Peer Mentoring in the School of English:
Students
Supporting
Students
‘The best form of welfare will be to ensure that people can adapt to change’.
(Education Strategy, 2008-2011, quoting The Leitch Review, 2006)
1. Background to Peer Mentoring in the School of English
In 2008-2009, the School of English began QUB’s first Peer Mentoring (PM) scheme for students. Now, as we approach the end of the scheme’s second iteration, we offer some reflections on progress thus far, a contextualisation of PM within the Education Strategy, and a confident prediction of long-term success for PM in the University.
The initiative for PM grew from discussions in the School’s Staff Student Consultative Committee during 2007-2008. Our student members, articulating feedback from their undergraduate and postgraduate constituencies, asked for support in their attempts to achieve a more coherent grasp and experience of student life. For first year students, in particular, the need for rapid adjustment to the undergraduate context can seem daunting, as they re-site themselves academically, socially and, often, regionally. Those of us who have seen many new intakes of students gradually, and sometimes painfully, meet the challenges required, may be tempted into complicity with the convenient fiction that such difficulties are developmentally necessary and even character-forming. We take the view, however, that some aspects of change associated with arrival at university are more easily handled with timely advice, offered by students whose own recent experience coincides with that of the newcomers.
Our increased efforts in supporting students synchronised with those of the University more generally, wherein the growing momentum towards systematising means for engaging and retaining students led to the restructuring of the BA degree. In 2008-2009, students’ exposure to their intended degree subject or subjects doubled, with Single Honours students taking four rather than the traditional two modules in their home subject, for instance. For Single Honours students in English, the new structure allowed encounters with the breadth of English Literature and Language across modules which facilitate transition from ‘A’ Level to undergraduate work, introduce theoretical and methodological issues surrounding the reading of contemporary literature, and develop interdisciplinary skills in relating texts to their historical, political, social and ideological contexts. The availability of a new, dedicated module in Language, too, meant that students were exposed immediately to Linguistics as a distinct strand for study within English. Given this growth in students’ sense of academic centredness and involvement in the curricular arrangements of their home School or Schools, we envisaged PM as a complementary means for encouraging appropriate social and personal development, with students from second and third year acting as mentors for first years.
2. Available models, an outline of ours and some positive outcomes
Various models for student-to-student support are already well-established in many Russell Group institutions, including PAL (Peer Assisted Learning), PASS (Peer Assisted Study Support) and PM (Peer Mentoring). The differences between them relate to the degree of emphasis on specific module or course-related content. Manchester University, for instance, the sector leader in peer support initiatives, allows students to guide one another in what they call ‘historically challenging’ courses[1] such as Maths and Computer Science. Oxford’s Peer Support Programme[2], on the other hand, focuses on student welfare and pastoral issues. Whatever their particular orientation, all methodologies draw on the Supplemental Instruction (SI) model developed in the University of Missouri and tailored to institutional needs in the UK context (see Rust and Wallace, 1994)[3]. Enshrined in the UK adaptations are the ‘21 Principles’ of SI, in their entirety or selections thereof (for differences of approach, see Wallace, 2003)[4], as follows. SI’s attributes are:
1. it is a methodology for learner support
2.it is small group learning
3.it is facilitated by other students acting as mentors
4.it is confidential
5.it is voluntary
6.it is non-remedial
7.it is participative
8.it is content-based and process-oriented
9.it encourages collaborative, rather than competitive learning
10.it benefits all students regardless of current academic competency
11.it gives privacy to practise the subject, make mistakes and build up confidence
12.it gives opportunity to increase academic performance
13.it is pro-active, not reactive
14.it targets high `risk´ courses, not high `risk´ students
15.it decreases drop-out rates and aids retention
16.it encourages learner autonomy
17.it does not create dependency
18.it integrates effective learning strategies within the course content
19.it enables a clear view of course expectations
20.it works in the language of the discipline
21. it challenges the barrier between year groups
