Description
Book SynopsisCurricular peer mentoring is a programmatic approach to enrich student learning and engagement in postsecondary courses in which instructors welcome a more experienced undergraduate student into a credit course they are teaching. The student then serves as peer mentor to the students enrolled. Peer mentors can provide a variety of peer-appropriate, course-specific mentoring, tutoring, facilitation and leadership roles and activities that complement the roles of the course's instructor and teaching assistants both in classroom settings and beyond. A program provides training and ongoing support for a larger number of peer mentors and instructional teams and manages recruitment and program research and quality. This volume provides research findings, definitions, theories, and practical program descriptions as a foundation for program development and research of undergraduate curricular peer mentoring programs in higher education. This work builds on a long history of higher education program development and collects a significant amount of literature that has previously been scattered.
Trade ReviewTania Smith’s volume, Undergraduate Curricular Peer Mentoring Programs, situates the heretofore practice-oriented peer instruction literature within a well-researched theoretical framework. It will be a valuable resource for researchers and practitioners. -- Judy Miller, University of North Florida
This book presents a sweeping, coherent overview of the many types of curricular peer mentoring practices, both institutionalized programs and unique, unaffiliated efforts, that have demonstrated their potential to improve student learning outcomes within standard post-secondary curricula. The authors commendably avoid selecting a best model in favor of emphasizing that the concept’s underlying principles and guidelines permit great flexibility when applied to different disciplines, course structures, and types of participants. The authors also deal effectively with the proliferation of definitions, labels, and education jargon that can confuse and intimidate an outsider looking just for a few good ideas to get started with peer mentoring. In particular, their decision to intersperse descriptions of specific programs with succinct summaries of education research is a nice touch. The last chapter can be used as a very practical "how to" guide for educators setting up the framework of a new peer mentoring program or reviewing the operation of an existing one. In summary, in may ways this book is the educational equivalent to Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking: comprehensive, authoritative, a rich resource to be kept within arm’s reach by educators who want to enhance learning outcomes with the best ingredients available – students themselves. -- Hal A. Larson, University of Arizona
Table of ContentsIntroduction: The History and Scope of Curricular Peer Mentoring Programs Tania S. Smith Chapter 1: Defining Features of Curricular Peer Mentoring Programs Tania S. Smith Chapter 2: Discipline-Focused Peer Mentoring: Peer Teaching in Biology at the University of British Columbia Carol Pollock Theory and Practice: Lave and Wenger on Communities of Practice Tania S. Smith Chapter 3: Peer Mentoring in a Team-Taught Interdisciplinary Course: Engaging the 21st Century Student Through Peer-Led Learning Tina Pugliese, Tamsin Bolton, Veronika Mogyorody, Jill Singleton-Jackson, Robert Nelson & Ralph H. Johnson Theory and Practice: Student Engagement Tania S. Smith Chapter 4: Peer Mentoring in Large-scale First-year Programs: Academic Peer Mentors in First-year Courses at the University of Texas at Austin Jennifer L. Smith Theory and Practice: Tinto and Wenger on Learning Communities Tania S. Smith Chapter 5: Peer Mentoring in a Technical Institution: Undergraduate Mentoring in Software Engineering Sanjay Goel Theory and Practice: Vygotsky’s and Bloom’s Theories Tania S. Smith Chapter 6: Hosting Peer Mentors in a Senior Interdisciplinary Course: Notes from a Pre-History of Peer Mentoring at the University of Calgary Marcia Jenneth Epstein Theory and Practice: Bruffee on Collaborative Learning Tania S. Smith Chapter 7: Supporting Peer Mentors: Recruiting, Educating and Rewarding Peer Mentors Kate Zier-Vogel and Andrew Barry Theory and Practice: Peer Mentor Education Through Service-Learning Tania S. Smith Chapter 8: Case Studies of Conflict and Collaboration: Supporting Teaching Assistants Who Work with Peer Mentors Bryanne Young Theory and Practice: Teaching Teams with Graduate and Undergraduate Assistants Tania S. Smith Conclusion: Program Development and Sustainability Tania S. Smith
