Browsing by Subject "Peer-Led Team Learning"

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    2020 Draft course-based learning assistance best practice guides (3rd ed.)
    (2020-01-01) Arendale, David
    Course-Based Learning Assistance (CLA) is defined as peer cooperative learning assistance that accompanies a specific targeted course to serve as a supplement for that course. While many CLA activities operate outside of the course, CLA is integrated into the course by some instructors. Other CLA programs are hybrid or totally online. These guidelines are applicable to national and international CLA program models have been implemented at thousands of postsecondary and tertiary institutions in more than thirty countries (a) Emerging Scholars Program, (b) Peer-Led Team, (c) Structured Learning Assistance, (d) Supplemental Instruction, and (e) Video-based Supplemental Instruction). When using the CLA Guides, it is not expected that administrators of campus CLA programs implement every “essential” and “recommended” practice listed in this guide. Some “essential” practices are not relevant to a particular type of CLA program. Limitations of campus budget, personnel, and available time make other “essential” practices difficult to implement. “Recommended” practices are simply practices that some CLA program administrators have found helpful. Therefore, those practices have been separated from the “essential” ones. For simplicity’s sake, all the practices have been divided into these two categories. Some “recommended” practices could be categorized as aspirational, something to pursue if there is sufficient budget, personnel, and time to implement. The bottom line is that the purpose of the guides is not to judge existing programs, but rather to provide guidance and practices that could increase their effectiveness and efficiency. In addition to their use for academic study groups, these guides may be useful for faculty members to incorporate learning activities and pedagogies into their courses. The administrative and education best practices in this publication have been reviewed and approved by multiple members of an external expert panel of qualified reviewers. Educators need to investigate these education practices to discover effective learning practices that can be adapted and adopted for use in supporting higher student achievement, closing the achievement gap, increasing persistence to graduation, and meeting the needs of culturally-diverse and historically-underrepresented students. Updates to this set of guidelines are available at https://www.arendale.org/peer-learning-resources
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    2020 Draft glossary of essential terms for learning assistance and developmental education (4th ed.)
    (2020-01) Arendale, David
    The purpose of this glossary was to identify and describe education practices that improve academic performance, close the achievement gap, and improve persistence towards graduation for low-income, first-generation, and historically-underrepresented college students. Keeping current with the rapid changes in the field of developmental education and learning assistance is essential. Words make a difference in policy discussions and the practical guidance of campus activities. The rapid changes in learning pedagogies, delivery systems for courses, and language use evoke strong emotions for many within the profession, including those involved with this glossary. It may not be our choice to change, but this glossary is our response to the rapidly–morphing landscape of postsecondary education, our field in particular, and the larger society in which we live. In this fourth edition of the glossary, one area that has been significantly expanded is vocabulary related to culturally sensitive pedagogies that emerged during the 1980s and 1990s. Examples of these include: critical literacy, critical pedagogy, cultural competence, cultural differences, cultural literacy, cultural sensitivity, culturally relevant pedagogy, culturally responsive pedagogy, culturally sustaining pedagogy, inclusion, inclusive pedagogy, multicultural developmental education, multicultural education, and social justice. The second new area in this edition are approaches for offering the curriculum other than the traditional academic term-length developmental-level course. Examples of these include accelerated developmental-level course, acceleration, acceleration through curricular redesign, acceleration through mainstreaming, college access, compensatory education, compressed developmental-level course (or skills instruction), contextualization or contextualized learning, co-requisite paired course, course redesign, differentiated placement, embedded academic support, emporium-style model, flipped classroom, gateway course, Gateways to Completion®, guided pathways, integrated reading and writing, modular instruction, non-course competency-based option (Texas), nontraditional model (Texas), stacked course, stretched course, and students as partners. The third area for glossary expansion are those related to academic integrity and intellectual property rights. These were written in a more accessible style than the formal definitions from law reference works. Technologies such as text scanners, photocopiers, printers, and downloadable files from the Internet have made it easier to make mistakes with use of copyrighted instructional materials both for use in the classroom as well as placement on the Internet for use by others. Examples of these terms include attribution of intellectual property, copyright, copyright infringement, Creative Commons licenses, ethical standards, inadvertent use of copyrighted material, instructional materials, intellectual property use copyright, liability exposure, literary property, literary property use copyright, plagiarism, professional liability coverage, open access, open educational resource (OER), and public domain. A fourth significant change for this edition is its scrupulous avoidance of deficit and less acceptable language to describe students. In this edition, asset-based language is used to reflect accurately our students and their capabilities. Throughout history, it is words and phrases have been replaced by newer ones. The older words become less acceptable since they can lead to misinterpretations or have become by today’s standards of usage as inaccurate or perceived by others as discriminatory or racist. This glossary does not make judgements of the authors using those terms. Popular and professional literature is filled with those phrases. However, we move forward with recommended language that is more accurate, affirms student capabilities, and avoids offense to others. Examples of these deficit and less acceptable language includes academically underprepared student, college-level student, developmental student, diverse student, high-risk student, majority or minority student, person/student of color, remedial student, and special population. (Method) The sample for the glossary is based on the previous three editions of the same glossary with new terms added with this document. The glossary terms have been reviewed and approved by multiple members of an external expert panel of qualified reviewers. All of them have served as administrators of their campus developmental education and learning assistance programs. Their practical experiences and keen insights have made this set of glossary terms invaluable in the rapidly changing nature of postsecondary and tertiary education. We owe much to the dedication and expertise of the authors, editors, and external review teams of the first three editions of this glossary. [This directory is a revised and expanded version of ED589760.]
