Bridging the experiential learning gap: An evaluation of the impacts of Ulster University's Senior Student Tutoring Scheme on first year students.

Eaton, M. D. (2015). Bridging the experiential learning gap: An evaluation of the impacts of Ulster University's Senior Student Tutoring Scheme on first year students. Journal of University Teaching & Learning Practice, 12(2), article 6. Retrieved from http://ro.uow.edu.au/jutlp/vol12/iss2/6/

Since 2004-05 first year students at the School of Environmental Sciences, Ulster University have engaged with senior student tutors (SSTs) in workshop activities aimed at preparations for their written examinations. Using a pedagogical action research methodology we evaluated the role of SSTs in bridging the experiential learning gap between practitioners and recipients. Analysis suggested positive associations between workshop participation, examination success and improved module marks. Surveys showed that first year students gained confidence, were less intimidated and empowered with revision and examination techniques. The SSTs gained valuable insights, tutoring experience and an evidence base useful to their career paths. Discussion focused upon risk-averse first year students who grasped and then transformed the experiences of the SSTs into successful examination performance. It is argued that our SSTs have helped to bridge the experiential learning gap and made inter-collegiate connections that would have been less-likely in a formal, teaching staff-led situation. Faculty suffering from examination related student progression problems could, therefore, benefit from adopting this locally controlled, low cost, small-scale, tailor-made, peer assisted tutoring scheme.

To download the complete annotated bibliography of more than 1,100 citations of postsecondary peer cooperative learning programs, click on the following link, http://z.umn.edu/peerbib

Peer-Led Team Learning helps minority students succeed

Snyder, J. J., Sloane, J. D., Dunk, R. D. P., & Wiles, J. R. (2016). Peer-Led Team Learning helps minority students succeed. PLOS Biology, 14(3). doi: doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.1002398. Retrieved from http://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.1002398

Active learning methods have been shown to be superior to traditional lecture in terms of student achievement, and our findings on the use of Peer-Led Team Learning (PLTL) concur. Students in our introductory biology course performed significantly better if they engaged in PLTL. There was also a drastic reduction in the failure rate for underrepresented minority (URM) students with PLTL, which further resulted in closing the achievement gap between URM and non-URM students. With such compelling findings, we strongly encourage the adoption of Peer-Led Team Learning in undergraduate Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) courses.

The entire annotated bibliography of more than 1,100 citations concerning postsecondary peer cooperative learning programs can be downloaded by clicking the following link, http://z.umn.edu/peerbib

The causal effects of the Peer Assisted Study Sessions (PASS) on educational outcomes

Paloyn, A. R., Rogan, S., & Siminski, P. (2016). The causal effects of the Peer Assisted Study Sessions (PASS) on educational outcomes. Retrieved from https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjwoqG7uazLAhVGuIMKHXJuD4UQFggiMAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.uow.edu.au%2F~siminski%2FFinal%2520Report%2520-%2520Public%2520Copy.pdf&usg=AFQjCNH96hWntRMHTwkOanTB-n6YmCtEdg&sig2=MbSrUzNY-TR6Ba3PJsbWLA

This report summarises the results of a HEPPP-funded research project on the effects of the Peer Assisted Study Sessions (PASS) on educational outcomes. The study used a randomised encouragement design (RED), which avoids the potential problem of selection bias that pervades non-experimental evaluations.  Globally, this is the first large-scale experiment on the effectiveness of PASS or related Supplemental Instruction programmes.The study population consists of 6954 student subject observations from 14 first-year courses at the University of Wollongong in Australia in 2014 and 2015. Following the RED approach, a randomly selected sub-group was offered a large, near-cash incentive to participate in PASS. Whilst PASS participation is voluntary and unrestricted, participation was 0.47 sessions (19 percent) greater for the incentivised group compared to the non-incentivised group. This inducement effect is larger for students from low-SES areas (0.89 sessions). But the overall inducement effect is smaller than anticipated, which limits the statistical power of the main analysis, especially for subgroups. We also varied the size of the incentive greatly between semesters, but this did not meaningfully change the size of the inducement effect. The design of effective incentives for student populations warrants further research. The experiment suggests that one hour of PASS improved grades by 0.065 standard deviations (1.26 marks on a raw 100-point scale), which is consistent with the non-experimental literature. However, this estimate is not statistically significant, reflecting limited statistical power. The estimated effect is largest and statistically significant for students in their first semester at university (0.153 standard deviations or almost 3 marks per hour of PASS). This particular sub-group analysis was not in our preanalysis plan, and so it should be treated as a suggestive–rather than a confirmatory –result. Nevertheless, it remains plausible given issues around transitioning into a university environment, including the more independent, self-directed study skills and time management required in tertiary study, as well as the need for structure and social support. We had intended to study heterogeneity of effects for a number of other subgroups (by socioeconomic status, rural and indigenous backgrounds, age, sex, domestic/international status, and high school grades), but this was not feasible because of limited statistical power.