Apart from the inapplicability of 14 above, given that English in QUB is not a ‘high risk’ course, our adherence to the principles is strong. Our adoption of a PM scheme, rather than PASS or PAL, signals our focus on holistic support for learning, targeting the factors which are known to enhance the navigability of undergraduate life in English and Linguistics programmes, rather than module-specific activity. We also emphasise that PM is not a teaching scheme, that the mentors are not teachers, and that all specific academic queries must continue to be directed to relevant members of academic staff. In order to address the breadth of areas related to academic progress in students’ first semester with us, our second and third year mentors designed a series of information and discussion sessions to raise awareness of key induction, assessment and support mechanisms in the School:
(1) Finding your place in the School of English
Introduction to your Peer Mentoring Group
Keeping in touch: QoL and Email
Highlights from the School of English Handbook
(2) Queen’s Campus and Social Spaces
English lecture and tutorial venues
The Student Guidance Centre
The Student’s Union
Clubs, societies and amenities
(3) Study spaces and resources
The Library
Special Collections
Electronic resources
(4) Preparing for assessment (1)
Study skills strategies
(5) Academic Support
Your Personal Tutor and Personal Development Planning
(6) Planning for Reading Week
Balancing curricular and extra-curricular pursuits
Reflecting on the semester so far
(7) Enhancing your work
Understanding essay questions
Plagiarism
(8) Style
The School Stylesheet
Essay length and rubric conventions
(9) Preparing for assessment (2)
Assessed essays and examinations
Referencing and bibliographies
(10) Referencing and planning
Reflecting on your experience of QUB
Balancing study with other vacation commitments
To further complement curriculum-oriented activity, mentors have liaised with colleagues in the Learning Development Service, the Careers Service and with academic staff to organise workshop activities on, for example, writing skills, the 3600 responsibility involved in the feedback process, and careers options related to English and Linguistics. During Freshers’ Week, mentors invited new students to participate in a treasure hunt, a bus tour of Belfast, a visit to St. George’s market and local coffee houses. Throughout the semester, they have continued to offer a variety of social activities, in the form of DVD showings, text readings and performances, and pub quizzes.
It is worth noting, based on the 2008-2009 evaluation of the scheme conducted by the Widening Participation Unit, that students who come to us report a wide range of concerns, including coping with new teaching methods, meeting new people, fitting in, finding their way around campus and not knowing what to expect from university life, i.e. precisely the issues which have informed the design of PM activity. The distribution is as follows:
Figure 1: Frequency of respondents’ biggest concerns about starting QUB (WPU Evaluation, 2008-2009)
Furthermore, the WPU evaluation indicates that, of first year students who participated in the PM scheme, 86% felt they had been helped in their concerns about starting university, and 89% agreed they had been helped with issues regarding their course once they had begun their studies.
3. Selecting, training and rewarding mentors
In line with QAA requirements involving professionalisation of the student experience and engagement of students in quality assurance and enhancement processes, a student-to-student scheme presupposes appropriate training in and maintenance of a high-level service. Our selection procedures for mentors involve an application and personal interview process and, once appointed, the mentors undertake the ‘Approaches to Mentoring’ programme delivered by LDS. The programme equips mentors with skills in listening and facilitation, and in mental health awareness, and provides continuing development in these areas throughout each mentor’s term of office. LDS play a central role, too, in advising and helping mentors to plan their workloadsand manage their own study time effectively, in tandem with their PM responsibilities. In the course of each semester, mentors report to a Key Peer Worker in the School, a recent graduate who co-ordinates administration and timetabling issues and monitors progress of the scheme. Mentors are also encouraged to maintain contact with a designated member of academic staff who advises on educational developments.
There is considerable research evidence to indicate that mentors benefit immensely from their role in PM schemes, with Stout and McDaniel (2006:55)[5], for example, summarising the widespread ‘academic improvement, increased communication and relationship building skills, and personal and professional development’ for mentor equivalents across a number of institutions. Our own mentors have made the following observations:
‘Knowing that someone has trust and confidence in you is a fantastic boost to one’s morale and also forms good foundations for future friendships.’
