Peer-Led Team Learning: 2008 James Flack Norris Award Address

Abstract

This paper offers an overview of the development of the peer-led team learning (PLTL) model for teaching and learning chemistry, from the personal journeys of the authors in their classrooms to the national dissemination of the model to the full range of colleges and universities and to other STEM disciplines. In the PLTL model, students who have done well in the course serve as peer-leaders to facilitate Workshops that supplement the lecture part of the course for new students. In the weekly Workshops, 6−8 students engage in active debate, discussion, and problem solving under the guidance of the peer leaders. A diverse faculty team led the development of instructional materials for the Workshops, methods to train peer leaders, and tactics to institutionalize PLTL. Students and leaders value the peer-led Workshops, and results from within the PLTL project (as well as numerous independent studies) demonstrate significant gains in student learning for both groups. PLTL remains an active area of research and development. We discuss our insights into the larger issues of curricular and institutional change at the college level. A central finding of the PLTL project is that students are a significant untapped resource for teaching. They partner with us to form a community of learners that bridges the gap between faculty and students.

Designing for sustained adoption: A model of developing educational innovations for successful propagation

“…Descriptions of selected cases.-Peer-Led Team Learning (PLTL) is an instructional strategy that retains lecture and replaces recitation with weekly "workshops" facilitated by a peer leader (an undergraduate student who has done well in the course) [30]. PLTL resources offer guidelines about what kind of student makes a good leader, weekly training of peer leaders, types of materials to use in workshops, appropriate faculty roles in developing materials and training leaders, and suggestions on small variations to adapt the program to different institutional settings.…”

“…Critical components for successful implementation of PLTL include keeping the workshops to 6-8 students, making the workshop integral to the course, and ensuring that the program is supported by the department and institution [20]. The program first started in 1991 as an idea of "collaborative-learning groups to improve student success at the City College of New York (CCNY)" [31]. The idea began under an initial NSF grant and has impacted over 100 institutions [31].…”

“…The program first started in 1991 as an idea of "collaborative-learning groups to improve student success at the City College of New York (CCNY)" [31]. The idea began under an initial NSF grant and has impacted over 100 institutions [31].…”

Escritura colaborativa de textos en quinto grado: Razonamiento y argumentación causal sobre un fenómeno físico

“…La efectividad del aprendizaje en grupos pequeños ha sido objeto de amplios estudios en la educación postsecundaria (Berland y Lee, 2012;Gosser, Kampmeier y Varma-Nelson, 2010, Kulatunga, Moog y Lewis, 2013, pero siempre dentro del discurso oral y ninguno desde la escritura de textos científicos. Se ha demostrado que la interacción mejora el rendimiento de los estudiantes cuando se aprende una segunda lengua, pero, ¿ocurre esto también en la escritura de textos sobre ciencia?…”

A Holistic Student-Centered Approach to Retaining and Graduating Engineers at a Midwest University

“…While the SI sessions are voluntary for students, there is variability in the PLTL set-up in terms of student attendance. 9 The current project implemented a learning model that blends the best features of the SI and PLTL frameworks. In this paper, this new learning approach is described, adjustments made to accommodate coordination and logistic issues are explained, and the impact on student performance is presented.…”