PARENT SESSION
Contributed Oral Session 13: Ecology Education I
Monday, August 8, 8:00 AM - 11:30 AM, Meeting Room 520 C, Level 5, Palais des congrès de Montréal
Peer led team learning in multi-semester introductory biology sequence.
Batzli, Janet*,1, Milam, Erika1, Dahl, Nick1, 1 University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI
ABSTRACT- In fall 2004, we initiated a peer-led team learning program in the first semester course of our four semester introductory honors biology sequence. This pilot program follows the documented success for peer led team learning from the Workshop Chemistry Project (Gosser et al 2001) who noted significant learning gains in undergraduate chemistry courses. In our course, Biocore I- Ecology, Evolution and Genetics, peer leaders who had previously taken and been successful in the course led weekly study sessions attended by 5-8 volunteer participants enrolled in the course. Peer leaders were required to enroll in a 1-credit course that focused on the teaching/learning of biology and methods for establishing an active/productive learning environment. The goals of the program were to help student participants decrease course anxiety, improve understanding, make connections across concepts, and to encourage autonomous, collaborative study habits that would continue into subsequent semesters. Total course enrollment was 121 with 71 students choosing to participate and 16 peer leaders each facilitating a study group limited to no more than 10 participants. Preliminary results on student questionnaires indicate increased confidence and competency in course topics, and less course related anxiety for students participating in study groups. We did find that the quality of the leader mattered particularly when related to the level of autonomy of the group. More autonomous groups reported an interest in seeking out cooperative learning study groups in subsequent semesters in the absence of a peer leader. In addition to these results, we will present data that follows the study habits of these same students into the second semester course, investigating how construction of groups in the first semester changes long term study habits.
Key words: cooperative learning, peer learning, group development