Supporting Student Learning in 'High Risk' University Subjects and the Interrelationships to Effective Teaching; An Analysis of a Peer Tutoring Experience

Deposited with permission of the author. © 1998 Dr. Valerie Gayle ClulowThis dissertation is concerned with the detailed accounts of twenty-one students who participated in a peer tutoring program known as Supplemental Instruction (S.I.) In this approach, the development of students’ study skills through weekly peer tutoring sessions, is built on particular subject curriculum, not separate from it. In this study the subject selected was Statistics for Marketers. The approach is designed to assist students to succeed in ‘high risk subjects’ through voluntary attendance at the S.I. sessions. The central question to this study was how can students’ critical awareness of their learning experience while participating in an S.I. group, inform our teaching practice in universities, at a time when we are facing an incredibly challenging, competitive environment. The interest in S.I. stemmed from its links with the concept of peer monitoring as a learning strategy, studied in earlier research. It appeared to offer an innovative first year intervention strategy, at a time when Australian universities are beginning to compete more openly in offering students high quality teaching and learning. Research to date had not investigated to any depth how the approach worked nor gained any detailed student accounts of their learning experiences in an S.I. program. (For complete abstract open document