Peer Teaching: An Aston Experiment

1. Peer Teaching: An Aston Experiment Amanda Poulton Information Specialist – Engineering and Life Sciences

2. Outline • My teaching background • Context • CILIP ‘teaching skills’ course • Learning theory • Redesign of sessions • Reflections and recommendations • The future at Aston

3. My teaching background • No formal teaching qualification • Dissertation and optional module on user education during MA • Teaching for six years • ‘Trial and error’ • Interest in teaching and learning • Member of ILTHE • CILIP ‘Teaching Skills’ course

4. Context • 180 Year 2 Pharmacy Undergraduates • Hands-on • Ten 2 hour sessions over 5 weeks • Part of Module (indirectly linked to assignment) • Worksheet-based

5. Concerns • Information overload • Boredom • Principles of searching • Too many handouts/worksheets

6. CILIP course – ‘Teaching Skills’ • Focus on learner not teacher • Consider learning theory • Kolb’s Experiential Learning Cycle • Honey and Mumfords’ Learning Styles • Practical application

7. Kolb’s ‘Experiential Learning Cycle’ Actual learning experience ‘doing’ Thinking about what happened Comparing what learnt with what already known Putting it into practice ‘relevance’

8. Honey and Mumfords’ ‘Learning Styles’

9. Honey and Mumfords’ ‘Learning Styles’ • Pragmatist • Relevant and practical • Try things out with support from an expert • Given immediate opportunities to implement what learnt • Problem solving • Activists • New experiences • ‘Have a go’ • Problem solving • Team work

10. Honey and Mumfords’ ‘Learning Styles’ • Reflector • Thinking things through • Observation • Paired discussions • Opportunity to review and reflect • Theorist • Models and concepts • Lectures • Following step-by-step instructions • Opportunity to ask questions and probe ideas

11. The Learning Pyramid Taken from: http://www.tcde.tehama.k12.ca.us/pyramid.pdf

12. Redesign of sessions • What am I trying to achieve? • Principles of information retrieval • Differences between full-text and bibliographic databases • Skills can be applied to any database • Reduce handouts • More varied session

13. Redesign of sessions • One handout • Brief introduction • Demonstration of a database • Practise (reflection) – applying to assignment • Teach a colleague from other group - discussion • Practise (reflection) – applying to assignment • Apply to alternative database • Summary

14. Redesign of sessions

15. Practicalities • Two staff • Two separate demonstrations require two separate locations • Only possible with small groups • Monitoring students – NetOp School • Odd numbers • Latecomers

16. Student comments • What did you find valuable about the session? • Opportunity to interact and share knowledge within group • Chance to practice by ourselves • Interaction with other students • Having time to apply information • Teaching each other what we learnt

17. Reflections - positive • More problem-based which reflects teaching at Aston • Gets students thinking - more active learning • Encourages discussion • More engaged with the session • Opportunity to find out student concerns and gaps in their knowledge • Less repetitive for me as each session unique

18. Reflections - negative • Can never suit everyone's learning styles • Classroom management • Some students struggle whilst some advance quickly • Not suitable for all resources, e.g. Beilstein • Risk that students won’t teach everything that was covered

19. Recommendations • Use variety of techniques • Be aware that behaviour might be an issue and consider tactics to get class back on track • Monitor students • Have more advanced exercise prepared • Provide contact details for follow-up • Provide a checklist of what should be shown when teaching colleague

20. The Future? • Extended to Psychology • Further subject areas • Postgraduates • Regular review • Stay up-to-date with teaching and learning techniques • Teaching and learning course for all Information Specialists