Thursday, January 21, 2010
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Tutees assigned to Year 2 Tutors
Date: 2nd November 2009
Year 2 Tutors were sent an email with the name and contact details of their year 1 tutees.
All year 2 tutors have been trained. A list with all the names of tutors and their assigned tutees will be published in this blog at a later stage.
Year 2 Tutors were sent an email with the name and contact details of their year 1 tutees.
All year 2 tutors have been trained. A list with all the names of tutors and their assigned tutees will be published in this blog at a later stage.
Meeting Tutor and Tutees October 22nd
Date: October 22nd DIT,
Venue: Courtyard Room, Aungier Street
Event: Meeting session Year 2 Tutors and Year 1 Tutees
Objective: Informal meeting between tutors and tutees
Facilitator: Dr. Noel Fitzpatrick(Learning, Teaching and Technology Centre, DIT)
Activities for the session: all participants were put into groups and they were given a particular scenario. The group worked together in deciding what was best for the group in the simulation. Each group presented their course of action and the reasons why they choose it. The whole objective of the exercise was to stimulate discussion, group work and to get all students to share their points of view.
We all enjoyed some light food at the end of the session.
The session was a great success for all concerned. Special thanks to all students for staying in college for the evening after a full day in class, to Noel for facilitating the session and to Odette for organising the room and food.
Venue: Courtyard Room, Aungier Street
Event: Meeting session Year 2 Tutors and Year 1 Tutees
Objective: Informal meeting between tutors and tutees
Facilitator: Dr. Noel Fitzpatrick(Learning, Teaching and Technology Centre, DIT)
Activities for the session: all participants were put into groups and they were given a particular scenario. The group worked together in deciding what was best for the group in the simulation. Each group presented their course of action and the reasons why they choose it. The whole objective of the exercise was to stimulate discussion, group work and to get all students to share their points of view.
We all enjoyed some light food at the end of the session.
The session was a great success for all concerned. Special thanks to all students for staying in college for the evening after a full day in class, to Noel for facilitating the session and to Odette for organising the room and food.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Looking forward to PAL training sessions
Back in July we met Katrin Eberbach from the Germanic Department in TCD. She was very helpful, gave us the confidence to go ahead with the project by making it sound doable and very worthwile. She was extremely generous with her advice and her resources. In fact, ever since we met Katrin, she has been a great and essential support to get to the stage that we are at now. One of the milestones was her invitation for us to attend TCD's peer mentoring training session at the end of September.
We now have made contact with all 2nd year students on the International Business and Languages programme, initially by email and last week, one of their business lecturers gave us a few minutes of her class time to present the benefits of Peer tutoring to our potential tutors, the highly transferable skills they would acquire by getting involved, the commitments required to take part in the project and the certification award they would receive at the end in recognition of their participation in the scheme. Overall, we received quite a positive response,particularly from the Spanish and the English streams and by the end of the week, we had sufficient volunteers to proceed to the next stage.
First years were briefly introduced to the PAL idea during their induction. A couple of weeks ago, we sent them an email outlining in greater detail the benefits of the scheme for them and how to get involved. Again María-José went to one of their classes and there was a great response from them, with many names coming forward.
On Friday 16th October, María-José and I, thanks to TCD's invaluable support, will facilitate a training session for our mentors to be. The session will be repeated on the following Tuesday for any students unable to attend.
We now have made contact with all 2nd year students on the International Business and Languages programme, initially by email and last week, one of their business lecturers gave us a few minutes of her class time to present the benefits of Peer tutoring to our potential tutors, the highly transferable skills they would acquire by getting involved, the commitments required to take part in the project and the certification award they would receive at the end in recognition of their participation in the scheme. Overall, we received quite a positive response,particularly from the Spanish and the English streams and by the end of the week, we had sufficient volunteers to proceed to the next stage.
First years were briefly introduced to the PAL idea during their induction. A couple of weeks ago, we sent them an email outlining in greater detail the benefits of the scheme for them and how to get involved. Again María-José went to one of their classes and there was a great response from them, with many names coming forward.
On Friday 16th October, María-José and I, thanks to TCD's invaluable support, will facilitate a training session for our mentors to be. The session will be repeated on the following Tuesday for any students unable to attend.
Welcome to the Peer Assisted Learning Initiative
This blog has been set up for a Peer Assisted Learning (PAL) initiative in DIT. The project will involve 1st and 2nd year students of the BA International Business and Languages programme run by the School of Languages. In May, María-José and I attended a workshop organised by DIT on strategies to enhance retention in 1st year. A representative from GMIT told us about this very exciting and large scale PAL project that she was involved in. A couple of weeks later, we decided to take the plunge and seek to adapt its principles to our 1st year students. Our aim is to academically improve the experience of 1st year students both in languages and in business. This should enhance their chances of success and improve retention rates.
Indeed many students in their first year at 3rd level find it difficult to cope in what is a very different learning environment to that experienced at Second Level. The Degree in International Business and Languages is a particularly challenging and complex programme which demands much of the first year student who often lack the study skills and habits necessary to cope with those demands. As in many other programmes, failure rates are much lower in Year 2 suggestting that those who have managed to progress to Year 2 are equipped with or have managed to develop a skills set that needs to be fostered in first years.
The implementation of this peer assisted learning scheme involves identifying year 2 students willing to act as mentors and support first year students in a collaborative and informal learning environment. Mentors will meet with Year 1 students on a regular basis to aid in the transition from secondary school to higher education.
This project will seek to bring Year 1 students to a better understanding of what is involved in learning and studying at 3rd level, to help them get to grips with the new concepts, skills and knowledge that are central to the first year curriculum and encourage learner autonomy. Second year students who take part in the initiative should develop personal and professional skills while reinforcing their own knowledge and understanding of material covered in Year 1.
Indeed many students in their first year at 3rd level find it difficult to cope in what is a very different learning environment to that experienced at Second Level. The Degree in International Business and Languages is a particularly challenging and complex programme which demands much of the first year student who often lack the study skills and habits necessary to cope with those demands. As in many other programmes, failure rates are much lower in Year 2 suggestting that those who have managed to progress to Year 2 are equipped with or have managed to develop a skills set that needs to be fostered in first years.
The implementation of this peer assisted learning scheme involves identifying year 2 students willing to act as mentors and support first year students in a collaborative and informal learning environment. Mentors will meet with Year 1 students on a regular basis to aid in the transition from secondary school to higher education.
This project will seek to bring Year 1 students to a better understanding of what is involved in learning and studying at 3rd level, to help them get to grips with the new concepts, skills and knowledge that are central to the first year curriculum and encourage learner autonomy. Second year students who take part in the initiative should develop personal and professional skills while reinforcing their own knowledge and understanding of material covered in Year 1.
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