Peer teaching and co-operation between different academic study programmes

Abstract

The aim of this project is to put into practice different forms of peer teaching as a mode of handling restricted resources as well as giving students influence over, and responsibility for, their education. Research has shown that peer teaching is academically advantageous to students. At the same time there are positive effects to be observed with regard to the attitude of students towards their studies and on their self-confidence in the study situation. In traditional teaching there is an uneven distribution of power and responsibilities between the teachers and the students. Peer teaching may increase the students' responsibility in the educational setting at the same time as power differences will be decreased or minimised. Of course power differences may arise, in these kind of situations, especially if senior students are assigned grading or assessment authority. However, in the present project such referee duties will not be a part of the peer teaching programme. The main purpose of this project is to test and refine the implementation of the following types of peer teaching: a. "Senior students" leading reflection seminars with newcomers on the same programme. b. Students from different programmes acting as co-trainers to each other. c. Group interventions in study groups by "senior students" from another programme. The university programmes involved in this project will be the Programme for Psychologists, consisting of ten terms, and the Programme for Human Resource Management, consisting of eight terms. The idea behind this is that in the peer teaching situations, students of proven experience meet newcomers who are either on the same or a different programme; while students from different programmes, who are at the same level in their particular course of studies, are also given the opportunity of meeting each other. In (a) the newcomers will meet fellow students with more experience who will give them opportunities to reflect on the learning content and the learning process at hand. In (b) students at the same level, but with different educational experiences of similar or complementary subject areas, will meet in discussions of common subjects and problem areas but from different vantage ground and educational experience. In (c) senior students are expected to intervene in project work carried out by students at another programme. This can be seen as a form of process consultation, which also is a part of the professional training of the becoming psychologists. As a result of the interventions of these senior students, more effective study groups are expected to be created among their less experienced fellow students on the other programme. Update Activities in 2001 Three different parts of the project will be described. Senior - junior students in "reflection groups" In this part "Senior students" from the Programme for Human Resource Management were trained to supervise groups of 6-8 "newcomers" from the same programme when those groups regularly met for reflection on their study situation. In 2000 we had 10 "reflection groups" in the programme. Based on the evaluations made we made some changes for 2001. The groups started earlier, and the focus was more on the establishment of the groups and the development of structures and communication to enhance the group s capacity to work together. In 2001 26 senior students wanted to be supervisors. Of those 15 were chosen to supervise 10 groups. The groups meet every second week and after each session the supervisors meet in groups of 5 with a teacher/supervisor. These groups will be evaluated in March 2002. This part of the project was presented at the Quality Conference in Norrköping in september 1999 (National Agency for Higher Education home page http://www.hsv.se/) (Elinor Edvardsson Stiwne, e-mail: elied@ibv.liu.se). Students as co-trainers Students from different programmes acting as co-trainers to each other. In spring 2001 a conference was arranged where students from a Teacher training programme and a Psychology training programme met to discuss a common case concerning bullying and harassment of pupils. The students first met to discuss within their programme group and after that they met in mixed groups and the day was closed by two mixed seminar groups. The conference was evaluated by students from both programmes. In the spring 2002 another conference will be arranged between HRM students and Psychology students. This part of the project was presented at the ECER conference in Lille in september 2001. (Anders Hempel, e-mail: andhe@ibv.liu.se). Co-operation between study programmes Group interventions in study groups by "senior students" from another programme. In the Psychology training programme students work in teams that offer their services as consultants to various organisations. In one group, the consultant team, the students support and supervise groups of students in the Programme for computer science and information technology during their project term. Students from the Business administration programme are also involved, acting as team leaders. The co-operation between students from the different programmes has been evaluated by means of questionnaires to all the participating students using quantitative and qualitative response categories. The preliminary results reveal a number of positive effects from the co-operation on the learning of the subject matter associated with the project term. Parts of the results from the project have been presented at the ECER conference in Lille, September 2001. Coming evaluations will focus on the effects of a change in the organization of student cooperation involving a more pronounced coordination between the groups of participating students as well as the reactions of the teachers responsible for the coordination of the study programmes (Lauritz Brännström, e-mail: laubr@ibv.liu.se).