To Teach is to Learn Twice: The Power of a Blended Peer Mentoring Approach

Two students at a Canadian university perceived there was a lack of opportunities for peer mentoring support in their teacher education program. They approached a faculty member to co-create and research a blended peer mentoring support program embedded in a first-year education course. This study d...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Norm Vaughan, Kayla Clampitt, Naomi Park
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: University of Calgary 2016-09-01
Series:Teaching & Learning Inquiry: The ISSOTL Journal
Subjects:
Online Access:http://tlijournal.com/tli/index.php/TLI/article/view/110
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spelling doaj-f69016a8e44845b2aa46e8ed7692ec152020-11-25T02:33:58ZengUniversity of CalgaryTeaching & Learning Inquiry: The ISSOTL Journal2167-47792167-47872016-09-014211710.20343/teachlearninqu.4.2.796To Teach is to Learn Twice: The Power of a Blended Peer Mentoring ApproachNorm Vaughan0Kayla Clampitt1Naomi Park2Mount Royal University, Calgary, AlbertaMount Royal UniversityMount Royal UniversityTwo students at a Canadian university perceived there was a lack of opportunities for peer mentoring support in their teacher education program. They approached a faculty member to co-create and research a blended peer mentoring support program embedded in a first-year education course. This study documents the journey of these two students as co-inquirers in a Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) project. Through online surveys and interviews, first-year teacher candidates and faculty involved in the blended peer mentoring program identified four key benefits: new perspectives and expansion of ideas, positive and encouraging reinforcement, supportive connection with second-year students, and probing questions to think more deeply. Conversely, three major challenges were uncovered with the use of digital technologies to support this blended approach to peer mentoring: lack of email notification from the institution’s learning management system (LMS) with regards to the peer mentors’ online contributions, the impersonal nature of online peer mentoring, and the limited number of peer mentors. The major recommendation from this study was to create a blended program assignment to provide all second-year teacher candidates with the opportunity to learn how to serve as peer mentors to students just entering the teacher education program.http://tlijournal.com/tli/index.php/TLI/article/view/110Peer MentoringFacilitationAssessmentEnvironmentProfessional Responsibilities
collection DOAJ
language English
format Article
sources DOAJ
author Norm Vaughan
Kayla Clampitt
Naomi Park
spellingShingle Norm Vaughan
Kayla Clampitt
Naomi Park
To Teach is to Learn Twice: The Power of a Blended Peer Mentoring Approach
Teaching & Learning Inquiry: The ISSOTL Journal
Peer Mentoring
Facilitation
Assessment
Environment
Professional Responsibilities
author_facet Norm Vaughan
Kayla Clampitt
Naomi Park
author_sort Norm Vaughan
title To Teach is to Learn Twice: The Power of a Blended Peer Mentoring Approach
title_short To Teach is to Learn Twice: The Power of a Blended Peer Mentoring Approach
title_full To Teach is to Learn Twice: The Power of a Blended Peer Mentoring Approach
title_fullStr To Teach is to Learn Twice: The Power of a Blended Peer Mentoring Approach
title_full_unstemmed To Teach is to Learn Twice: The Power of a Blended Peer Mentoring Approach
title_sort to teach is to learn twice: the power of a blended peer mentoring approach
publisher University of Calgary
series Teaching & Learning Inquiry: The ISSOTL Journal
issn 2167-4779
2167-4787
publishDate 2016-09-01
description Two students at a Canadian university perceived there was a lack of opportunities for peer mentoring support in their teacher education program. They approached a faculty member to co-create and research a blended peer mentoring support program embedded in a first-year education course. This study documents the journey of these two students as co-inquirers in a Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) project. Through online surveys and interviews, first-year teacher candidates and faculty involved in the blended peer mentoring program identified four key benefits: new perspectives and expansion of ideas, positive and encouraging reinforcement, supportive connection with second-year students, and probing questions to think more deeply. Conversely, three major challenges were uncovered with the use of digital technologies to support this blended approach to peer mentoring: lack of email notification from the institution’s learning management system (LMS) with regards to the peer mentors’ online contributions, the impersonal nature of online peer mentoring, and the limited number of peer mentors. The major recommendation from this study was to create a blended program assignment to provide all second-year teacher candidates with the opportunity to learn how to serve as peer mentors to students just entering the teacher education program.
topic Peer Mentoring
Facilitation
Assessment
Environment
Professional Responsibilities
url http://tlijournal.com/tli/index.php/TLI/article/view/110
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