Journal of Peer Learning

Undergraduate student peer mentoring in a multi-faculty, multi-campus university context

Robert A. Townsend — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 15:40:15 PST

This article explores research that utilised a mapping strategy to investigate the elements of peer mentoring and peer tutoring programs across a multi-campus Australian university. Peer mentoring, peer tutoring and peer learning activities at the multi-campus university are occurring in a manner that may be considered ad-hoc which does not necessarily reflect an organisational commitment to, or philosophy of peer activities in the higher education setting. There is a significant body of research that reveals that mentoring activities benefit all students, mentoring particularly increases access, progress and success of students who traditionally struggle in tertiary education (Barnett, 2008; Walker and Walsh, 2008; Allen, Elby and Lentz, 2006; Budny, Paul and Bon, 2006; Eby, Durley, Evans and Ragins, 2006; Fox and Stevenson, 2006; Ferrar, 2004; Heirdsfield, Nelson, Tills, Cheeseman, Derrington, Tracy, Jagsi, Starr and Tarbell, 2004; Hansford, Tennent and Ehrich, 2003). While it is important to distinguish peer mentoring from peer tutoring/learning in any integrated model, both activities would complement Australian curriculum and student service reforms by providing an added valuable learning resource to all students.

Being ‘Dumped’ from Facebook: Negotiating Issues of Boundaries and Identity in an Online Social Networking Space

Gill Best — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 15:40:14 PST

While Facebook, the world’s most popular Social Networking Site (SNS), has been warmly welcomed by many commentators and practitioners within the educational community, its effects, impacts and implications arguably remain insufficiently understood. Through the provision of an anecdotal and experiential account of the authors’ attempt to introduce Facebook into an existing Peer Assisted Study Sessions (PASS) student peer mentoring program at Victoria University (VU) in Melbourne, this paper aims to explore and thereby explicate some of the issues inevitably arising in relation to the adoption and utilisation of social networking technologies in educational settings. While the authors’ experiences of their own ‘Facebook experiment’ were somewhat ambiguous and ambivalent, this paper is intended to contribute to the ever-expanding body of literature concerned with the use of Facebook in education and to thereby assist in improving educators’ requisite understanding of both the potential positives and pitfalls involved. On the basis of the authors’ experience, it is suggested that careful consideration as well as explicit and iterative articulation and negotiation surrounding issues of staff and student expectations, boundaries and identity management in an online environment comprise the minimum requirements for the successful implementation of social networking into student peer mentoring programs.

Improving student success in difficult engineering education courses through Supplemental Instruction (SI) – what is the impact of the degree of SI attendance?

Joakim Malm — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 15:40:12 PST

The customary way to determine whether an adopted Supplemental Instruction (SI) program has been successful or not is by comparing course results for two groups, SI attendees and non-attendees. The division of SI attendees and non-attendees is generally done rather arbitrarily by prescribing a minimum number of SI sessions a student has to attend to be considered an SI attendee. Although the SI attendee vs. non-attendee concept is powerful in some respects, it tends to cloud the benefit of attending SI sessions. That a higher SI attendance leads to better course results is perhaps taken for granted, but in the few further studies that have been made, the picture of SI attendance rates vs. course results is not overly clear. The present study aims to contribute to how the degree of SI attendance affects course results in an engineering context at a Swedish University. In the study we divide the students into four categories, those with high, average, low, and no SI attendance. In terms of student success in a course, it is found that there is a clear relation between the number of SI sessions attended and course success. Students with high SI attendance do best followed by students with average, low, and no SI attendance, respectively.

Video-based Supplemental Instruction: creating opportunities for at-risk students undertaking Engineering Mathematics

Lyn Armstrong — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 15:40:11 PST

Video Based Supplemental Instruction (VSI) provides students with an intensive learning experience that aims to help them succeed in a subject which they have previously failed. The program, which has proved successful in similar contexts, was piloted at the University of Western Sydney in an engineering mathematics subject with a high failure rate. Students face difficulty with this subject for a number of reasons, including lack of preparedness and lack of confidence or positive attitude towards mathematics. Consequently students tend to fall behind as the subject progresses and are therefore unable to complete assessments and the exam. This paper provides a case study of the VSI pilot and outlines the methodology of utilising pre-recorded lectures which are the primary VSI learning tool. It describes the outcomes for the attendees who had previously failed this demanding first year subject as well as the insights gained by the staff involved in this collaborative learning program.

Editorial

Phillip Dawson — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 15:40:10 PST

Editorial

Supplemental Instruction (SI) at the Faculty of Engineering (LTH), Lund University, Sweden. An evaluation of the SI-program at five LTH engineering programs autumn 2008.

Joakim Malm — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 17:10:36 PST

The study presents an evaluation of the SI-program at five LTH engineering educations based on data from inquiries to SI-participants and SI-leaders, data on credits taken by the students during the first year, and average grade data from high-school for the first year-students. The results show that participation in SI-sessions markedly improves the chances of student success in studies during the first year. Furthermore, there are clear indications of a positive social introduction to engineering studies that is created through the SI-program. The SI-sessions also improve the participants study techniques and develop common skills important for the engineer, like problem solving, working in a group, and presenting/discussing results.

