• Guide to the Themes Outcome
• Graduates for the 21st Century
• Research-Teaching Linkages
• First Year
• Outcomes & Publications
• Overview
• Steering Committee & Contacts
• Steering Committee Minutes
• Activities
• Links
• Management and Indicators of Enhancement
• Benchmarking Student Support
• Benchmarking Research Degrees
• Integrative Assessment
• Flexible Delivery
• Employability
• Responding to Student Needs
• Assessment

The First Year

Peer support in the first year: QAA workshop, University of Dundee
14 May 2007

Peer support in the first year is one of the projects of the Frist Year Experience Enhancement Theme.

Jane MacKenzie and Fiona Black, the project directors, investigated peer support from two distinct angles: explicit peer support structures such as peer assisted learning and buddy schemes; and structures and educational practices such as small group learning, which implicitly act to support students both academically and socially.

The workshop provided an opportunity to explore some of the emerging themes from the literature review and to look at elements of current practice within the UK.

The workshop included presentations from colleagues working on a variety of peer-interactive activities:

Student Mentoring as part of the FE/HE Transition Project (Frank Brown and Elizabeth Mooney, Glasgow Caledonian University)

• First Year Human Biology Tutorials (Morven Shearer, University of St Andrews)
• The Vertical Project (Ole Pahl, Glasgow Caledonian University)

Discussion focused on the purpose and efficacy of peer support as a means of student engagement and empowerment. A brief note of the discussion emanating from the breakout groups is provided below.

Some examples of peer support (implicit and explicit)

• peer assisted learning/support/instruction: timetabled sessions and VLE discussion boards. There is a great variety in how PAL can be structured and how sessions and/or VLEs are used.
• tutorials: these are a supportive mechanism and there is scope for tutorial leaders to see the benefits for peer support. Small group work is important. Should groups be the same every week/activity or should groups be mixed up?
• small group projects: these can have academic and social benefits but important to get size and dynamic of groups right. ‘Personalities’ might lead to individuals being excluded.
• problem-based learning: a good example of small group work that should provide peer support.
• peer assessment: can be problematic and requires students with a certain level of ‘maturity’ which may not always be present in the first year of study.

Socially integrative forms of peer support:

• information from peers: important source of information for students – new students listen to staff but they believe other students. However, need to ensure this is managed properly as some peers may provide negative information undermining student confidence.
• formal vs informal mentoring: formal has the advantage of ensuring new students are matched, but possible issues with personalities and perception of ‘deficit model’, i.e. why do I need special help? Informal has advantage of student’s being able to seek help as and when they need it, but may lead to inefficient use of mentor time. How prescriptive should a mentoring scheme be if it is to strike the balance between effective integration and something that students want to access? What criteria should be used to match mentor(s) and mentee(s)? Recruitment and selection of good mentors is important. How many mentors are required for effective matching? Will contact be via email or face-to-face? How many times will contact occur? What activities and outcomes are included in the mentoring relationship? Is mentoring within departments or across departments? All of these questions need to be addressed if the mentoring structure is to be effective.
• alumni mentoring undergraduate students? Could a mix of academic and more socially integrative focussed peer support be beneficial to some first year programmes or modules?
• ‘voluntary’ support groups: students choose to form support groups of their own choosing. Advantage is that it allows exchange of information, ideas, issues etc. Disadvantage is that new students may not form groups at all!

Benefits and challenges associated with peer support

• CV and PDP: benefit for mentors
• employability: engagement in peer support activity as advantageous for students in terms of employability assets and transferable skills.
• terminology: The words ‘mentor’, ‘buddy’ etc., mean different things to different people– but could not come up with an alternative! A challenge is to avoid the deficit model both from the point of view of the staff and the mentoring system and in terms of how the mentors see their role. Prior experiences and media sources can mean that students see ‘mentoring’ as relating to potential stigma.
• measurement: difficult to put hard statistics against ‘soft’ activities. Impact tools are a means of measuring success. The voluntary sector model is an opportunity.
• staff resources: peer support requires staff time and input it is NOT an alternative to staff support.
• culture and embedding/sustainability: peer support needs time and nurture to become part of the accepted norm of the department/institution.
  2-way process student and mentee. The relationship requires buy-in from both parties (and staff and institution).
• care with problematic messages from higher level students: mentors must be carefully recruited, selected and trained.

What should first year look like?

Increased formative assessment
Increased resources put into first year
Clear expectations: communicated pre-entry and throughout first year. Increase match of personal and institutional expectations.
Student space: It was seen as important that students had spaces on campus where they could congregate informally to discuss and exchange ideas, issues, and information.

Project report
A draft of the final report of the whole project is available here.

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