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    2021 Postsecondary Peer Cooperative Learning Programs: Annotated Bibliography
    (2021-01-31) Arendale, David R
    This annotated bibliography does not attempt to be inclusive of this broad field of literature concerning peer collaborative learning. Instead, it is focused intentionally on a subset of the educational practice that shares a common focus with increasing student persistence towards graduation. At the end of this overview, several suggestions are made for differentiating the models from each other and the level of institutional resources and resolve with implementing them. The seven student peer learning programs included in this bibliography meet the following characteristics: (a) implemented at the postsecondary or tertiary level; (b) clear set of systematic procedures for its implementation that could be replicated by another institution; (c) program evaluation studies have been conducted and are available for review; (d) intentionally embeds learning strategy practice along with review of the academic content material; (e) outcomes include increased content knowledge, higher final course grades, higher pass rates, and higher college persistence rates; and (f) the program has been replicated at another institution with similar positive student outcomes. From a review of the professional literature, six programs emerged: (a) Accelerated Learning Groups (ALGs), (b) Emerging Scholars Program (ESP), (c) Peer Assisted Learning (PAL), (d) Peer-Led Team Learning (PLTL), (e) Structured Learning Assistance (SLA), (f) Supplemental Instruction-PASS (SI-PASS), and (g) Video-based Supplemental Instruction (VSI). As will be described in the following narrative, some of the programs share common history and seek to improve upon previous practices. Other programs were developed independently.
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    Lessons learned in 2020 about postsecondary online peer assisted learning (PAL) groups from previous research publications and recent survey of PAL program administrators
    (2020) Arendale, David R.
    This publication identifies lessons learned from moving traditional face-to-face peer study groups to online operation. Two sources were consulted. First, previous publications concerning online peer study groups were studied to identify approaches, equipment and software used, and reports of effectiveness. Second, during May 2020 administrators involved with managing peer-assisted learning (PAL) programs were invited to complete an online survey concerning their experiences with operating online in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. (Methods) The individual actions, activities, and approaches recorded in the publications and the 45 surveys were broken into individual units which results in nearly 800 individual pieces of data were created and then they were reorganized into themes and topics for this report. (Results) This data analysis made the identification of best practices more clear since the frequency of them was identified. Eight major themes were identified. (Implications) Lessons have been learned from past experience with offering student-led peer study groups online that can increase the success of students with higher grades and higher rates of persistence towards graduation. It is likely that many or most institutions will begin the fall academic term online and these lessons will be valuable not only for academic assistance, but also with instruction and other student services.
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    Lessons learned in 2020 from taking postsecondary peer assisted learning programs online: Raw survey data
    (2020) Arendale, David R.
