Staff information
Staff can support the Peer Mentoring Groups programme in several ways and research of similar programmes worldwide has shown that peer study groups are most successful when the academic staff who teach the papers involved show they are positive about the programme and advocate it to students.
Having peer mentoring groups attached to a paper does not change the way the paper is taught as these groups are student led. They are an additional learning resource to help the first year students make the transition to the demands of university paper and not drop out.
The programme offers successful senior students in your area an extremely valuable leadership experience, one which prospective employers appreciate, as the role requires both the ability to work within a diverse group and to be able to work independently. The leadership experience provided by the programme also contributes to the requirements of the Massey University StepUp leadership programme run on the Manawatu campus.
Our results at Massey with PASS and StudyGroups, the predecessors to the peer mentoring programme, are that the students who attend regularly tend to get higher grades. The students who make these senior student-led study groups part of their normal routine report that they develop greater content and vocabulary knowledge from participating in discussions and doing examples prior to tasking tests and exams. This in turn makes them feel more confident and motivated. Check our results and student feedback.
Most sessions are run for internal undergraduate papers. An online trial was run in 2011 and six more are running in 2012. This includes trailling the programme for two papers in the summer session. The mentors we choose are usually senior students who have passed your paper with an excellent grade. Sometimes they are postgraduate students who are working in the same subject area. Student feedback shows that the students appreciate the opportunity to talk with experienced students.
Can my paper be invovled in the programme?
If you do not currently have peer mentoring group sessions for your paper you are welcome to contact the Centre for Teaching and Learning (CTL) on your campus for more information. Since 2011 the programme has been running on all campuses, mainly in first year business and science papers, and it has not been incorporated by all departments at present. You could also talk with your manager and colleagues about their knowledge and experience with the programme.
How can I help if my paper is part of the programme?
If your paper does have peer mentoring groups, you can support the programme and peer mentors in several ways. The mentors have various tasks we ask them to do to promote their sessions and timetable so you could help by:
- Recommending students you consider would be excellent peer mentors for your paper
- Meeting with the peer mentor(s) and arranging a time with them to make an announcement at the beginning of semester. They are asked to contact you directly about this
- Providing them with student or TA access to Stream
- Creating a PM Groups forum in Stream within which they can put up notices for students
- Occasionally reminding students about the programme
- Providing the peer mentors with materials if these are not available from student notes or online. CTL provides all compulsory textbooks
- Being available to discuss any issues they find is occurring for the students. Sometimes leaders need advice about the best and/or varied kinds of practice they can provides for a particular concept students are finding difficult