To download the complete annotated bibliography of 1,100+ citations of postsecondary peer cooperative learning programs, click on the following link, http://z.umn.edu/peerbib

Mathematics communication within the frame of Supplemental Instruction – SOLO and ATD analysis

Holm, A., & Pelger, S. (2016). Mathematics communication within the frame of Supplemental Instruction – SOLO and ATD analysis. Conference Proceedings of the Ninth Congress of the European Society for Research in Mathematics Education, Prague, Czech Republic. Retrieved from https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01289441/document

Teaching at Swedish primary and secondary schools is often combined with collaborative exercises in a variety of subjects. One such method for learning together is Supplemental instruction (SI). Several studies have been made to evaluate SI in universities throughout the world, while at lower levels hardly any study has been made until now. This study aimed at identifying learning conditions in SI-sessions at two Swedish upper secondary schools. Within this study, a combination of ATD (Anthropological theory of the didactic) and the SOLO-taxonomy (Structure of the Observed Learning Outcome) was successfully tried as an analysis strategy.

To access the complete annotated bibliography of more than 1,100 references to postsecondary peer cooperative learning programs, click on the following link, http://z.umn.edu/peerbib

Assessing the impact of a muilti-disciplinary Peer Led-Team Learning program on undergraduate STEM education.

Carlson, K., Celotta, D. T., Curran, E., Marcus, M., & Loe, M. (2016). Assessing the impact of a muilti-disciplinary Peer Led-Team Learning program on undergraduate STEM education. Journal of University Teaching & Learning Practice, 13(1), article 1. Retrieved from http://ro.uow.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1570&context=jutlp.

There has been a national call to transition away from the traditional, passive, lecture-based model of STEM education towards one that facilitates learning through active engagement and problem solving. This mixed methods research study examines the impact of a supplemental Peer-Led Team Learning (PLTL) program on knowledge and skill acquisition for students in introductory biology, chemistry, calculus and applied statistics courses. Results indicate program participants reliably outperform their matched pairs in courses that emphasize quantitative reasoning. Moreover, program participants report acquiring important insights about learning, collaboration, and engagement in undergraduate STEM education. These results are consistent with previous findings on PLTL and also provide insight into the roles of course context and student population on program outcomes.

To download the entire annotated bibliography of over 1,100 references to postsecondary peer cooperative learning programs, click on the following web link, http://z.umn.edu/peerbib

2016 Annotated Bibliograpy of Postsecondary Peer Cooperative Learning Programs Updated

For many years I have maintained an annotated bibliography of publications about peer learning programs at the postsecondary level. I wanted to share it more widely with others so it is provided in several forms:  PDF, Word, and EndNote database.  Please observe the license under which it is made available for your personal and scholarly use.  The unabridged version of the bibliography is now 399 pages.  [Click this link to reach the annonated bibliography page, http://z.umn.edu/peerbib ]  If you download the EndNote database, be sure to also download the keyword guide which I created to code each entry to make searching easier.

This annotated bibliography does not attempt to be inclusive of this broad field of literature concerning peer collaborative learning.  Instead, it is focused intentionally on a subset of the educational practice that shares a common focus with increasing student academic achievement and persistence towards graduation.

