of iPAT with tPAT (r=0.869, p=0.024) and closed group oPAT (r=-0.882, p=0.017); groups scoring below 60 in iPAT showed significant correlations of iPAT with tPAT (r=0.749, p=0.013), open group oPAT (r=0.636, p=0.048), and total oPAT (r=0.635, p=0.048). Conclusion: Participation Assurance Test was effective in assessing individual and team-based student participation and supports the adoption of Open Group teaching strategy as more effective for student participation in learning.
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