PASS Student Leader and Mentor Roles: A Tertiary Leadership Pathway

Jane Skalicky — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 17:10:35 PST

In relation to developing leadership skills during tertiary studies, this paper considers the leadership pathway afforded by a Peer Assisted Study Sessions (PASS) program which includes the traditional PASS Leader role and a more senior PASS Mentor role. Data was collected using a structured survey with open-ended questions designed to capture the personal experiences and self-reported learning outcomes of students undertaking leadership roles within the PASS program. Twelve aspects of leadership are presented from twenty-three Leaders and Mentors: organisation, facilitation, support, attitude, relationships, role model, collaboration, communication, responsibility, decision making, pedagogy, and session management. The qualitative differences between the comments of the Leaders and the Mentors highlight the pathway of growth students undertaking the PASS roles may experience as they move from Leader to Mentor. The more senior PASS Mentor role provides an avenue for developing leadership capabilities beyond the traditional PASS Leader role. In contributing to peer learning in higher education, this study positions leadership within the PASS/SI context and potentially alongside tertiary leadership programs more generally.

The Experience of Class Tutors in a Peer Tutoring Programme: A Novel Theoretical Framework

Tim Outhred — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 17:10:33 PST

The following paper presents the first known examination of the experiences of class tutors within a peer-assisted learning program. Three female first-year class tutors, aged 25-28 years, provided insight into how they experienced a novel peer tutoring programme embedded in their tutorials. Using grounded theory techniques, it was found that the following five themes underlie their experiences: role exploration, sharing responsibility, regulation of the peer tutored groups, harnessing the peer tutors’ role, and community. Literature from the domain was examined post-hoc and was found to complement these themes. Additionally, it was found that class tutors were beneficiaries of the programme. It was suggested that future research address the limitations of the present study and test a number of hypotheses within a novel theoretical framework. The hypotheses were constructed to include the key roles within embedded peer tutoring, and learning climate typologies and dimensions (Little, 1975).

Peer Assisted Study Sessions (PASS) : through a complexity lens

Clare Power Ms — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 17:10:31 PST

Although the Supplemental Instruction (SI) model is offered in a wide range of contexts across many educational institutions in 29 countries, it maintains an identifiable essence. Each SI program, known in Australia as PASS, tends to operate autonomously within its particular institution while maintaining some of the features that interlink all programs that formally identify with this model. These features include near peers facilitating collaborative learning situations that improve attendees’ learning outcomes and increase retention. This paper suggests that complexity theory provides a useful conceptual lens for analysing this multifaceted and multilayered peer learning model. Dimensions of complexity such as self-organisation, fractality, dynamism and emergence seem to offer ways of seeing and sense making that can enhance our understanding of the SI/PASS model, both organisationally and pedagogically. In this initial exploration of complexity and SI/PASS, particularly in its organisational features, I hope to foster conversations that will consider the implications and opportunities of seeing this particular peer learning approach as self-organising, dynamic and emergent.

Editorial

Phillip Dawson — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 17:10:29 PST

Welcome to Volume Three of the Australasian Journal of Peer Learning. We are very pleased to announce that the Journal is now ranked by the Australian Research Council’s (ARC) Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) list. For those readers outside of the Australian context, this ranking means that the ARC recognises the Journal as an outlet for quality, peer reviewed research. The Australasian Journal of Peer Learning is unique on this list as the only journal dedicated to the field of peer learning. Its first two volumes published 14 articles, which have been cited a total of 16 times in the scholarly literature, and downloaded more than 4,000 times.

Editorial

Phillip Dawson — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 00:32:10 PDT

Editorial for the 2nd Issue of The Australasian Journal of Peer Learning

An Exploration of the ‘Lived Experience’ of One Cohort of Academic Peer Mentors at a Small Australian University

Judith A. Couchman — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 00:32:08 PDT

An Exploration of the ‘Lived Experience’ of one Cohort of Academic Peer Mentors at a Small Australian University

Peer-Assisted Tutoring in a Chemical Engineering Curriculum: Tutee and Tutor Experiences

Patricia Kieran — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 00:32:06 PDT

Peer-Assisted Tutorials (PATs), a form of Peer-Assisted Learning (PAL), were introduced to a conventional 4-year honours degree programme in Chemical Engineering. PATs were designed to support students in becoming more self-directed in their learning, to develop student confidence in tackling Chemical Engineering problems and to promote effective group work. They were implemented as part of a core undergraduate module (Unit Operations). For each PAT, 3rd Year students (Tutees) worked together in groups of 5-6, led by a trained Peer Tutor, a 4th Year student who had previously taken and passed the Unit Operations modules. PATs were well-structured, with each session involving two parts: (i) review of a previously assigned homework problem and (ii) introduction and group discussion of a new homework problem. PATs were evaluated on the basis of feedback from both Tutees and Tutors. PATs attracted high participation rates and yielded high levels of Tutee and Tutor satisfaction, in terms of student perceptions of their understanding of relevant material and enhancement of professionally relevant transferable skills. Although developed for Chemical Engineering, PATs are an effective teaching and learning tool, which could be adapted for any cognate discipline.