The seven student peer learning programs included in this bibliography meet the following characteristics: (a) the program must have been implemented at the postsecondary or tertiary level; (b) the program has a clear set of systematic procedures for its implementation that could be replicated by another institution; (c) program evaluation studies have been conducted and are available for review; (d) the program intentionally embeds learning strategy practice along with review of the academic content material; (e) the program outcomes include increased content knowledge, higher final course grades, higher pass rates, and higher college persistence rates; and (f) the program has been replicated at another institution with similar positive student outcomes. From a review of the professional literature, six programs emerged: (a) Accelerated Learning Groups (ALGs), (b) Emerging Scholars Program (ESP), (c) Peer Assisted Learning (PAL), (d) Peer-Led Team Learning (PLTL), (e) Structured Learning Assistance (SLA), (f) Supplemental Instruction (SI), and (g) Video-based Supplemental Instruction (VSI).  As will be described in the following narrative, some of the programs share common history and seek to improve upon previous practices.Other programs were developed independently.

Regrets for scholarship I have overlooked.  Please send me items you think should be included in the next edition.  Happy reading.

Updated Postsecondary Peer Cooperative Learning Groups Annotated Bibliography(Updated 1/1/2015)

Postsecondary Peer Cooperative Learning Programs: Annotated Bibliography by David R. Arendale is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.  Based on a work at http://z.umn.edu/peerbib

Background on the Bibliography

For many years I have maintained an annotated bibliography of publications about peer learning programs at the postsecondary level. I wanted to share it more widely with others so it is provided in several forms:  PDF, Word, and EndNote database.  Please observe the license under which it is made available for your use.  Links to versions of the bibliography are at the bottom of this page.

This annotated bibliography does not attempt to be inclusive of this broad field of literature concerning peer collaborative learning.  Instead, it is focused intentionally on a subset of the educational practice that shares a common focus with increasing student persistence towards graduation.  At the end of this overview, several suggestions are made for differentiating the models from each other and the level of institutional resources and resolve with implementing them.

The six student peer learning programs included in this bibliography meet the following characteristics: (a) the program must have been implemented at the postsecondary or tertiary level; (b) the program has a clear set of systematic procedures for its implementation that could be replicated by another institution; (c) program evaluation studies have been conducted and are available for review; (d) the program intentionally embeds learning strategy practice along with review of the academic content material; (e) the program outcomes include increased content knowledge, higher final course grades, higher pass rates, and higher college persistence rates; and (f) the program has been replicated at another institution with similar positive student outcomes. From a review of the professional literature, six programs emerged: (a) Accelerated Learning Groups (ALGs), (b) Emerging Scholars Program (ESP), (c) Peer-Led Team Learning (PLTL), (d) Structured Learning Assistance (SLA), (e) Supplemental Instruction (SI), and (f) Video-based Supplemental Instruction (VSI).  As will be described in the following narrative, some of the programs share common history and seek to improve upon previous practices.Other programs were developed independently.

Versions of the Bibliography for Downloading

Click on this link to download the bibliography as a PDF format document (Updated 1/1/2015). This version will always be months behind the current database.  If you want the most recent database, download the EndNote database file below and you can create your own custom print version of the latest citations.

Click on this link to download the bibliography as a Word document which you can easily edit (Updated 1/1/2015).  Using Microsoft Word software makes it easy to edit the bibliography as you like and use the search engine to find key words of your own choice.

Click on this link to download the actual database file of the bibliography in the EndNote format (Updated 1/1/2015). This file has been "compressed" and will require "unzipping" to open and use it with EndNote.  Click on the above web link and "save" the file to your computer (I recommend saving it to the desktop to make it easy to find.)  If you are unsure how to import into your own copy of EndNote, talk with someone who knows or search for the answer through Google and YouTube.  Use of this database requires purchase of the EndNote software or importing into another citation reference manager.  There are other free citation management systems such as Zotario.  It is possible to import this database into these other software systems.  However, I can not provide technical information how to do so.

Click on one of the two links below to download the Directory of Keywords I created to code the database entries and make it easier to search through EndNote: [Word document version]  [PDF format version]  (Updated 5/8/14) While you can search the bibliography by keywords within the titles or abstract, many of my additional keywords added to the database entry will not appear within the text.  Using EndNote's search function along with this list of the keywords I used to index it will allow more productive searchers.  It would be easy to create custom bibliographies as needed.  For example, "SI" plus "science" plus "academic achievement" would create a custom bibliography of every SI research document that included data for improved academic achievement of participating students.