Presenters: Madeleine Tullis, College of Life Sciences, Biology Science Education
Authors: Tullis M, Bailey EG, Carlson D, Hudson C, Morales K, Smith C, Stalnaker J, Tsuchiya I
Faculty Advisor: Liz Bailey, College of Life Sciences, Biology Science Education
Institution: Brigham Young University
One of the biggest challenges in life sciences college courses is allowing students to receive one-on-one interaction with the instructor. Because of high student-to-instructor ratios, pedagogical techniques that increase interaction are in high demand. Reciprocal peer tutoring is a popular, easy-to-implement approach since there are as many peer tutors available as there are students in the class and because it has been shown to deepen students' understanding of material. We previously conducted a study implementing a regular peer tutoring (Teach and Question) assignment in a large introductory biology class. Students in one section completed the Teach and Question homework assignment by meeting with a peer outside of class and taking turns teaching or asking questions about assigned learning objectives. The other section of this course reviewed the learning objectives for the same amount of time individually, the Review assignment. The Teach and Question assignment increased student exam performance by an average of two half letter grades (e.g. from a B to an A-) with minimal instructor effort. In this new study, we are implementing the same reciprocal peer tutoring assignment in a variety of undergraduate life sciences courses with different sizes, different instructors, and different subject material in order to investigate whether the benefits of this approach can be generalized to a variety of life sciences courses. We have thus far implemented this assignment in an upper-level developmental biology course, a mid-level public health course, and an entry-level molecular biology course. Upon the conclusion of data collection in December, we will investigate the effect of peer tutoring on course grades and analyze audio recordings of tutoring sessions to see which characteristics predict student learning.