Peer-assisted learning in mathematics: An observational study of student success

Dorothy Cheng — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 00:32:04 PDT

The Peer-Assisted Learning (PAL) program at the University of Minnesota has drawn from the best practices of Supplemental Instruction, Peer-Led Team Learning, Structured Learning Assistance, the Emerging Scholars Program, and other successful postsecondary peer cooperative learning models to establish guiding principles for structuring learning sessions. To estimate the impact attending weekly math PAL sessions has on students’ chances of successful course completion, an observational study was conducted fall 2008 of 534 University of Minnesota students enrolled in two undergraduate math courses. Success was defined as passing the class with a C- or above, and failure as receiving a D+ or below, including withdrawals. In addition to PAL attendance, 16 other factors were considered in this analysis. Attending all PAL sessions during the semester corresponded with ten times higher odds of success than attending none. While further experimental studies are needed, these observations suggest that following these guiding principles result in effective peer cooperative learning sessions.

Students’ Experiences and Perceptions of Peer Assisted Study Sessions: Towards Ongoing Improvement

Jacques van der Meer — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 00:32:01 PDT

Much research has been done on the effectiveness of Supplemental Instruction programs, (Peer Assisted Study Sessions, PASS, in Australasia). Less research has emerged on on students’ reasons for participating in PASS and their perceptions of the effectiveness of the program. In this article, we will report on a small improvement-focused research project at one university. Our particular focus will be to reflect on the survey tool we used and how we could improve the design and administration of this tool. Implications of the survey findings for improving the training program of PASS leaders in this instituion will also be discussed.

Leader Self Disclosure within PAL: A Case Study

Adelaide Allen — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 00:31:59 PDT

The purpose of this paper is to explore the value of self disclosure within Peer Assisted Learning (PAL) sessions at Bournemouth University. We consider the role of self disclosure in education contexts in order to inform our understanding of this skill in PAL. Both qualitative and quantitative methods were employed in this research to investigate the importance of leader behaviour at Bournemouth University. Our findings suggest that there are similarities in the use of self disclosure between teachers and leaders in our university. Furthermore we found that appropriate use of self disclosure is a key component of a successful PAL scheme, and therefore recommend that specific training for this interpersonal skill is undertaken by our PAL leaders to enhance our Peer Assisted Learning programme.

Providing Multiple Opportunities for PASS Leaders to Reflect Critically

J. Skalicky — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 19:51:42 PST

The opportunity for high-achieving university students to take on leadership roles in mentoring and peer learning contexts is perhaps underutilised. Peer Assisted Study Sessions (PASS) programs are an example where the role of the peer leader, who facilitates the study session, is crucial to the success of the program. The implementation of PASS programs is motivated by, not only a desire to address issues of transition and retention within universities, but also a desire to provide learning support for students studying targeted and difficult subjects with large student cohorts. This paper uses Brookfield’s framework (1995) of critical reflection to consider multiple ways in which PASS programs can embed opportunities for PASS Leaders to reflect critically upon their practice.

Who am I now? Accommodating New Higher Education Diversity in Supplemental Instruction

J. A. Couchman — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 19:50:24 PST

Supplemental Instruction (SI) has undergone many adaptations over its 35 year history as it has evolved to meet new developments in higher education while still maintaining its “original genetic code” (Martin and Blanc, 1995). During this time there have been some additions to its theoretical base to accommodate these developments. However, this paper contends that recent transformations of higher education challenge the adequacy of this base and call for complementing SI’s theoretical base with notions of student learning and literacy as situated social practice. It is argued that SI’s suite of principles lacks reference to research in what can be broadly termed “multiliteracies” (New London Group, 1996), which takes account of contemporary higher education now marked by heterogeneity in the cultural, linguistic and age profiles of students as well as the structure and assessment types of the new disciplines they study. The addition of a multiliteracies perspective will equip SI and its leaders to more fully support these new cohorts of students in negotiating the ideologically contested ground of higher education.

Shifting the Balance in First-Year Learning Support: from Staff Instruction to Peer- Learning Primacy

J. van der Meer — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 19:47:02 PST

Effective response to the learning needs of first-year students is a contested issue. In many learning support centres the dominant approach to developing student learning skills is through generic or tailored workshops and/or individual consultations. Although there is a place for these activities, we argue that the balance should be shifted towards a greater emphasis on developing peer-learning activities across the university. The educational advantage of peer learning is wellestablished. Where resources are limited, it may be a more effective way to develop student learning in large institutions. In this article we will explore the broad context of peer-learning in the context of the role of student learning support centres. We will focus in particular on the developing activities within our own institution.