‘The amount of responsibility we were given made me feel more confident in dealing with people.’
‘I felt more involved with staff and the life of the School’.
Our mentors for 09-10 are the first students from the School to avail of Degree Plus, and are proving to be impressive trailblazers for the new award which they now actively publicise in the School. Additionally, mentors are in a position to apply for accreditation with Open College Network, an affiliation made available to us by colleagues in LDS. Clearly, in the true spirit of a co-delivery model wherein delivery and reception are subject to shifting agencies, benefits abound for all students involved in Peer Mentoring.
4. Challenges and possibilities
Early indications are that the PM scheme offers an obvious and deliverable means for realising the QUB Vision for Education. Our recent Educational Enhancement Process highlighted Peer Mentoring in the School of English as good practice, an example to the sector and worthy of dissemination to other QUB Schools. Thus far, we have consulted with colleagues in Archaeology, History, Law, Maths, Music and Psychology, all of whom seem convinced of the value of PM and set for prompt delivery to students. We have also talked with colleagues in DASA about possibilities for extending PM to the postgraduate community, and PGR students in English, already, have demonstrated considerable initiative in this area. Under the title ‘Writing Communities’, our research students have joined with their peers in the School of Education to launch an AHSS faculty-wide series of weekly peer-organised and peer-delivered workshops. A systematic postgraduate mentoring scheme has the potential to produce what Fugate et al (2001)[6] refer to as ‘a model for professional development’ and could usefully draw on insights from the School of English ‘Professionalising the PhD’, another sector-leading development.
Our initial PM phase was enabled by funding from the Teaching Quality Enhancement Fund and, this year, by School funds. Of course, the lack of a specific PM budget in the University does raise issues regarding sustainability, but we are thinking creatively about how to develop the delivery model in the absence of funding. While we have paid mentors for the past two years, we believe that a voluntary scheme, with a larger number of mentors available, has the potential to work efficiently while enhancing the ethos achieved so far.
Planned developments of PM involve its extension to the particular context of the 7-day student experience, thereby enabling the key institutional priority and aspiration of involving students as fully as possible in all aspects of the QUB environment. In addition to the existing elements of the programme we aim to expand the timetable which is typically perceived by students to constitute their working week. For instance, the workshops and social events which have proved immensely popular and beneficial thus far in the PM programme will be run at times which allow us to attract student interaction from Monday through to Friday, post-5pm and at weekends. We see our project as playing an invaluable role in raising awareness of and creating expectations that the university is indeed a 7-day institution. Our intentions in broadening the PM model address simultaneously experiences of deficit, i.e. where minimal student engagement has led to withdrawal, and development, in which we have seen already-involved students achieve growing success.
5. Final thoughts
Alongside all the practical considerations noted here, the PM-led scheme for drawing students into the life of QUB has irresistible conceptual and ideological significance. We subscribe to the QAA-validated model of ‘Co-Production’, in which collective student effort works on the institution’s behalf and contributes to institutional strategy. As our students co-operate to produce a vibrant community of learners-for-life, a richly formative effect takes place wherein habits of involvement, co-responsibility and engagement with the community are established and communicated - in QUB and beyond.
[1]
[2]
[3] Rust, C., & Wallace, J. (Eds.) (1994) Helping students to learn from each other: Supplemental Instruction. Birmingham: Staff and Educational Development Association
[4] Wallace, J., (2003) Continuing Professional Development Series No. 4 ‘Supporting the First Year Experience’, LTSN Generic Centre, UK.
[5] Stout, M.L. and McDaniel, A.J. (2006) New Directions for Teaching and Learning. 106, 55-62.
[6] Fugate, G., Jaramillo, P. and Preuhs, R. (2001) Graduate students mentoring graduate students: A model for professional development. PS:Political Science and Politics, 34, 1, 132-133.