The present study explored the benefits of peer mentoring as part of a student-centered approach to the teaching of an undergraduate Research Methods and Statistics (RMS) course in Psychology. In the first semester of the study, one section of the RMS course was taught with the inclusion of a peer mentor intervention in the classroom, while the other section was taught without peer mentors (standard). Curriculum and evaluation were the same in both sections. During the second semester of the study, both sections of the RMS course employed peer mentors in the classroom (peer mentor intervention). Multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) was conducted to assess the impact of the presence of peer mentors in the classroom on exam performance while controlling for background variables. Results revealed student-performance differences between the RMS sections during the first semester of the study where the sections differed with respect to the presence of peer mentors in the classroom (standard vs. peer mentor intervention sections), but not in the second semester of the study where both sections employed peer mentors. Our findings provide evidence that the presence of peer mentors in RMS classrooms is a practical and cost-effective approach to improving student-learning outcomes.
Coyler & Woodward surveyed students within the IT discipline and assessed student self-confidence in various content areas (e.g., computer programming, mathematics, crytography, etc.) and recommended that additional content-based questions be developed to assess student self-confidence [1]. This work-inprogress manuscript proposes a reinspection of student selfconfidence as pertains to IT content areas, as well as an exploration of potential differences in self-confidence for students in underrepresented groups.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.