Management School academics attend seminar on Peer Assisted Learning
Management School academics attended a seminar, delivered by Gita Sedghi, on ‘Introducing a sustained Peer Assisted Learning in different disciplines’.
Peer assisted learning (PAL) is a student-to-student support in which higher year students, called ‘leaders’, facilitate study sessions for lower year students. It aims to bridge the gap between school and university as well as helping to improve the overall student experience.
The seminar provided more information on peer assisted learning and gave guidance on how it can be adapted to suit specific needs.
Gita Sedghi, Senior Lecturer Chemistry, commented “Adapting to university life and a different educational environment is a longstanding issue in HE institutions. Peer assisted learning (PAL) is a student to student support scheme which helps students to bridge this gap. In 2012, PAL was designed and implemented in the Department of Chemistry, and the scheme has been running since. Ongoing modifications of our PAL scheme over the past six years has resulted in an approach that is delivering significant impact on students’ experiences and academic performance, with students reporting the positive impact of the scheme on their learning.
The aim of the seminar was to offer guidance to staff who wish to design and implement a PAL scheme, with an emphasis on considering how best to tailor the system to the requirements of their programmes. We have already demonstrated this transferability as support has been provided to colleagues in four other departments within the University of Liverpool, as well as that to the staff at two other universities to implement their own PAL programmes.”