Bryanne Young has written a tip sheet on curricular peer mentoring, a program that “enables students to work together to delve deeper and more analytically into course content”. Peer mentors are not TAs, but students who can help guide their peers through the learning process. Some of the benefits of peer mentoring are:
- Deeper student learning
- Facilitating learning through social interaction – critical for some students
- Peer mentoring can provide personalized support in large classes where it is not possible for the instructor to get to know each student individually
- Peer mentors may be able to relate course concepts and use examples that are in tune with students’ lives
The tip sheet includes more information plus examples of how peer mentoring has been implemented at the U of C in various disciplines. You can view it at:
http://tlc.ucalgary.ca/documents/ITBL_PeerMentoring_web.pdf .
