The Management Of Peer Group Learning

The Management of Peer-group Learning

Syndicate methods in higher education, which use small groups, are considered in 14 chapters. A class of 20-40 students may be divided into syndicates of 4 to 8 students, and the bulk of work consists of assignments conducted on a cooperative basis. There is some alternation between the work in the student-led syndicates and the tutor-led plenary sessions of the whole class. Considerable variations in the way the technique is employed are covered in the different chapters. Chapter titles and authors are as follows: "Syndicate Methods Placed in Context" (Gerald Collier); "Experiments in College Teaching" (G. Collier); "Studies in French Literature" (Colin Evans); "A New Medical School in Australia" (Rufus Clarke); "Kinesiology: Academic Aspects of Physical Education" (Peter Glew);"A Report from America" (Leslie Beach); "Experiments in the Exploration of Values" (G. Collier); "An Australian Project on Regional Studies" (Dennis Moss); "The Engineering Syndicate Study" (Gerald Edwards); "The Six College Project" (Peter Chambers); "The Influence of Examinations" (Iain Rodger); "The Tutor's Role" (Glyn Owen); "The State of Play" (M. L. J. Abercrombie); and "Guidelines for an Aspiring Practitioner" (G. Collier). (SW)

The Management of Peer-group Learning

Faculty Peer Group Mentoring in Higher Education

This book addresses how peer group mentoring in higher education can contribute to the development of supportive and collaborative working environments for faculty staff. It draws on an extensive empirical study examining how group based peer-mentoring methods are implemented and experimented within four different academic communities at one university, and documents how these environments and their participants experience peer group mentoring as a collaborative measure in the development of teaching and supervision practices. The book presents a literature review of research on peer group mentoring in higher education and provides the conceptual grounding for the book, placing peer group mentoring within the field of faculty development. The work presents analyses of the enactment of peer group mentoring in different environments and of faculty peers’ engagement and collaboration with colleagues within the same teacher community, across teaching and supervision communities and across institutional boundaries. It also discusses the significance of trust in these peer group mentoring settings, summarises the implications of the reported findings and addresses the role this peer based approach might play in developing supportive collegiality in higher education as a working environment.