    With the end of the spring 2020 academic term, a national survey was conducted to identify best practices of college educators regarding how they moved their traditional face-to-face tutoring and small group tutoring programs online due to Covid-19 pandemic. This document contains the results of that survey. (Methods) In early May 2020, invitations to complete a brief survey on postsecondary peer assisted learning (PAL) programs and their operation online in response to Covid-19 were posted to several national and international email listservs. Directors from 45 programs completed the survey. Since the survey was anonymous, it is impossible to know the institutional type and their locations. It is a reasonable guess that most respondents were from the U.S. with others from Australasia, Europe, and North America. As promised, the survey results are presented as they were received without data analysis. It is with deep gratitude to the program directors for taking time from the busiest time in the academic term in the middle of this pandemic to share valuable information with our world community of PAL professionals. (Results) Their comments were candid and honest about the things that went well and those that did not. The survey statements were grouped into six categories that included: needed equipment and meeting software, approaches and activities, program evaluation, expectations for participants and students leaders, and more. (Implications) Best education practices for providing online academic support were shared that can be studied by others as they make plans for fall 2020 academic term which may be offered online.
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    Postsecondary peer assisted learning programs offered online: 2020 annotated bibliography
    (2020) Arendale, David R.
    The purpose of this annotated bibliography is to identify best education practices for offering traditional student-led study group programs online. Lessons can be learned from the past to enable educators now and in the future to offer programs can promote higher student outcomes and increased persistence towards graduation. (Method) This topical annotated bibliography is drawn from a larger database of peer-assisted learning (PAL) programs available at https://www.arendale.org/peer-learning-bib Major national and international models in the bibliography of nearly 1600 citations are: (a) Accelerated Learning Groups (ALGs), (b) Emerging Scholars Program (ESP), (c) Peer Assisted Learning (PAL), (d) Peer-Led Team Learning (PLTL), (e) Structured Learning Assistance (SLA), (f) Supplemental Instruction (SI), and (g) Video-based Supplemental Instruction (VSI). Some programs are also known by other names such as PASS for the SI Program. Check back throughout the year since the database is frequently updated. Only two of these models provided research studies or implementation information for providing their program online: Peer-Led Team Learning (also known as cPLTL or Cyber PLTL), and Supplemental Instruction/PAL/PASS (also known as iPASS, OPAL, OPASS, and OSI). These publications provide examples from North America, Europe, and Australasia. When available, a weblink is provided so that they can be downloaded. (Results) The thirty-eight publications identify key principles for successful online student peer study groups: needed technology, methods to evaluation, samples of activities and engagement, and more. (Implication) Online academic support programs will continue to be an important part of student retention and academic achievement programs for the future. Identifying best education practices are essential for student success.
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    Postsecondary peer cooperative learning programs: Annotated bibliography 2019
    (2019-12-31) Arendale, David
    This 2019 annotated bibliography reviews seven postsecondary peer cooperative learning programs that have been implemented nationally and internationally to increase student achievement. An extensive literature search was conducted of published journal articles, newspaper accounts, book chapters, books, ERIC documents, thesis and dissertations, online documents, and unpublished reports. Peer learning programs in this bibliography meet the following characteristics: (a) program must have been implemented at the postsecondary or tertiary level, (b) program has a clear set of systematic procedures for its implementation at an institution, (c) program evaluation studies have been conducted and are available for review, (d) program intentionally embeds learning strategy practice along with review of the academic content material, (e) program outcomes include both increased content knowledge with higher persistence rates, and (f) program has been replicated at another institution with similar positive student outcomes. From a review of the professional literature, 1,568 citations emerged concerning seven programs that met the previously mentioned selection criteria: "Accelerated Learning Groups" (ALGs), "Emerging Scholars Program" (ESP), "Peer Assisted Learning" (PAL), "Peer-Led Team Learning" (PLTL), "Structured Learning Assistance" (SLA), "Supplemental Instruction" (SI), and "Video-based Supplemental Instruction" (VSI). Nearly one fourth of the entries in this bibliography are from authors and researchers outside of United States. Guidance is provided to implement best practices of peer learning programs that can improve academic achievement, persistence to graduation, and professional growth of participants and facilitators of these student-led groups. The literature reports not only positive outcomes for the student participants of such programs, but includes outcomes for the student peer leaders of these academic support programs such as skill improvement with leadership, public speaking, and other employment skills along with an impact of their future vocational choices including a career in teaching at the secondary or postsecondary level. Educators need to investigate these peer learning programs to discover effective learning practices that can be adapted and adopted for use in supporting higher student achievement for students of diverse backgrounds. [This annotated bibliography is a revised and expanded version of ED565496, ED545639, ED489957, ED574832, and ED586988]